
| | Digest No. 1170 | 19 May 2015 | Discussion 114 |
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| Social protection for building resilience of forest dependent people | until 4 June 2015 | 
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| Dear Colleagues, The online discussion on the role of social protection in promoting and protecting the livelihood of forest-dependent people kicked off and we share below the highlights as well as the feedback by Nyasha, the facilitator. Participants so far focused particularly on vulnerabilities of forest dependent people. Are there examples of social protection tools targeting forest-dependent people and promoting sustainable management of forests? Your contributions will help the preparation of a report for the event on “Social protection for building resilience of forest dependent people” that will take place at the XIV World Forestry Congress (WFC) in Durban, South Africa in September. Please read the introduction and questions on the FSN Forum website in English, French and Spanish. Your FSN Forum Team |
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Nyasha Tirivayi, UNI-MERIT (United Nations University), Netherlands
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Dear participants,
This week we will try and focus on the role of social protection instruments in forestry. You may wish to consider discussing the third question: Which countries have social protection instruments and programmes that: | 
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· target forest-dependent people? · are implemented with the aim of promoting sustainable forestry among the poor? · are integrated with sustainable forest management programmes? Tips: Give information on social protection need, social protection program objectives, design, target group and effectiveness regarding resilience. I would like to draw your attention to a background document on social protection. Among the discussion documents on the top right corner of this webpage is a background document that introduces and defines social protection and the key instruments such as cash transfers, food assistance/aid, school feeding, subsidies, public works etc. Some famous examples of social protection programs include the Productive Safety Net Program (public works) in Ethiopia, Opportunidades Conditional Cash Tranfer program in Mexico, Cash transfers for orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya, Bolsa Familia in Brazil, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA public works) in India and many more. […] Click here to read Nyasha's summary of the contributions received until now. |
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| Maruthi Vegapareddy, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, India
| Maruthi calls for incorporating more information and communication technology into forest management and raise awareness on it among forest dependent people. [...] Read Maruthi's contribution |

| Dosse Sossouga, Amis des Etrangers au Togo (ADET), Togo
| Dosse responds to the questions proposed raising issues around the weak and ineffective implementation of forest policies. [...] Read Dosse's contribution |

| Subhash Chand, ICAR, India
| Subhash warns against policies that are putting at risk the livelihoods of forest dependent communities. [...] Read Chand's contribution |

| Moises David Rojas, Inspector MIC, Dominican Republic
| Moises presents the evolution of forest policies in his country and suggests how social protection interventions in support of forest dependent people should look like. [...] Read Moises' contribution |

| Santosh Kumar Mishra, Population Education Resource Centre (PERC), India
| Santosh elaborates on the questions focusing in particular on the evolution of forest policies over the past decades. [...] Read Santosh's contribution |

| Driss Ezzine De Blas, CIRAD, France
| Driss shares an interesting insight from Yucatàn, Mexico, where in the absence of healthcare and social protection systems, forests are used by farmers as a risk coping strategy: they sell their plots to raise cash to cover medical expenses. [...] Read Driss Ezzine's contribution |

| Emile Houngbo, Agricultural University of Ketou (UAK), Benin
| Emile's contribution presents highlights on forests challenges and threats in Benin and elaborates on how the livelihoods of forest dependent people should be supported while ensuring sustainable management of forests resources. [...] Read Emile's contribution |
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