More about LoCoFoRest
Forest landscapes will play an important role in our transition from a fossil fuel-based world to a circular bioeconomy. Well managed forests are key to addressing global challenges such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity loss and the water crises.
At the same time, forests need to meet the growing global demand for wood-based products. The International Training Programme (ITP) LoCoFoRest focuses on the critical question: How can we scale up the restoration of forest landscapes while securing the prosperity of local communities, and maintaining and improving ecosystem services such as provision of clean water and biodiversity, and regulation of the climate?
Moving the global agenda for forest and landscape restoration to a local agenda
Restoring degraded forest land for multiple benefits has been high on the global agenda for some time. International and national commitments for forest and landscape restoration (FLR) cover hundreds of million hectares in both large and small scale interventions.
These interventions often address climate mitigation and biodiversity, with priorities set far away from the landscape and the people who are dependent on the land. Recent analysis show that scalable forest restoration and sustainable forest management needs local participation and lasting economic viability to be successful. If interventions do not contribute to lifting those living on the land out of poverty they will not have lasting impact.
Stakeholder participation, gender equity and fair sharing of created wealth along the value chain are equally important to secure scalable and sustainable interventions.
This programme takes a systemic approach to good governance, natural resource management, entrepreneurship, local business scenarios, product and market development.
Therefore, the programme is intended for a broad target group of individuals active in organisations spanning government, academia, civil society and the private sector.
Systemic approach of the training programme
The objective of this ITP is to build capacity in organisations involved in locally controlled forest restoration (LoCoFoRest). This idea is to give participants the skills and knowledge to help build scalable businesses and improve livelihoods as a driver for FLR and improved ecosystem services. For this systemic change to be successful and to drive scalable FLR, it’s essential to involve all stakeholders, on multiple governance levels, and that they be given incentives for their contribution.
Therefore it is important to have participants from different backgrounds and to promote a dialogue around the roles of different stakeholders in economic, social and ecological transformation.
Individual training for organisations that want to build capacity
The programme is for individuals. However, an individual’s organisation must clearly certify its approval of:
a) the applicant spending their paid working time completing the programme (estimated at 20% of fulltime employment for one year of training)
b) the proposed idea for a “Change Project” included in the application, aiming, for example, to improve some of the organisation’s activities around scalable, locally-controlled forest restoration.
Apart from the in-kind working time and personal cost for visa fee for regional meetings, all other cost is covered by the programme. This includes all learning materials, mentoring and travel expenses.
This way LoCoFoRest develops individual capacity (with organisations accumulating capacity over time and number of course rounds) as well as builds shared knowledge on how to increase efficiency in restoration activities.
Partners and Donor
The Swedish Forest Agency (SFA) is lead organiser, in partnership with Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and The Eco-Innovation Foundation (EIF). The programme is financed by the Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida).