Kenneth M. Chomitz, senior advisor to the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group, on Wednesday launched a report on farm expansion, poverty eradication and forestry titled In Dispute.
After the launch, Chomitz addressed 70 researchers who were taking part in a seminar on forestry management and carbon trading investment held by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at its office in Situ Gede, Bogor.
The report, he said, would help decision makers in identifying types of forest and the most effective policies to ensure their conservation and sustainability while eradicating poverty.
According to him, for the first type of forest -- one that borders on agricultural land in dispute -- decision makers should be able to guarantee people access to the forest in order to avoid illegal logging and conflict.
For the second type, which is situated outside agricultural land such as in the basin of the Amazon, the Congo, Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Sulawesi, the government should take firm action to halt farm expansion that may damage the forest.
In the mosaic type of forest -- where people farm and live in the forest -- the report suggests the provision of incentives for people to protect the forest, a practice that has been implemented in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
"It is wrong to generalize that the motive of deforestation is poverty and that deforestation leads to poverty ... We found that deforestation is caused by both the rich and the poor, and that it could destroy or establish assets for the poor," Chomitz said. -- JP
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