Community Portal
Communities & Markets
Forests play a critical role in the livelihoods of the poor. Over 90 percent of the world's poorest people depend on forests for their livelihoods with more than a billion people living within the 19 forest biodiversity “hotspots.” Policy shifts to recognize traditional and indigenous rights have resulted in a doubling of community-owned and administered forest lands – to 22% of all developing country forests: three times the amount owned by individuals and firms. Current trends indicate that community tenure will double again by 2020 to more than 700 million hectares. The dependency of local communities to secure their livelihoods and cultural traditions spans beyond forests to most ecosystems, including coastal and marine. As a result, successful conservation efforts must involve their participation.
The Communities & Markets program seeks to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods and conserve natural resources by promoting community participation in market-based conservation mechanisms. The program links communities to environmental markets by promoting the awareness and capacity for communities to participate in and benefit from payments and compensation schemes that value their stewardship role of ecosystem services. Working in synergy with Forest Trends programs and strategic collaboration with partner organizations, the program provides key information, capacity building and technical assistance for communities around the world.
Leveraging on its first years of analyzing and reporting on community participation in timber and non-timber forest products markets, the program seeks to understand and bring to light the importance of communities’ stewardship role of ecosystem services. Our operating principle is that market mechanisms for conservation can only succeed with the prior-informed consent and fair participation of local communities. We distinguish and support the importance of communities’ land tenure rights as a pre-condition for their successful participation in environmental markets.
Key Initiatives
- Information – Producing and disseminating knowledge on payments and compensation schemes for environmental services (PES) for local communities. The Community Portal aims to increase the knowledge base and accessibility of PES information, resources and networks available to communities interested in engaging with environmental markets and transactions. The Community Forum newsletter, produced every 6 weeks, shares recent publications and information on PES, highlighting new trends, tools and resources. Visit the Community Portal and read the current issue of the Community Forum.
- Capacity Building - Workshops designed to promote the concept of PES, share knowledge between community leaders, and equip a network of community leaders with experience in the development of PES transactions in strategic regions in Latin America and Africa (eventually expanding to Asia). Learn more about our workshops. Also, the Communities and Markets program works with the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program to create the capacity of local communities to participate and benefit from biodiversity offsets.
- Technical Assistance – Work with communities to design and implement PES projects for carbon, water, biodiversity and other environmental markets. This technical assistance is offered in conjunction with the Katoomba Ecosystem Services Incubator.
- Policy - Working closely with the Katoomba Group, the Community Advisory Group, and institutional partners worldwide, the program assists in the development of studies and strategies contributing to policies that promote communities’ participation and benefits from PES compensation schemes and transactions.