Introduction to Forest and Landscape Restoration

FORESTS COURSES

Introduction to forest and landscape restoration

Descriptions

Degradation of forests and landscapes impacts the global climate, and also the food security and livelihoods of communities. Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is a process which brings stakeholders together to create healthy, resilient and productive landscapes and meet national, regional and global commitments.​ This course has been developed to introduce the key concepts and process of forest and landscape restoration.

Audience

This course is designed for a range of stakeholders with an interest in forest and landscape restoration, including:​

  • National governments;​
  • Development organizations;​
  • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and​
  • Research institutes and universities.

Learning Objectives

  • The importance of FLR and its key concepts​.
  • The benefits of FLR and how it helps countries to achieve their national, regional and global commitments​.
  • The three key steps of the FLR process.​
  • The importance of engaging stakeholders in all steps of FLR and negotiating between potentially conflicting objectives.​
  • The various considerations when implementing, managing and monitoring FLR​.
  • Barriers and success factors for FLR.

Monitoring forest and landscape restoration

Description

As countries work to meet their national commitments to restoring degraded landscapes, it is important that all FLR interventions have manageable monitoring systems in place, to assess progress towards specific goals, support adaptive management and ensure transparency. This course has been developed to equip practitioners with the capacity to design, plan and implement monitoring systems for FLR interventions.

Audience

This course is designed for a range of stakeholders with an interest in forest and landscape restoration, including practitioners and policymakers from:

  • International and regional organizations and donors;
  • National governments;
  • Private sector;
  • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and
  • Research institutes and universities.

Learning Objectives

  • What monitoring is, its principles and why it is important for FLR.
  • How to identify restoration goal-themes and sub themes.
  • Choosing appropriate indicators to meet restoration objectives.
  • Designing a restoration monitoring framework, including considerations of trade-offs and synergies, land uses and constraints.
  • Filtering indicators, baseline and targets.
  • Deciding which data should be collected.
  • Ranking indicators and building a restoration index.

Sustainable financing of Forest and Landscape Restoration

Description

To meet countries’ national commitments to restoring degraded landscapes, adequate public and private investments are needed to support the different steps of the FLR cycle. Financing sources are more efficient when used in a coordinated way.​

This course has been developed to improve the awareness and capacities of practitioners and policy makers to analyze FLR financial needs and opportunities so that they are more effective at securing and coordinating funding for FLR interventions.

Audience

This course is designed for a range of stakeholders with an interest in forest and landscape restoration, including practitioners and policymakers from:

  • International and regional organizations and donors;​
  • National governments;​
  • Private sector;​
  • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and​
  • Research institutes and universities.

Learning Objectives

  • The costs and benefits of FLR and related financing needs
  • What makes a landscape ‘investment ready’
  • The different types of FLR investors and their priorities
  • The barriers to accessing FLR investment and creating an enabling environment
  • Financial and market-based mechanisms for financing FLR interventions
  • The importance of coordinating different investment types and financing mechanisms to support FLR
  • The importance of communication and building and strengthening alliances

Course Contents

The course consists of 3 lessons, ranging from approximately 35 to 55 minutes duration each:

  • Lesson 1 – Introduction to FLR financing
  • Lesson 2 – Enabling FLR financing
  • Lesson 3 – Financing mechanisms for local investment in FLR

The National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGHGI) For Land Use

Description

This course provides the necessary knowledge to build a sustainable National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGHGI) and assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals from the land use sector. It focuses on the biological and physical process that lead to GHG fluxes from land use-related activities.

Audience

This course is designed for staff in relevant national agencies tasked with the preparation of the NGHGI for the Agricultural sector. It is useful in strengthening institutional and technical capacities in national entities in meeting the enhanced transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement. It is also useful to those wishing to improve their knowledge on the UNFCCC reporting processes.

Learning Objectives

  • The role and goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for NGHGIs
  • The inventory cycle and the main elements and principles for the preparation of GHG inventories
  • Estimating GHG from the land use sector through a step by step process and applying your knowledge through exercises
  • The methodological improvements between subsequent IPCC guidelines

Course Contents

The course consists of 11 lessons, ranging from approximately 40 to 100 minutes duration each:

  • Lesson 1 – Introduction
  • Lesson 2 – Land representation – Stratification
  • Lesson 3 – Land representation – Methodological approach
  • Lesson 4 – C pools – Living biomass and dead organic matter
  • Lesson 5 – C pools – Soil organic matter in mineral soils
  • Lesson 6 – C pools – Soil organic matter in organic soils
  • Lesson 7 – C pools – Harvested wood products
  • Lesson 8 – Land use category – Forest land
  • Lesson 9 – Land use categories – Cropland and grassland
  • Lesson 10 – Land use category – Wetlands
  • Lesson 11 – Land use categories – Settlements and other land

Tenure security for better forestry: Applying the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure

Description

Governments and development actors increasingly recognize that strengthening tenure can create powerful incentives for the sustainable use of forest resources and contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Based on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (the VGGT) principles, this course is designed to help learners understand and apply key principles for strengthening tenure.

Audience

This course targets a wide range of stakeholders, specifically:

  • National land and forest policy makers and technical advisors.
  • Forestry practitioners and programme managers.
  • Non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations.
  • Forest user groups and producer organizations.
  • Private sector companies working in the forestry sector.
  • Forestry academics and students.

Learning Objectives

National and global forest challenges and their connections to underlying tenure issues.

  • Tenure concepts and the principles of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure to Land, Fisheries and Forests (the VGGT).
  • How the application of the VGGT can strengthen the forestry sector, particularly non-state forestry. Some methods for improving data quality.
  • How to conduct forest tenure and governance assessments.
  • Find additional resources on forest tenure and the VGGT.

Course Contents

The course consists of 4 lessons, ranging from approximately 20 to 45 minutes duration each:

  • Lesson 1 – Secure forest tenure is the foundation for achieving global goals
  • Lesson 2 – The VGGT and their importance in forestry
  • Lesson 3 – Assessing tenure using the VGGT
  • Lesson 4 – VGGT best practices

Climate-smart forestry

Description

This course explores the role of forests and trees in climate-smart agriculture (CSA). It takes into consideration the ecosystem services and goods that forests provide, and the importance of forests for the food security of forest-dependent people. It explores the complex relationship between climate change and forests, and how adaptation and mitigation measures can benefit forests, forest-dependent people, and global climate change. The synergies and trade-offs involved in climate-smart forest management are also considered.

Audience

This course addresses the subject matter from a technical perspective. It is designed for a range of stakeholders. Individuals who would especially benefit from taking this course include:

  • Policy-makers.
  • Development practitioners and programme managers.
  • Sectoral specialists and academics.
  • Trainers and extension agents.

Objectives

  • Relevant concepts, especially sustainable forest management.
  • Areas of intervention for climate-smart forestry – livelihoods and food security, vulnerability and resilience and deforestation and forest degradation.
  • The steps needed to integrate a climate-smart forestry approach into the plan and practices of any forest management unit.
  • The role of forest monitoring and national forest monitoring systems.
  • The elements that can create an enabling environment for the adoption of climate-smart forestry management practices and approaches.

Course Contents

The course consists:

  • Lesson 1  –  Introduction to climate-smart forestry
  • Lesson 2  –  Elements of climate-smart forestry
  • Lesson 3  –  Climate-smart forestry in practice
  • Lesson 4  –  Creating an enabling environment for climate-smart forestry

Forests and transparency under the Paris Agreement

Description

The objective of this course is to learn about the Enhanced Transparency Framework (EFT) under the Paris Agreement. It will be useful to those wishing to understand the importance of forest-related data collection, analysis and dissemination in meeting the Enhanced Transparency Framework requirements.

Audience

  • Individuals who would especially benefit from taking this course include:
  • Heads of national forest authorities or ministry.
  • Climate or forest officers.
  • Students in forestry and environmental sciences.

Objectives

  • The importance of forests in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
  • The progressive changes in moving towards the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement, illustrate how this could be addressed in the forest sector.
  • The principles and elements which guide the design and operation of a sustainable National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS).
  • The importance of the NFMS to meet the requirement of the modalities, procedures and guidelines of the ETF.

Contents

The course consists:

  • Lesson 1  – The Enhanced Transparency Framework and Forests
  • Lesson 2  –  The National Forest Monitoring System
  • Lesson 3 – Forest data for the Enhanced Transparency Framework under the Paris Agreement

Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) – An indigenous peoples’ right and a good practice for local communities

Description

This course focuses on how to practically operationalize the indigenous peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) throughout all stages of the project cycle. The course describes each of the recommended six steps of the process and the related actions to be undertaken.

Audience

The course is primarily intended for professionals directly engaged in the development and implementation of projects involving indigenous peoples. In particular, the following individuals would particularly benefit from taking the course: Project managers; Project designers; Trainers; Social mobilizers.

Objectives

  • What is Free, Prior, and Informed Consent
  • Understand the regulatory framework and the importance of indigenous peoples’ rights
  • Build the required skills to seek FPIC and mainstream it through each phase of the project cycle
  • How to roll out each of the steps of the FPIC process

Contents

The course consists of 8 lessons:

  • Lesson 1 – Fundamentals of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC)
  • Lesson 2 – Identifying indigenous peoples concerned and their representatives
  • Lesson 3 – Conduct participatory mapping
  • Lesson 4 – Preparing a participatory communication plan
  • Lesson 5 – Reaching consent
  • Lesson 6 – Conducting participatory monitoring and evaluation
  • Lesson 7 – Documenting lesson learned and achievements
  • Lesson 8 – Reflecting FPIC in your organization

Addressing Corruption in the Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests

Description

This course provides an overview of corrupt practices in the tenure sector. It analyses the drivers and impact of corruption on the livelihoods and food security of poor and vulnerable people. It also introduces a series of options and tools that key players, including states, organizations and citizens can utilize to identify, assess and tackle corruption.

Audience

The curriculum primarily addresses “change agents” – i.e. people who can have a direct impact by introducing changes in how tenure is governed. They include national policy makers and administrators, surveyors, trainers, legal support providers, civil society and non-governmental organizations, advocacy, control and monitoring professionals.

Objectives

  • Most common forms of corruption in the tenure of land, fisheries, and forests
  • Drivers and impact of corruption on economy, society and environment
  • Tools to assess corruption
  • Examples of anti-corruption measures
  • Roles of UN agencies, governments, CSOs, private sector and media in tackling corruption

Contents

The course consists of:

  • Lesson 1 – Corruption in the Tenure of Natural Resources
  • Lesson 2 – Tackling Corruption

International Training on Participatory Forest Management

Description

The 10-day training workshop on participatory forest management combines six days of theory and group work with an integrated one full-day excursion. The theoretical training will be concentrated on lectures and exercises on participatory management, as well as systematic reflection and analysis of the field trips. The training will take participants to various forestry institutions as well as on-site to forests representing the different landscapes of Kenya.

Conceptionally, participatory forest management is defined as the various ways of stakeholder involvement in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a variety of forest management activities. It was stressed that a precondition for sustainable land use planning is a mutual situational analysis particularly with respect to analysis of forest policies.

Objectives

The training aims at building capacities of trainees – theoretical and methodological knowledge and skills – in the fields of participatory forest management (PFM) with the purpose of using the new skills in the development of forest management planning.

The course has four main focuses:

    • The principles of participation in the field of forest management were discussed initially and during the whole course with a specific emphasis on critically analyzing the African solutions. Participation will be practiced during the course itself insofar as trainees are involved in fine-tuning the program and setting priorities;
    • Participatory planning is exemplified by introducing/reiterating the logical framework approach and exemplarily planning and discussing a practice-relevant project over the whole training period.
    • Implementation of participatory forest management is shown and observed via practical examples in Africa. Participants will have an opportunity to informally interview practitioners.
    • Evaluation: Both, the principles of M&E as well as basic instruments, such as the SWOT-analysis, will be covered. Examples from the African practice were reflected and evaluated.

Course Contents

  • Participatory Forest Management (PFM)
  • The concept of participation
  • Logical Framework and the Role of Stakeholders
  • Climate Change and Adaptation of Forest management: Support of Decision Making in Policy and Administration
  • Urban Forestry
  • Good governance of forestry programmes
  • Negotiation: The Harvard Concept

Responsible Forest Management and Sustainable Forest Product Supply Chains’ Training Course

Description

We’ve developed a number of courses under our ‘Excellence for Forests’ programme to support forest managers, responsible forest management professionals, NGOs, government and academia

The ‘Responsible Forest Management and Sustainable Forest Product Supply Chains’ training course is designed to assist policy-makers, NGOs, forest managers, supply chain professionals, consultants, certification auditors, and graduates – including those working in the most challenging regions – Our courses are designed to improve knowledge and understanding of the pressures on the world’s forests, their vital importance for humanity and some of the forest governance, responsible forest management and sustainable forest products supply chains interventions that can help.

The course will assist with:

  • Awareness of the context that drives deforestation, poor forest management practices and unsustainable supply chains
  • Understanding the features of good forest governance, responsible forest management and sustainable forest product supply chains
  • Market and legality issues for responsibly produced forest products
  • Protecting high conservation values, biodiversity, water resources and soils
  • Social responsibility to indigenous peoples, local communities and those employed in the forest sector
  • Voluntary forestry standards, certification and assessment/auditing

The course will help participants to achieve this by:

  • Looking at the global issues affecting forests and the latest developments in responsible forest management thinking
  • Considering, in detail, the different components that make up responsible forest management
  • Focusing on the role of voluntary forestry standards and certification as practical performance management tools for assessing responsible forest management
  • Using a mixture of e-learning, residential training, site visits and peer-to-peer networking

FOREST CERTIFICATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Description

Forest Certification and Climate Change is an online mini-course designed to provide learners with a robust understanding of forest land values and ecologic services linking carbon management and climate change mitigation activities with forest certification.

What You Will Gain:

  • Valuing working forests for carbon sequestration
  • Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in forest certification standards
  • Climate benefits for forest certification in wood products
  • Distinguishing climate benefits in the chain of custody standards
  • Ensuring climate values of harvested wood products (HWPs) through certification

This course was designed with landowners, natural resource professionals, conservationists, educators, and extension agents in mind. However, all interested individuals are invited to register.

Intended Audience:

  • Landowners
  • Natural Resource Professionals
  • Conservationists
  • Educators
  • Extension Agents

Understanding Forest Carbon Management

Description

This in-depth short course provides a robust overview to the connections between forests, climate, and human decision-making. The course builds confidence in foundational science, unpacks land management specific to carbon (including carbon crediting and other initiatives) and offers action paths for various decisions. The content is highly interdisciplinary and strives to build shared understanding for diverse professionals.

Topic areas include carbon cycle and storage science, domestic and international policies, forest carbon credits and initiatives, management considerations, carbon measurement, and available tools and support.

The course runs asynchronously, allowing learners to work at their own pace, and includes structured modules, downloadable handouts, and guided assessments. A practical approach allows participants to build an intuitive understanding of the main components of this increasingly important topic.

Intended Audience

  • Natural resource professionals; Extension agents
  • All interested individuals are invited to participate

Carbon Measurement and Monitoring

Description

Forests play an important role in regulating the climate of the Earth. Deforestation accounts for a substantial percentage of global carbon emissions (about 10 to 18 %).

Forests play an important role in regulating the climate of the Earth. Deforestation accounts for a substantial percentage of global carbon emissions (about 10 to 18 %). Increasing forest area and avoiding deforestation and forest degradation are key components of climate change mitigation. The UNFCCC has called for transparent, reliable and accurate inventories of carbon emissions and stocks at regional and national scales from all signatory countries as a first step towards climate mitigation. National carbon inventories rely on the integration of field measurements, remote sensing data and models. International efforts such as REDD+ and various carbon markets are being developed which allow developing nations to benefit financially from avoided emissions from deforestation or forest degradation as long as these can be quantified.

Apart from the overview of forest carbon stocks and change, this module provides methodologies for forest carbon measurement and monitoring.

Purpose

To provide students with necessary, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS and ATTITDUES (KSA) on the roles of forests in climate change mitigation, forest carbon stocks, carbon measurement methods and monitoring.

Course Contents

Carbon Measurement and Monitoring course consist of five sections, each including multiple relevant topics:

  • CMM General Information
  • Overview of Climate Change and Forest Carbon
  • Forest Carbon Stocks and Change
  • Carbon Measurement and Monitoring Design
  • Carbon Stock Measurement Methods
  • National Scale Monitoring Systems

Target groups

  • Undergraduate and postgraduate students
  • Governmental managers, planners, and policymakers at different levels
  • NGO practitioners and natural resources professionals.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the module, learners will be able to:

  • Identify the roles of forests in climate change and that of international efforts to mitigate climate change.
  • Explain forest carbon stocks, the geographic and climatic constraints on forest carbon, and the drivers of change in forest carbon.
  • Apply the theoretical issues of and practical methods for measuring and
  • monitoring forest carbon, including statistical approaches, sampling design, and operational protocols.
  • Integrate map and field-based measures to generate forest carbon stocks and emissions at plot to national scales using an IPCC framework
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