d. National forest policy and programs

International Forest Policy Forum

Stakeholders at the international, regional, national and subnational levels have attached importance to criteria and indicators as providing a framework for policy formulation and monitoring of sustainable forest management and national forest programmes.

(c) Strengthen the vertical linkages between forest policy development and dialogue at the global, regional, national and local levels.

CPF members state that, increasingly, national forest programmes are seen as an effective tool for cross sectoral and participatory policy making and for translating international forest related commitments into practice.

Implementation of national forest programmes.

The proposals for action have effectively shaped the national forest programmes and their equivalents in many countries, and these national forest programmes have become national institutional frameworks for achieving sustainable forest management.

(d) Making sustainable forest management a higher priority, inter alia, through integrating the National Forest Programme or other national forest strategies into national planning strategies, including poverty reduction strategies where they exist

(k) Identify and implement measures to enhance cooperation and cross sectoral policy and programme coordination among sectors affecting and affected by forest policies and management, with a view to integrating the forest sector into national decision making processes and promoting sustainable forest management, including by addressing the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, and by promoting forest conservation

Inside the green line is national forest.

Formulation and implementation of national forest programmes

Decentralization in the forest sector should not be implemented in isolation from a general national forestry strategy such as national forest programs.

For example, the FAO Regional Forestry Commissions have helped extend the global forest policy dialogue to the national level, by bringing together heads of the national forestry agencies, in the respective regions, to discuss policy and technical issues of interest.

Reforestation and afforestation in the context of sustainable forest and drylands management are seen as important elements in combating desertification, as appropriate synergy and complementarity between NAPs and national forest programmes in drylands, or similar policy frameworks, must be ensured when planning and implementing forest related activities.

The project will produce geometrically corrected remote sensing data, optimized for forest applications, for national and subnational forest departments and the national tropical forest action programme units to establish and or strengthen the capacity of developing countries to assess and monitor their forest resources.

Achieving sustainable forest management is primarily a sovereign national responsibility.

Increased understanding of forest landscape restoration approaches Development of projects to operationalize forest landscape restoration in specific countries Establishment of national committees on forest landscape restoration Recognition that international synergies can translate into national and regional synergies

For the future, there is a need to involve those working on forest policy at the national level, including stakeholders, more fully in the work of the Forum.

Forest landscape restoration is a local mechanism that should be integrated with both sectoral and extra sectoral national development processes, including poverty reduction strategies and national forest programmes.

(l) Integrate national forest programmes, or other strategies for sustainable forest management, as referred to in paragraph 6 (a) above, into national strategies for sustainable development, relevant national action plans and poverty reduction strategies

(c) Strengthen vertical linkages between forest policy development and dialogue at the global, regional, national and local levels by reviewing the scheduling and cycle of meetings and perhaps by holding regional and global thematic meetings on major forest related issues in alternate years

Manuel Reed Segovia, General Director of the National Forest Agency, Sr.

Despite substantial progress in the formulation and implementation of national forest policies, deforestation and forest degradation continue at an alarming rate.

The reform of forestry policy is introducing two important innovations (i) preparation of forest management plans and (ii) adoption of forest certification and labelling systems.

CPF members explain that they have facilitated national forest programmes in a number of important ways, including through the National Forest Programme Facility and the Programme on Forests (PROFOR).7

National health policy

NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY

(b) Countries to develop national forest programmes in accordance with their respective national conditions, objectives and priorities

The project will produce geometrically corrected remote sensing data, optimized for forest applications, for national and subnational forest departments and the National Tropical Forests Action Programme units to establish and or strengthen the capacity of developing countries to assess and monitor their forest resources.

Similarly the National Health Policy and the National Education Policy also involved NGOs not only at the policy formulation but also policy implementation phase.

Examples of policy activities include, inter alia, forest law enforcement, certification, market access, development of guidelines, ex post evaluation, studies on market conditions, status of tropical forest management, community forest management, tenure rights, further processing of tropical timber , trade of non timber forest products and ecosystem services.

National population policy, 1992

National health policy, 1995

NGP National Gender Policy

4.3 National Resettlement Policy

National Gender Policy, 1997

National Resettlement Policy (MLRR)

A. National space policy

National forest programmes have also become vehicles for meeting commitments under international agreements.

Forest applications include forest area estimation and mapping, forest monitoring, forest fire assessment and forest management.

The increasing importance of facilitating country level interactions between focal points of the Conventions and representatives of forest related institutions, through use of existing policy and planning mechanisms at the national level, such as national focal point agencies, was underlined.

At the national level, important developments have included the formulation and implementation of national forest programmes and reforms in national legislation dealing with forests, land use and natural resources, as well as decentralization and the devolution of forest management to communities.

Collaboration between national focal points of the Forum and those of the three United Nations Conference on Environment and Development related Conventions is also important in order to foster national level collaboration, particularly through the use of existing policy and planning mechanisms, such as national forest programmes.

Setting clear objectives for international forest policy and linking sustainable forest management more closely to the internationally agreed development goals are avenues that warrant careful consideration at the Forum.

Working with national policy frameworks