Report structure, methodology and data sources

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1.1 Background

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are now higher than at any time during the past 15 million years World Bank, 2012. With global greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise 2 Herzog, 2009; UNEP, 2012 and existing international commitments on emissions reductions falling short of the level needed to limit global temperature increases within 2°C, temperature rise between 3° and 4°C is increasingly likely World Bank, 2012; UNEP, 2012. Southeast Asia is expected not only to experience greater increases in temperatures but also increased incidence of tropical storms, sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion and water scarcity and excess than any other region World Bank, 2013. Recent projections suggest that parts of the Mekong River Basin may endure average temperature increases of 3°–5°C by 2050 Mekong ARCC, 2013. Millions of people in Southeast Asia rely on forests for their livelihoods Angelsen, 2011; Poffenberger, 2006. Forests are also important for climate change mitigation and provide goods and services that enable communities to increase their resillience to the impacts of climate change. The governments of ASEAN countrieshave recognized the importance of forests and the role of local people in sustainable forest management. Social or community forestry has become a feature of forest management policies and programmes in most ASEAN countries. In 2010, RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests, with support from the ASEAN Social Forestry Network, published a baseline assessment of the role of social forestry in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the ASEAN region. 3 The assessment brought together national and regional data on forests and social forestry and proved to be of great value to decision-makers, donors and civil society organizations working on social forestry. Three years on, there is impetus to update that information to better benefit forthcoming decision-making processes and programme development. This publication thus provides an overview of social forestry in the ASEAN region in 2013, focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The report compiles the most recently available government data on forest area, forest cover and social and community forestry and describes the social forestry models and the main tenure arrangements across the region. It also brings together data and projected trends on climatic changes in the region, including sea-level rise, temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and extreme weather events in each country covered. As with the 2010 baseline study, this assessment focuses on eight ASEAN countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia particularly Sabah state, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. 4

1.2 Report structure, methodology and data sources

The report is presented in four chapters. This first chapter introduces the concepts of social forestry and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Chapter 2 presents the 2013 data on forests and social forestry in ASEAN and an overview of the social forestry models across the region. Chapter 3 summarizes the current and projected climatic changes in the region, and chapter 4 details the social forestry and climate change dynamics by country. The information presented in this assessment was gathered through desk-based research and review of national laws and policies, technical reports and other relevant materials. The national statistics and forest information are based on data from forestry departments in each country unless otherwise noted, which were provided by members of the ASEAN–Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change ASFCC Learning Group on Social Forestry in early 2013. 5 The report thus differs from the 2010 baseline assessment, which used data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation FAO 2010 assessment of global forest resources. 6 The approach used in 2010 baseline assessment, however, presents some difficulties for making comparisons: 1. Some governments use different definitions of forest and include different types of forest in their assessments of forest cover. The forest data provided by some governments is not always directly comparable. 2. Due to the different definitions of forest and minimum canopy thresholds used in the global assessment and by some governments, data presented in the 2010 baseline assessment is not always directly comparable with the data 2 Total global emissions grew by 12.7 percent between 2000 and 2005, an average of 2.4 percent a year. In 2005 the most recent year for which comprehensive emissions data are available for every major sector, total greenhouse gases were estimated at 44,153 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent Herzog, 2009. 3 The baseline assessment report is available at www.recoftc.orgsiteresourcesThe-Role-of-Social-Forestry-in-Climate-Change-Mitigation-and-Adaptation-in- the-ASEAN-Region.php 4 Brunei Darussalam and Singapore do not have significant social forestry programmes. 5 The 2010 FAO global forest resource assessment data were used for Singapore. Data for Brunei Darussalam was extracted from the Brunei Forest Department website. Where recent national data is not available, such as rates of forest cover change and forest carbon stocks, the FAO 2010 data is also used. 6 Data from both the main report and country reports; see FAO, 2010a, b, c, d, e and f. 2 presented in this current assessment. Some variations in the 2010 and 2013 data reflect the different definitions and methods of data collection used rather than actual changes on the ground. These definitional challenges are discussed further in section 2.1 of this report. Despite the difficulty for comparisons, the data presented in this report provides stakeholders with a current snapshot of social forestry in the region and highlights progress made in recent years. The report should be of value for policy-makers and practitioners engaged in social forestry programmes as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives at the local level.

1.3 The ASEAN region