Photo by flickr/artwerk

Resources

Key documents

• VERIFOR Briefing Paper 5 - Ownership in relation to the Design of Verification Systems (PDF, 658kb)
• Presentation to VERIFOR Experts Meeting on Ownership, April 2006 (PDF, 110kb)

Much of the current debate around verification in the forest sector emphasises the concept of ‘ownership’ as a pre-requisite for long-term sustainability of the system and its robustness in dealing with change. Dictionary definitions of ownership emphasise the ability to ‘control and use for one’s purposes’ as an important feature of ownership. In this sense ‘ownership’ encompasses more than ‘participation in’ or ‘support for’.

VERIFOR views ‘ownership’ as the ‘active support to and ability to control’ the objectives, process and outcomes of the verification system. This implies that relevant constituents have a stake in the system, that they are interested in the outcomes, and that they are willing to support the process and to be bound by the results, in other words the verification systems are:

• are nationally driven in term of objectives and motivations;
• reflect national perspectives;
• complement the structure of national institutions and processes;
• match available national expertise, capacity and resources;
• serve the interests of a broad range of public actors and therefore be designed through participatory and inclusive processes with contributions from a diversity of sources; and
• incorporate principles of accountability and
  transparency in its implementation.

Key areas of debate
- see resources for full discussion

• The relationship between the objectives of the verification system and levels of ownership.
• How to generate wide state ownership.
• The relationship between government ownership and ‘public’ ownership.
• The importance of robust institutions to encourage participation and ownership.
• The processes and importance of developing ownership.
• The relationship between ownership and interests.