In this issue... the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), our latest publications and a new infographic on food demand and forests.

The forests newsletter is a quarterly update from IIED's Forests Team on our work to improve forest livelihoods and ensure forests are managed in a fair and sustainable way.

News and blogs

Small, but many, is big

We have just published a new issue paper, Small, but many, is big: a review of issues in assessing the collective scale of small and locally-controlled forest-linked investment. The paper provides an initial assessment of the issues and challenges which present themselves when considering the combined scale and impact of the various forms of small scale and locally controlled forest production, from forest and farm lands.

We are keen to hear about your experience and knowledge of assessing the collective scale of small and locally-controlled forest-linked investment. Please get in touch via forestry@iied.org if you have ideas or relevant sources of data.

New infographic on food demand and forests

A series of IIED infographics reveal there is limited scope for meeting tripling domestic food demand in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by increasing food imports, reducing food waste and increasing crop yields.

Our work

The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF)

Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) is a partnership between IIED, FAO and IUCN with programmes in 10 partner countries: Bolivia, Gambia, Guatemala, Kenya, Liberia, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Zambia.

Recently FFF has made progress with targeted regional business exchanges. For example from 11-15 April, FFF and the Federation of cooperatives of Las Verapaces region (FEDECOVERA) held a workshop in Guatemala for 50 producers organisations from across Latin America. The event showcased 19 different successful examples of community forest business to improve practical business know-how and included a field trip to FEDECOVERA's industrial plants and coffee cooperative. For more information on this and other news visit the FFF website.

Publications and briefings

Charcoal supply chains from Mabalane to Maputo: who benefits?

Charcoal is the main cooking energy source in Maputo and a crucial source of income for their key supplier, rural producers in Mabalane district. But a lack of community management in Mabalane’s charcoal trade has disadvantaged communities, widened income inequality and caused ecological depletion. This briefing proposes steps policy makers can take to ensure the charcoal trade operates in an inclusive and sustainable way. Also available in Portuguese.

Towards sustainable chocolate: Greening the cocoa supply chain

This research report outlines the journey of the cocoa bean on its way to becoming chocolate, showing how sustainability requires all actors to play their role in greening of the whole supply chain – from farmer to consumer. Insights from cocoa production in Ghana, where cocoa farming is one of the dominant land use activities, and Brazil, the largest producer of cocoa in the Americas, illustrate some of the challenges – and opportunities of sustainability.

Smart regulation: making chocolate more sustainable

This briefing accompanies the research report above, with an estimated 80 per cent of deforestation caused by agricultural commodities such as cocoa used to produce chocolate. It looks at the private sector who is beginning to make commitments towards zero deforestation supply chains, but how will this work in practice? Can smart regulation make cocoa and chocolate more sustainable?

REDD+ hits the ground: lessons learned from Tanzania's REDD+ pilot projects

Tanzania launched a series of REDD+ pilot projects in 2009 funded by the government of Norway, in this report we review the experiences and lessons learned. This includes assessing the feasibility of voluntary market, project approaches within a context of low forest carbon stocks and complex local deforestation drivers, exploring how participatory forest management (PFM) has been adopted by REDD+ projects and used to address local deforestation drivers and identifying lessons on consultation, consent and stakeholder engagement.

Partner spotlight

Global Environmental Justice - University of East Anglia

The Global Environmental Justice research group is an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in the linkages between social justice and environmental change, with a particular focus on the global dimensions of (in)justice. Their research on forest justice examines the linkages between social justice, inclusive livelihoods and forest conditions, particularly its global dimensions.

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