APEC nations present green opportunities
As the dust settles after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November and the recent G20 meeting, governments are grappling with reconciling economic development with challenges around international integration. But, largely ignored, an economic giant sleeps across the APEC region that could create more inclusive and greener opportunities for impoverished rural communities in member countries.
Today, some 1.5 billion people rely on forest resources for fuel, food, timber and other products for subsistence and income. Small-scale forest and farming households – many in APEC countries – were recently classified as the world’s largest private sector by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Institute for Environment and Development and AGRICORD. These partners in the FAO-led Forest and Farm Facility estimated the economic contributions of this sector at between $869 billion and $1,29 trillion in 2017. This is more than the value produced by some of the world’s largest companies.
Frustratingly, many of these forest people remain desperately poor. FAO estimates that 251 million people living in and around tropical forests and savannahs earn less than $1.25 a day. The ability of forest communities to prosper is being held back by unresolved rights over land and resources, challenges of reaching economies of scale, policies that differentially favor major industries, under-investment and weak market linkages.
At the same time, the world’s forestlands continue to face daunting deforestation, much of this driven for commodity production. Yet forest communities provide an alternative pathway. They can pursue more diversified and greener production of timber, tree crops and other forest goods, thus reducing risks from fluctuation in commodity prices.
Well-managed community and smallholder forestlands can conserve wildlife, protect water sources and store carbon to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Forest people also harbor rich traditional knowledge for managing the environments where their cultures evolved.
Some APEC countries are doing much to improve the prospects for forest people. A growing success story is smallholder forestry in southern China. Here, government support has included the devolving of forest resource rights to communities and smallholders, improving policy concerning land leasing and taxation, and establishing full-service trading centers. These provide help for tree cultivation, timber processing, credit and linking to markets. Smallholders are delivering environmental benefits through restoring thousands of hectares of deforested lands, although concerns about biodiversity conservation exist in case of single crop tree plantations.
Talking of other APEC countries, I recently attended a trade fair in Bangkok showcasing smallholder forest products from cosmetics to foods to handicrafts – still modest in scale, but with scope for growth. In Peru, better management of highland ecosystems by poor communities are helping secure vital water supplies for cities and industry on desert coastlines. Also in the Andean countries, exotic forest foods that have provided sustenance to rural communities for millennia are attracting the attention of gourmets from around the world and opening possibilities for new products and markets.
A key starting point for governments to improve the lot of forests is to clarify and strengthen recognition of land and resource rights of local communities and smallholders. Across Asia alone, 224 of 658 million hectares of forest are now under community or smallholder management – but there is much more to do. FAO brought together the international community – governments, NGOs, civil society, the private sector and others – to develop the first global Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests. ASEAN, which includes seven of the 21 APEC member countries, recently adopted these standards and other countries would do well to take note.
Further, building on examples from China and other countries, more localized support is essential for growing trees, market linkages and investment in forest communities. In addition, the potential of digital technologies to support this sector needs greater consideration – an ideal space for innovative private sector involvement.
Finally, taking a territorial approach to regional development could help. Strategies that favor local development around provincial centers can shorten and “green” market chains so that forest producers can mesh prosperously.
In the long term, cumulative economic growth across the rural areas of the APEC countries will contribute to creating economic growth and demand across the region that will favor and benefit from economic integration. Senior APEC leaders should take note of forest communities and their potential contributions to national, regional and the global economy.
The author is senior forestry officer of UN Food and Agriculture Organization at Rome, Italy. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn