Publications

Forest Trends Comments on Myanmar Draft Forest Rules (2019) Regarding Land Rights

In May, 2019, the Myanmar Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) released its Forest Law Draft Rules which elaborate on how the Forest Law of 20181 will be implemented. The MONREC Forest Department (FD) is conducting state and regional publication consultations in Summer and Fall 2019 before proceeding to national-level public consultations by[…]

Pre-Cop Briefing for CITES Management Authorities Regarding the Verification of Legal Acquisition

Regulating the illegal timber trade: Comparison of the verification of legal acquisition under CITES with other legislation to tackle the trade in illegally harvested timber. 

There has been a paradigm shift since CITES was created, and rule of law was assumed, to the current situation where illegalities in the extraction of natural resources have been widely investigated, documented, acknowledged and quantified in a number of policy sectors outside the CITES process. In order to facilitate consistency, this briefing paper outlines[…]

10 Things to Know about China’s Hongmu Imports Since 2017: A Briefing for the 18th CITES COP

In October 2016, the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listed over 300 species of rosewood (a subset of which are known as hongmu in Chinese) at the 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17, Johannesburg). Hongmu is identified by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime as the world’s[…]

Tackling Deforestation and the Trade In Forest Risk Commodities: Consumer-Country Measures and the WTO

 A range of consumer-country measures have been deployed by governments as part of the global effort to combat illegal logging and the trade in illegal timber. These include regulations which affect imports, such as the EU Timber Regulation, which makes it an offence to place illegally sourced timber products on the EU market, whether from[…]

5 Things to Know about the Use of Scientific Testing in the Enforcement of Timber Import Regulations

In June 2019, Forest Trends surveyed government agencies responsible for the enforcement of timber legislation about their current and future plans for using scientific testing. Through its Timber Regulation Enforcement Exchange (TREE) network, Forest Trends received 25 responses from 21 countries. All but one country currently have operational timber import measures in place. The following[…]

The Debate over Vietnam’s Latest Land Reforms

From “Land to the Tiller” to the “New Landlords”?

A new paper published by Land journal discusses policy debates on smallholder versus large-scale company governance. It highlights possible risks in government land policy that favors large-scale companies and neglecting smallholders. While the paper focuses on Vietnam case study, its implications travel far beyond the country. Abstract: Between Vietnam’s independence and its reunification in 1975,[…]

What is in Myanmar’s First EITI Forestry Reports?

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) requires countries to disclose information on their natural resource sector. In 2016, the government of Myanmar published its first Myanmar EITI report (referred to here as the MEITI) on the oil and gas and mining sectors. In January 2019, the MEITI finalized its first reports on forestry. This brief […]

Gobernanza Territorial Indígena en América Latina

Indigenous Territorial Governance in Latin America- Spanish Version

This book was created in the final year of the Accelerating Inclusion and Mitigating Emissions (AIME) program to gather perspectives on the key issues of indigenous territorial governance in Latin America. The book was written by the Forest Based Livelihood Consortium, supported by the USAID. The text reflects the experiences of indigenous organizations and associated […]

Governança Territorial Indígena na América Latina

Indigenous Territorial Governance in Latin America - Portuguese Version

This book was created in the final year of the Accelerating Inclusion and Mitigating Emissions (AIME) program to gather perspectives on the key issues of indigenous territorial governance in Latin America. The book was written by the Forest Based Livelihood Consortium, supported by the USAID.  The text reflects the experiences of indigenous organizations and associated […]

Nós Kwazá Aikanã: Nossa Terra E As Mudanças No Clima

We the Kwazá Aikanã: Our Land and Climate Change

Developed from the materials produced in the Cultural Mediators workshops on climate change and territorial management, this booklet was created to support the work of teachers in the indigenous schools of the Kwazá people of the São Pedro River. The contents of this booklet seek to help children understand the dynamics  related to climate change, the […]