WCERE2018: On Monday, June 25, the EfD Forest Collaborative research program held its third biannual meeting at the University of Gothenburg, just before the start of the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE).
The Forest Collaborative´s goal is to create a community of practice comprised of EfD researchers, select non-EfD researchers, and other key stakeholders in order to increase the quality of, quantity of, and funding for EfD-affiliated forestry-related research. In practice, the FC focuses on two activities: providing constructive feedback on members’ ongoing research, and collaborating on joint research products such as edited volumes and special issues of peer reviewed journals.
Twenty-five people attended the June 25 meeting, including researchers from 6 EfD centers, and from CIDE, Colorado State University, Duke University, IADB, INRA, Motu Research Institute, Ohio State University, Portland State University, University of Gothenburg, University of Illinois, and the World Bank. Most of the day was devoted to 19 presentations of work-in-progress by FC members. Presentations were organized into sessions on: (i) payments for environmental services, protected areas, and forest transitions; (ii) managed and urban forests, and (iii) decentralization of forest governance authority. In addition, we spent a couple of hours discussing our first joint research product, a special issue of World Development on decentralization of forest governance authority, which is scheduled to appear in the first semester of 2019, and on selecting a topic and format for a second research product. Based on our discussion, the most likely new topic is how efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) affect forests, and in particular, how they results in tradeoffs and synergies.
Future work will focus on continuing to build our community, completing the World Development Special Issue, formalizing plans for a second research product, establishing ties to policy makers, hiring an administrative assistant, and building our digital presence.
By: Allen Blackman