New Ways for Forest Governance (NEWGO!) is a start-up project of EFI’s newly established Governance Programme, coordinated by EFI Bonn.
The project aims to provide scientific knowledge with a specific focus on:
- REDD+ and FLEGT initiatives (lessons learned through transdisciplinary reviews) and
- the potential of emerging new policies relating to zero deforestation, forest restoration and sustainable forest finance.
Background
Globally, forests are under significant pressure, with continuing high rates of both deforestation and forest degradation. According to recent academic literature, addressing these pressures effectively through international and domestic forest governance remains challenging. Meanwhile, a number of international governance initiatives addressing deforestation and forest degradation have been developed, of which REDD+ and FLEGT are among the most mature ones.
To tackle forest governance around the globe more effectively, emerging governance approaches such as zero deforestation or sustainable finance can benefit greatly from existing experiences and lessons learned from established initiatives.
Project
NewGo! develops a series of research, resources and tools that support 1) policy makers from Europe to further improve the implementation of ongoing forest governance initiatives, together with the design of emerging initiatives; 2) media, in particular social media intermediaries to gain deeper insights into online engagement around forest governance, and improve their factual understanding of forest governance issues; and 3) researchers to improve their understanding of practical lessons and aspects of forest governance initiatives.
The project outcomes include scientific publications and policy briefs to inform on the latest research results. NewGo! also organized the International Forestry Policy Meeting, a conference on forest policy and governance to enhance scientific exchange and strengthen the forest research networks. Finally, research-social media and research-practice exchange on current issues in global forest governance will improve mutual understanding of involved stakeholders.
NewGo! takes a collaborative approach between research and practice partners. Building on a transdisciplinary design, it brings together policy makers, practitioners and researchers in innovative ways. This involves, for instance co-designing salient research questions, and combining reviews of academic literature with science-policy focus group discussions and policy analysis.
The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) with EUR 1.2 million from November 2019 until January 2023.
The project has several components, click on the links below to find out more:
NewGo!: scientific evidence of FLEGT VPA's impacts
NewGo!: evaluating impact of REDD+ interventions
NewGo!: sustainable finance and forests
NewGo!: online debates around the "Amazon fires"
Read the project's outcomes:
Scientific publications:
Rich forests, rich people? Sustainable finance and its links to forests
Policy briefs
Sustainable Finance: How does it link to forests?
Workshops for journalists
The financial sector: friend or foe of forests?
International Forest Policy Meeting #IFPM4
“Evaluating policy impacts: How to best assess the effectiveness of international forest policy?”, XV World Forestry Congress
Assessing the effects of international forest policies
We collected series of interviews with experts in forest governance, click on the following link to read them:
'Forest Governance Unpacked' interview series
Download the NewGo! project flyer.