MAY 2021

Integrated Community Forest Management
Position Paper
Preserving Forests and Improving Livelihoods Through Community Forestry

The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization working in 70
countries at the intersection of business, agriculture and forests. We are building an alliance to create a better future for people and nature by making responsible business the new normal.

Introductiona precursor to forest conversion7, and is largely underestimated as it is difficult to measure.
Over millennia, people and forests have developed a deep
relationship, and local communities continue to play animportant role in forest stewardship. Forest flora and fauna are vital sources of raw materials for food, feed, energy,
construction, clothing, handicrafts, medicines, and other daily livelihood needs. Approximately 1.6 billion people
worldwide still depend directly on forests for timber andharvesting of non-timber forest products (NTFPs)8, with agross annual value approaching US$1.3 trillion9, making
this activity collectively the biggest private sector. Almost
one third of the world’s forest area is under some form ofcommunity-based/smallholder management, and thearea is increasing with the devolution of rights to local andindigenous communities in several countries10.

Forests cover one third of the world’s land surface. They
play a key role in regulating the water cycle, storing carbon,
preventing soil erosion, and hosting over 50 percent of the
Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity, mostly in tropical rainforests.
Preserving forests—along with other natural climate solutions such as reforestation, sustainable forest management, and agroforestry—could help us achieve up to 37
percent of the emissions reductions needed to limit global
heating to 1.5ºC1. Yet we are still losing forests at a high rateby converting them to other land use, mostly agriculture.
In 2019, we lost a football pitch of tropical forest every six
seconds2. We also degrade forests through unsustainable forest management, leading to “death by a thousandcuts”; unsustainable wildlife management and poaching,emptying forests of large fauna; and mining and humaninfrastructure, resulting in fragmentation3,4.

Throughout its 30+ year history, the Rainforest Alliance has
worked to halt forest degradation and deforestation, while
supporting the livelihoods and rights of producers and forest-dependent communities around the world. Buildingon this experience, we have published a position paper on
deforestation, presenting our approach to halting agriculture-driven deforestation and the conversion of natural
ecosystems. This complementary position paper presents
the Rainforest Alliance’s approach to addressing forest
degradation through integrated community forest management, including the principles that we believe must
guide the global community’s broader efforts.

Forest degradation—defined as human-induced changes
that significantly and negatively affect a forest’s species
composition, structure, function, and capacity to provide
goods and services5 —is likely to increase as temperaturesrise due to climate change, and will in turn impact the climate. As well as releasing carbon into the atmosphere, reducing biodiversity, and impacting soil stability and water
cycles, forest degradation increases the risk of transmission of emerging infectious diseases6. Degradation is often

A man is harvesting ramon nuts from the forest floor at a harvesting site near Yaloch, Guatemala. Photo: Sergio Izquierdo
2

THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE’S POSITION

nal forest professionals for mutual learning20. Companies
play an important role in securing access to markets forresponsibly produced community forest products; creating partnerships with local communities to develop newvalue chains and address supply chain challenges, andconnecting end-consumers to producers.

Over the past decade there has been a notable shift from adichotomy between industrial concessions and protected
forest areas, towards “rights-based” community forestry
and biocultural conservation building on the deep interdependence between local cultural heritage and the environment. The rights-based approach is most commonly
rooted in tenure policies that recognize collective community ownership or fixed-term use rights over naturalforest11. The Rainforest Alliance has long been a proponentof this rights-based approach. But, while it is an importantfirst step, this alone cannot halt deforestation and forest
degradation, or improve livelihoods12. We are convincedthat local communities and indigenous peoples, if given
secured rights to land and resources, and supported withtechnical capacities, incentives, and market access, play a
critical role in preserving forests. For years, the community
forestry concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve haveprovided living proof of this approach (see Box 1).

Recognizing the deep interdependence between forest
communities and the environment, we support a socially just pathway to preserving forests. To achieve this aim,and depending on the level of forest degradation (see Figure 1), the Rainforest Alliance’s position is to:• support the preservation or restoration of natural forests21 through responsible community forest management• promote restoration of natural vegetation in agroforests22 and degraded forests• support no-deforestation smallholder agriculture production23 and restoration to agroforests• promote socially beneficial and ecologically soundplanted forests24 through reforestation• maintain strictly protected areas within a wider matrixof other uses and practices.

The multiple benefits of the rights-based approach areapparent in countries with a long history of secured community forest rights, such as in the Maya Biosphere Reserve; in Mexico13,14,15,16; and in Bolivia, Brazil, Niger, Tanzania
and Nepal17. Several research papers show that well-managed community forests contribute to most, if not all, of the
Sustainable Development Goals18). Strong and effective
community forest enterprises demonstrate the capacity
to withstand internal and external shocks, which is criticalin times of economic crisis and climate change19.

While any type of intervention in a natural forest can beconsidered a form of degradation, well managed forests
provide important ecosystem services and goods, especially for the communities who depend on them. The
Rainforest Alliance promotes and helps communities
strive towards sustainable forest management, definedby the United Nations25 as a “dynamic and evolving concept [that] aims to maintain and enhance the economic,
social and environmental values of all types of forests, forthe benefit of present and future generations”. Sustainable
forest management is critical to prevent forest degradation due to unsustainable forestry practices.

To develop successful community forests, the Rainforest
Alliance is convinced of the need for partnerships between
communities and other organizations—government, NGOs,
and private companies. Successful outcomes from community forestry can be explained partly by whether there
is a community of practice linking local people to exter-

Figure 1: Forest transition curve and related interventions in tropical areas3

Box 1strategies to strengthen forest management, while boosting the long-term economic and social resilience of ruralcommunities.

The Maya Biosphere Reserve

This is achieved by placing forest communities at the heartof safeguarding and restoring our world’s forests.

Our flagship project is the Maya Biosphere Reservein Guatemala, where the Rainforest Alliance leads
USAID’s Climate, Nature and Communities in Guatemala initiative, in partnership with the Association ofForest Communities of Petén. For more than 15 years
we have supported Community Forest Concessions
and created a broad alliance between forest communities, local and national government institutions,companies, local non-governmental organizations(NGOs), academia, and implementing partners, tocatalyze transformation in a landscape once known
for crisis-level deforestation rates and poverty. Today,
the deforestation rate in the forest concessions where
we work is near zero, while protected areas and bufferzones nearby suffered high deforestation levels. Poverty rates in the concessions are also significantly lower than in other parts of Guatemala, making migration
away from the concesssion communities virtually unheard of26,27.

Integrated community forest management:• supports community forest enterprises through training, tools, and knowledge to provide sustained economic development and foster strong social governance and inclusion, providing equitable benefits tohouseholds, incorporating young people in activities,
and promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment• implements sustainable forest management, restoration or reforestation in order to reduce forest degradation and deforestation, and to increase forest cover,biodiversity, and carbon capture• manages the forest in harmony with other crops andecosystems in the landscape• fosters secured rights to forests, and access to alliances, finance, and markets, to create an enabling environment for successful community forest enterprises
at scale.

THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE’S STRATEGY ON FORESTS

Based on our experience and a learning inventory of ourwork over the past 15 years, we have defined an implementation pathway (Figure 2). Recognizing that there is noone-size-fits-all approach or single model for community forestry, this pathway serves as guidance which needs
to be tailored to local contexts using a participatory approach.

Our vision for forests and core interventions:
Our vision is thriving communities and forests, where
the interdependency of local communities’ livelihoods and their natural environment is recognizedand valued, and the enabling conditions for local
communities to be the stewards of forests are encouraged and enforced.

This pathway is deployed within the Rainforest Alliancealong our four core organizational interventions: certification program, landscape management, tailored supply-chain services, and advocacy.

To achieve this vision, we have supported community forest enterprises, particularly in Mexico and Guatemala. Dueto their success, the development of community forest
enterprises has taken center stage in our strategy, andthe strategies of a range of donors and civil society organizations seeking to address interrelated issues aroundrights, economic opportunities, deforestation, and climatechange. But not all contexts enable successful community
forest enterprises. A strong focus is often needed on more
fundamental issues, such as tenure security, land use, andsocial governance as building blocks.

Our certification program is an important vehicle to raiseawareness, recognize conversion-free producers, andprovide incentives for farmers not to convert natural ecosystems. In 2020 the program covered more than 6.8 million hectares and reached more than 2 million farmers in
70 countries. In the Farm Requirements of our 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard29, we promote agroforestry
as a buffer to standing forests at the same time as enabling more resilient and productive agricultural production systems that discourage further forest encroachment
and degradation.

To be effective at scale and truly address the many interconnected drivers of deforestation, degradation, andbiodiversity loss, we believe community forest enterprises need to be supported beyond the implementation ofbest practices. For this reason we have reframed our workwithin a broader concept of integrated community forest
management.

To reach scale and inclusivity, the Rainforest Alliance isimplementing and supporting 68 landscape management projects, the majority of which safeguard, responsibly manage, or restore forests in priority landscapes. We
engage and train local communities around the world in
methods designed to conserve forests and biodiversity,
protect workers, and—critically—to support their efforts toearn a living as responsible forest stewards through community forest enterprises. We also implement landscapeapproaches, such as supporting the establishment of fair
governance structures, or developing enabling tools suchas a digital data management platform as well as financial innovation within the “1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion
People” initiative.

Embodying our vision of people and nature thriving inharmony, integrated community forest management
contributes to the integrated landscape management
approach28, engaging multiple actors at multiple scales.
Integrated community forest management enables robust environmental policy structures and active market participation to exist alongside practical, field-based4

Figure 2: The Rainforest Alliance’s integrated community forest management (ICFM) pathway

Through tailored supply-chain services the Rainforest
Alliance supports actors in supply chains to build corporate policies that address their sourcing of forest-risk
commodities or forest-related products (such as pulp
and paper, timber, rubber, and non-timber forest products). We support the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC)
as the gold standard for forest certification. For commodities and product volumes for which FSC certification is not feasible, the Rainforest Alliance works withcompanies to devise other effective means to minimize
and address deforestation and degradation risk in the
supply chain.
When working with companies on forests beyond theirindividual supply chains, Forest Allies is our main vehicle.
Through our Forest Allies community of practice, we bring
together companies, regional civil society organizations,and forest communities to form powerful partnerships.
The Forest Allies community of practice convenes twicea year to exchange knowledge, best practices, and solutions for shared challenges. Forest Allies supports theRainforest Alliance’s integrated community forest management approach by contributing to a pool of capitalused to invest directly in support of community forest
enterprises, and by fostering a foundation of mutual respect, trust, and a shared vision between forest communities and markets.
Working in coalitions and partnerships, the Rainforest Alliance advocates for secured forest access and tenurerights for communities; for effective private sector com-5

mitments to deforestation-free supply chains and responsible production; and for a public policy frameworkthat includes legislative and voluntary measures. Such aframework should ensure that companies take on their
responsibility to address any adverse environmental
and human rights impacts of their own sourcing practices, and that governments take the actions needed tocreate an enabling environment, in both producing andconsuming countries, towards forest preservation andstrengthened local community rights.

PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRATED COMMUNITY FOREST
MANAGEMENTThe Rainforest Alliance’s own interventions are one set ofcontributions to the broader effort towards minimizing
deforestation and forest degradation, and fostering sustainable forest management. The following five principles are crucial for guiding all efforts to meet these goals:• Forests’ values should be protected and/or restored• Local communities must become ecosystem stewards at scale• Responsible forest management needs to be enhanced and monitored• Communities should be supported in adapting to andmitigating climate change• Livelihoods from forest product value chains must be
strengthened

Forests’ values should be protected and/or
restored

Local communities must become ecosystemstewards at scale• Preserve High Conservation Values: identify, protect,manage with care
Forests are critical for both climate mitigation and biodiversity. Primary/old-growth forests store the mostcarbon and contain the most biodiversity comparedto other forest types. For example, after 60 years’ regrowth, recovering secondary Amazon forests stored
only 40 percent as much carbon as undisturbed
woodlands, and had half as much biodiversity30.

• Foster policies to ensure community rights over forests
Secured forest access and resource use and market
rights are required for communities to safeguard andrestore forests. It is necessary to enable communities,
through adequate policies, to realize multiple benefits from sustainable harvesting, commercialization oftimber and NTFPs, increased value-added processing,and access to markets or funds for conserving ecosystem services. Community rights to forests can takeseveral forms, such as concessions, permits, full land
tenure, or tree ownership or use rights. Indigenous
communities should have full rights to their forest.
Most of the time, local communities who seek suchrights require external support, as complex administrative procedures create barriers to accessing or implementing community forestry. Rights are often only
partially devolved to communities, preventing the fullpotential of an equitable economic development36.
Engagement at policy level ensures that legislation isstrengthened based on feedback from communities
and those who support them.

Primary/old-growth forests—including their water resources, soils, plant species, and animal populations—must be preserved. The Rainforest Alliance uses theHigh Conservation Values31 (HCV) toolkits to identify
the critical areas and determine good management
practices.
These critical areas are often part of the cultural andtraditional life of indigenous peoples and local communities, and provide resources through timber, fuelwood, hunting, and other NTFPs. Supporting biocultural conservation, through protection and sound forest
management by local communities, is the best way
to preserve HCVs.
• Restore forests: natural regeneration and agroforestry have a role to play
In addition to ensuring existing ecosystems remain
intact, this decade needs to see more progress on
restoration of ecosystems, in the sense of both widescale restoration of forests and mosaic restoration ofagricultural landscapes. This is particularly importantfor community forests, as communities have often received rights over degraded forests. The UN Decadeon Ecosystem Restoration32, of which the Rainforest
Alliance is a member, offers an opportunity to combine efforts on this issue.
Forests that have been only partially degraded, likesecondary forests, offer good potential for naturalregeneration, as the forest soil and microclimate arestill present. Natural regeneration should be assisted33 whenever possible in restoration efforts, as it ensures species adaptation, soil conservation, and helps
maintain High Conservation Values34.
Agroforestry systems can also offer a good ecologicaltransition to natural forests, offering a buffer to more
intensive land use, providing habitats, and storing
more carbon than conventional agriculture.
Tree plantations, in particular enrichment planting35,
can be used to accelerate the restoration of degraded forests, but this must be done in an ecologicallyand socially sound way, mimicing natural forest dynamics and providing benefits to local communities.
While restoration practices are implemented at theforest stand or farm level, they need to be planned
and thought through at a larger scale, for example toensure connectivity of ecosystems and sustainable
land use.

6• Promote sound governance and ensure social inclusion in local organizations
For communities to achieve lasting success, theymust have the capacity to manage forests sustainably and build their own local enterprises. Based on
our experience, the single most important factor
determining the success or failure of a community
forest enterprise is social governance, using a Free
Prior Informed Consent process37 (see Box 2). Major
investments in technical or market solutions will not
be realized if the work of building capacity to create
and maintain transparent, representative, functionalsocial institutions to govern forest management andenterprise is ignored.
Box 2

The Rainforest Alliance’s Free
Prior Informed Consent process
Indigenous peoples and other local communities
have the right to make free and informed choices
about the use or development of their lands and resources. Free Prior Informed Consent is implemented
through a participatory process involving all affected groups that is carried out prior to the finalization
or implementation of any development plans. The
process ensures that communities are not coerced
or intimidated; that decisions are reached throughcommunities’ own chosen institutions or representatives; that communities’ consent is sought andfreely given prior to the authorization or start of any
activities; that communities have full information
about the scope of any proposed development andits likely impacts on their lands, livelihoods, and environment; and that ultimately their choices to giveor withhold consent are respected.

Strong local grassroots organizations also play an important role in community equity. In general, the morevertical integration and diversification that takes
place within community forest enterprises, the moresocial inclusion is present, as more employment istypically created. Specific efforts are needed to engage the poor, women, and youth in improving equity
in tenure, community governance, community forest
enterprise management and operations, and benefit sharing, as well as to improve gender equality andwomen’s empowerment. It is critical to ensure thatboth human and labor rights are respected throughout the supply chain, especially in indigenous communities where threats to environmental defenders
have grown in recent years.
The forestry sector is also affected by out-migrationof young people. In many rural communities, youth
have limited options to study, pay for their education,and find meaningful employment. At the same time,
local forestry communities hire external technical experts and consultants to support their operations because of a lack of specialists within their community.
Investing in the future of community forests means
investing in the next generation of leaders, community members, and technicians in sustainable forest
management to work the land and keep the local
economy running.
• Enable effective alliances, governance, and fundingat scale
Deforestation and forest degradation have long been
fueled by poor governance and competing claims
over forest resources and land use. Functioning andsuccessful community forest enterprises cannot be
achieved over a single project cycle on a limited budget. Nowhere has there been the level of investment incommunity forestry seen in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, stretching over many decades and involving awide range of donors and technical assistance agencies—except perhaps in Nepal. To develop integrated
community forest management at a scale that will
have a major impact at local, regional, and international levels, it is critical to have a broad alliance of
public and private actors working together towards
a shared long-term vision of community-controlledforests and enterprises. Building on strong community forest enterprises, increasing local community
members’ representation and participation in decision-making structures of jurisdictional approaches
should lead to more opportunities to build such coalitions. Integrated Landscape Management28 facilitatesaccess to finance, collaborative and effective natural
resource management, and commodity production
at larger scale, providing the enabling environment
needed for integrated community forest management.

Responsible forest management needs to be enhanced and monitored• Base a management plan on current science andbest forestry practices
Sustainable forestry balances the needs of the environment, wildlife, and forest communities—support7

ing decent incomes while conserving forests for future
generations. Forestry operations must put into placea clearly mapped management plan that specifies
the number of trees (or NTFPs) that can be harvested per hectare, and the frequency at which this canoccur, based on the growth and regeneration ratesof the species found in that ecosystem. The goal is toharvest in a way that allows these species the chance
to regenerate and ensures that the forest’s overall
ecological health is maintained, restored, or even enhanced. The ideal of forest management is to mimic
nature and be as close as possible to the functioningof a natural ecosystem.
Managing tropical forests to reach this balance ismore complex than in temperate ones. The numberof different species per hectare; limited knowledge
about their interactions, particularly on tree regeneration and mortality ecology; and the susceptibility of tropical soils to erosion mean it is necessary to
diverge from northern-style silviculture. Forest communities need to be provided with simple and effective management plans and harvesting techniques
for timber and NTFPs from tropical forests, based on
available science and best-forestry practices.
• Monitor the forest
The limited knowledge on tropical forests requires touse adaptive management, which involves regularmonitoring and continual refinement38. For example,
permanent sample plots and transects make it possible to follow the forest’s evolution in terms of treecomposition and diameter, species’ regeneration andmortality, soil fertility, and biodiversity. Observing thehealth of the forest allows detection of early signs ofdiseases or pests, which tend to increase with climatechange. Regulating fires through monitoring and early interventions is also critical as tropical forests are
increasingly prone to drought.

Communities should be supported in adapting toand mitigating climate change• Increase ecological resilience to climate change
Maintaining and restoring natural forests are clearly
the most effective approaches to combating climatechange, contributing to:• capturing and storing additional carbon dioxidefrom the atmosphere• favoring biodiversity as a critical element of ecosystem and social resilience.
Forest management activities that enhance biodiversity mean forests are less affected by pests, diseases,
and fires, and recover more quickly. These diverse andmore resilient forests in turn provide a wider array of
products to local communities, increase soil stability,
and regulate water cycles, which further secure crop
yields and livelihoods. Combined with strong and effective governance at community level, community
forestry has proven to increase social, economic, andecological resilience globally21.

Sustainable forest management favors resiliencethrough climate-smart practices such as increasing
tree species composition and diversity of structures;
extended rotation length of tree harvesting; or reduced-impact logging. The latter became widely usedin the tropics to avoid damage to soils and standing
trees, but is now also recognized for its positive impact
on climate. It entails a range of improved practices, including directional felling of trees; improved harvest
planning via pre-harvest inventory; planning skid trails
and/or mono-cable winching. These methods reduce
emissions of conventional logging techniques, and alsopreserve soils, streams, and canopy coverage, maintaining capacity for regeneration, biodiversity, and better resilience of the forest as a whole.

ic business strategies, skills, and progressive business
entities with forest community partners. To achieve thisaim, building partnerships with international buyers canboost profitability, while producing for local and regional markets will ensure that businesses will be sustainable in the long term.
Vertical integration can create value-added, in particular for high-value products such as FSC-certified
lumber. Another approach is market aggregation, fromrobust first-tier enterprises such as cooperatives orcollectively owned businesses, towards second- andthird-tier organizations. This approach allows diversification in NTFPs, which is especially appropriate forsmaller, more degraded, and/or fragmented forests.
Diversification reduces economic risk and is a benefit
multiplier, favoring inclusion of women and marginalized groups.

• Support climate change mitigation practices
Protecting and restoring forests, and managing themwell, are the best ways of conserving or enhancing existing carbon stocks and biodiversity. But where degradation is too severe, full reforestation might be needed.

In trying to reach markets and build formal enterprises,
aggregating and adding value at the second-tier scaleis the most promising approach.

Reforestation on deforested or heavily degraded landhas gathered broad support as a carbon mitigation
practice. Planted forests are much poorer than natural forests at storing carbon and supporting biodiversity39, but they are necessary in some cases to prevent
soil erosion, restore ecosystem connectivity in degraded landscapes, and accelerate the re-establishmentof forests that have been destroyed. The best place
to plant trees is on previously forested land. Non-forested lands such as grasslands and wetlands alreadycontribute to capturing carbon, mostly in the soil, andshould be avoided. Wherever possible, reforestation
should try to recreate a forest that is similar to the natural forest, and provide multiple benefits to people. Local
communities should be placed at the heart of any reforestation initiative to ensure its long-term success. For
all this to happen, growing the right tree species in theright place is critical, taking future climatic conditions
into consideration.

Livelihoods from forest product value chains must
be strengthened

Figure 3: Investment in tiered organization
Source: Adapted from Macqueen et al. (2015)41• Develop market access and diversification to boost
income and profitability
Sustainable forest management is not only effective inmaintaining forests and supporting communities’ livelihoods. With a total contribution of more than $1298 billion to the world’s GDP, the forest-based sector generates indirectly more than twice its direct contribution40.
The economic value of forests has long been measured
by their timber value only, but timber production is avery small part of the goods and services provided byforests. The research estimates the economic value offorest ecosystem services at $33 trillion per year, twice
the GDP of the United States.

• Support supply chain accountability and responsible forest management through certification andmulti-stakeholder processes
Forest certification based on a third-party, independent
audit process is important to validate results and substantiate claims. Certification is a market tool that helps
reward communities for their responsible forest management, and provides a means for companies andconsumers to take responsibility for their purchasing
and consumption. It is an important contributor to helping companies be accountable for their supply chainswith regard to deforestation and forest degradation,
as laid out in the Accountability Framework Initiative of
which the Rainforest Alliance is a member.

If we want to incentivize standing, healthy forests, it iscritical to develop, with forest community partners,
economic value and markets for sustainably harvested
timber, NTFPs, and payment for environmental services.
It is also critical to support development of dynam-8

In 1993, the Rainforest Alliance was a founding member of the Forest Stewardship Council®. The globallyrespected FSC certification standard for managing
forests covers many of the themes within the Rainforest Alliance’s integrated community forest management pathway. We are continuing our collaborationas active members of the the FSC’s environmental
chamber, and through engaging in the organization’s
New Approaches project42 to develop new solutions
for smallholder and community forestry certification.
The Rainforest Alliance is also a founding member of
the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber.
Founded in 2019, this is an international, multistakeholder, voluntary membership organization with a
mission to lead improvements in the socioeconomicand environmental performance of the natural rubber
value chain.
Certification and multistakeholder processes arevaluable tools for both forest communities and themarket. It is critical that we continue to support theirevolution based on learning from monitoring their effectiveness, strengths, and opportunities for improvement.

WE CANNOT DO THIS ALONE
As society works to address the grand challenge of accommodating the needs of 9 billion people while maintaining a habitable and biodiversity-rich planet, there is
not only space—but also a critical need—for many different strategies and solutions, addressing the specificcircumstances of different commodities, localities, andcompanies. The Rainforest Alliance has been devoted tothis challenge since its foundation more than 30 years
ago, and can look back on extensive experience, impact,
and learning.
Yet, progress can only be achieved collaboratively andwhen all actors take responsibility. If we aim to leverage forests as a natural climate solution and reverse
forest degradation, we need to scale our interventions.
Integrated community forest management proposesa pathway that enables local communities to become
ecosystem stewards at scale. Directing the flow of public
and private capital towards these efforts will be critical inachieving this goal.
We welcome feedback from our partners in forest communities, private and public sectors, and civil society tohelp us continue to innovate and have impact throughconstructively reviewing and commenting on our interventions, and holding us accountable to our principles,vision, mission, and goals. Together with you, we are inspired to make the coming years a time of successful
forest preservation and restoration.

ANNEX 1
Definition: Natural forest (Source: AFi (2019):
A forest that is a natural ecosystem. Natural forests possess many or most of the characteristics of a forest native tothe given site, including species composition, structure, and ecological function. Natural forests include:• Primary forests that have not been subject to major human impacts in recent history• Regenerated (second-growth) forests that were subject to major impacts in the past (for instance by agriculture,
livestock raising, tree plantations, or intensive logging) but where the main causes of impact have ceased or
greatly diminished and the ecosystem has attained much of the species composition, structure, and ecological
function of prior or other contemporary natural ecosystems• Managed natural forests where much of the ecosystem’s composition, structure, and ecological function exist in
the presence of activities such as:• Harvesting of timber or other forest products, including management to promote high-value species• Low intensity, small-scale cultivation within the forest, such as less-intensive forms of swidden agriculture in
a forest mosaic• Forests that have been partially degraded by anthropogenic or natural causes (e.g., harvesting, fire, climate change,
invasive species, or others) but where the land has not been converted to another use and where degradation
does not result in the sustained reduction of tree cover below the thresholds that define a forest or sustained lossof other main elements of ecosystem composition, structure, and ecological function.
9

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Email: info@ra.org

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