Photo by flickr/mk1963

Resources

Key documents

• VERIFOR Briefing Paper 2 - On Independence in Verification Work (PDF, 439kb)
• VERIFOR Briefing Paper 4 - Independent monitoring of the FLEGT Timber Legality Assurance System: Thinking Outside the Box (PDF, 306kb)
• VERIFOR Options Paper 1 - Strategies for Independent Monitoring (PDF, 443kb)
• Presentation to VERIFOR Experts Meeting on Independence, April 2006 (PDF, 114kb)

See also

• ODI Forestry Briefing 5 - Forest law enforcement & governance: The role of independent monitors in the control of forest crime, June 2004.
• Independent Forest Monitoring Bibliography

A common feature of most global conventions, international agreements and audit processes is the definition of clear rules by which to establish the independence of actors at key nodes in the verification system. Significant resources are expended in establishing these standards and on ensuring that they are met. However, this is a much less well developed principle in the forest sector. Given the diverse and often conflicting nature of the global and national values that forests represent, and the severe governance problems common in forest-rich societies, this arena therefore tends to be a highly contested one.

VERIFOR is investigating how independence be brought into the verification process, in ways that are compatible with national sovereignty, yet ensure that element of detachment which the global public goods dimensions require. It has done this by unpacking the notion of ‘independence’ in verification, and identifying its main constituent elements.

Key areas of debate
- see resources for full discussion

Where the principle of verification is not yet established as of general utility, there are strong grounds to support a widening of the discussion of verification practice beyond the confines of donor supported independent forest monitoring (IFM). IFM is one step in the verification sequence but has been the major focus of recent thinking in the forest sector.

Two concerns emerge as critical:

• The steps which all actors need to take to safeguard their independence.
• The steps which governments and their partners need to take to ensure long-term transparency and accountability, in relation to the information generated by independent verifiers.

An interesting question raised is whether verification practice would benefit from the consistent application of sets of management and service standards specific to the sector, and shared between its practitioners.