Forest Tenure Impact Evaluation Workshop at World Bank completed

The Environment for Development initiative arranged a Forest Tenure Impact Evaluation Workshop on April 21, in connection to the World Bank’s annual conference on land and poverty in Washington D.C. on April 18-20. Recent developments in forest management institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania were reviewed during this workshop, and a potential impact evaluation program for forest tenure reform in East Africa was discussed. The workshop was held on Thursday April 21 and was open for all conference participants.

EfD researchers and other international experts presented an analytical framework for the interaction between forest policy and the responses by villagers, as well as empirical examples of such responses in terms of impacts on forest values, private tree plantations and energy use. Based on previous experiences from impact evaluations, a potential impact evaluation program for forest tenure reform in East Africa was discussed.

“Current and future forest tenure reforms hold a lot of promise in terms of improved forest quality, improved governance, empowerment of local institutions etc. However, we also know that the impact is likely to vary greatly depending on the design and implementation of these reforms. Economics has some powerful tools to help in the evaluation of interventions and although we have already done a lot, I am confident that we can contribute even more in the future.” says EfD Director Gunnar Köhlin.

Please find all presentations below (soon to be included):

9.00 Opening: 
Daniel Ayalew:
The potential for economic analysis to support land reform processes with examples from World Bank project implementation and research.
Peter Dewees: The role of PROFOR in supporting forest sector reforms.
Keijiro Otsuka: Evaluating natural resource management implications of forest tenure reforms
Gunnar Köhlin: EfD research on forest reform and plans for a program to build capacity, design and evaluate forest sector reforms.

10.00 Evolution of forest management institutions in East Africa
Godius Kahyarara:
The evolution of the forest sector reform in Tanzania.
Anders Ekbom: The role of Institutional change for successful forest management on common lands; Lessons learned from an evaluation of Kenya’s forest sector reform.

10.45 Responses to forest management
Elizabeth Robinson:
The interaction of demand, distance, degradation, and deterrence: An analytical framework of how villagers react to forest management and implications for forest policy
Alemu Mekonnen: Household Forest Values Under Varying Management Regimes in Ethiopia
Wilfred Nyangena: Towards an Understandingof the Implicationsof Forest Management Reforms in East Africa

11.30 Next steps: Design issues for forest tenure impact evaluation
Jintao Xu:
Experiences from design and implementation of evaluation of the Chinese forest tenure reform.
Erin Sills: Experiences from meta-analysis of REDD+ projects: lessons for impact evaluations
Subhrendu Pattanayak: Trends and needs in impact evaluations – going beyond the forest.
Gunnar Köhlin: The potential for a long-term impact evaluation program in East Africa.
Peter Dewees: Modalities for impact evaluation of forest sector reform

The World Bank’s annual conference on land and poverty was held in Washington D.C. this year on April 18-20. The agenda and other information was made available on a dedicated website.

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News | 15 April 2011