Top 20 Questions
We are pleased to publish the top 20 priority questions for forestry and landscapes. Thank you to everyone who took part.
The T20Q project – funded by CIFOR and supported by many partners during 2014 – set out to collect policy-relevant questions relating to forestry and landscapes, as a first step towards support systematic reviews in these subjects. It was designed to work in two phases; firstly to crowd-source questions, and secondly to ask respondents to rank these. The audience was intended to be global, supported by partners with world-wide reach, and the survey was translated into multiple languages.
In the first phase 502 people submitted 2859 questions. Respondents came from over 100 countries. Questions received were coded with up to three keywords, allowing their grouping into clusters of terms or ‘themes’. In the second phase ‒ where questions were ranked ‒ 818 respondents (many of whom were thought to be new respondents) took part.
The top twenty questions
Here is the list of twenty priority questions derived from the process (where 1 is highest ranked):
- How can degraded ecosystems be restored to meet the objectives of biodiversity conservation, ecosystem function, ecosystem resilience, and sustainability of rural livelihoods?
- In the context of high human density and scarcity of farming land, how can we address the question of sustainable management of tropical forests? [Dans un contexte de forte densité humaine et de rareté des terres arables, comment peut-on aborder la question de gestion durable des forêts tropicales?]
- How can we integrate sustainability into trade regulation and law?
- How can we develop models of forest restoration that are economically feasible?
- Can we develop practical tools that allow land-planning and forest management to be better tailored to the needs, culture and perceptions of different communities and locations?
- What are the implications for biodiversity and the environment of using afforestation as a mean of carbon mitigation?
- How do we make sure that the needs of indigenous people who rely on intact forest systems are being met while also providing wood products for economic growth?
- How is it possible to develop a sustainable mechanism for payments for ecosystem services?
- What are the institutional arrangements that might enable smallholders within a landscape to jointly market the ecosystems services provided by reforestation of some of their land?
- How can we improve agriculture to reduce the pressure in forested areas?
- How can we best select species that simultaneously provide ecological and economic benefits?
- What are the best means to ensure that forest/landscape restoration projects add value to the landscape in terms of connectivity between populations and habitats, facilitating gene flow, species migration, as well as complementarity of land-uses and livelihoods of local people?
- How can local knowledge, wisdom and experiences (e.g. on tree species, NTFPs [non-timber forest products]) be effectively combined with national and subnational forest assessment, monitoring and management efforts?
- How can we guarantee effective protection and conservation of environmental services in a world increasingly in need of raw materials at low cost? [¿De que manera puede garantizarse la protección y conservación efectiva de los servicios ambientales en un mundo cada vez más tensionado por la necesidad de materias primas a bajo coste?]
- Adaptation to climate change means answering to trends in future climate and also to increasing risks. These two aspects are often studied separately when they should be combined. How to combine them?
- Can we really use ecosystem service values as a method to value a whole landscape?
- How can inclusive forest and landscape management be enhanced for the resource-poor?
- How can farmers get money from biodiversity conservation?
- How can we maintain, restore and shape water-friendly landscapes, including forests and trees, while addressing partly-conflicting land use and water needs of all stakeholders of a landscape?
- How can we ensure that forests are for the benefit of local economies and forests are not grabbed for the benefit of some foreign company?
Whether you took part or not, we would welcome any comments here on the blog about the final 20 questions, and of course the process as a whole.
Visit the T20Q project website
