Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs)

Downloaded Documents:

1. IFL side event global introduction by Pasi
2. IFL Talk _GA FSC CA_Oct. 9_short
3. FSC_IFL’s_ Russia_GA side event
4. IFL side event Congo Basin update-Mathieu
5. Update_FSC Brazil_SideEvent_IFL_October 2017_final – Aline Tristao
6. Imaflora IFL Meeting FSC GA 2017
7. FPICIFLs_FSCGA_oct2017
8. Tim Rayden WCS Minimising impacts V1

Room: SPB 2

Intact Forest Landscapes require the consideration of their political, economic, cultural, social and environmental importance. The protection of intact forest landscapes (IFLs) has gained much attention since our last General Assembly in Seville in 2014. Main issues in Intact Forest Landscapes concern the integrity, intactness, cultural and indigenous use and biodiversity of these forests.

IFLs are to a certain extend a game-changer for FSC: a landscape approach requires to look wider than the forest areas itself, and calls for the integration of other surrounding landscape elements of which the forest area is part. It calls for definitions (what do we mean by intact?), dimensions of landscapes, the values of landscapes we are trying to protect, the engagement of Indigenous Peoples, the roles  in landscapes of other sectors  than the forest sector (such as the agricultural sector). It also requires consideration of regional diversity versus global coherence in identifying and managing a forest landscape.

A two way approach to work on IFLs is developed in FSC.

Standard setting addressing the regionally specific issues is under development, especially in the Amazon, Congo Basin, Canada and Russia as main regional prioritized forest areas. Advice notes considering the regional diversity and input from stakeholders supplement the approach taken and guide the global consistency.

In addition to standard setting, a hosted expert-dialogue platform was established identifying effective political and strategic approaches to protecting and managing IFLs. The intact forest landscape discussion does not belong to FSC alone. It is inherently multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder and multi-dimensional. Land use in IFLs is an issue that fundamentally concerns governments, Indigenous Peoples, certificate holders, tenure holders in other sectors, various stakeholder groups, and experts from other organizations.

The majority of participants of the IFL Solution Forum are directly involved stakeholders: affected certificate holders, directly involved environmental groups, indigenous peoples, governments, researchers etc. The purpose is to identify effective political and strategic approaches to protecting and managing IFLs, while considering their political, economic, cultural, social and environmental importance.