‘Evidence-based forestry’: Constructing bridges that connect science,

policy and practice

Gillian PetrokofskyUniversity of Oxford

gillian.petrokofsky@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Global Landscapes Forum, Warsaw, 16-17 November, 2013

Technical & Networking Session: Knowledge for impact: How to bridge the gap between science, policy and action to achieve complex climate and sustainable development goal

Long-term Ecology & Resource Stewardship Group

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The policy context: influence

Source: Farming First http://www.farmingfirst.org/unfccc-toolkit-how-to-use/

• What ‘facts’?• What data?• How reliable are they?• What about bias?

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The policy context: knowledge

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Source: Petrokofsky, 2011

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The policy context: forestry and the ‘bigger-picture’

• Political relevance

• Credible science

• Collaboration

Poverty

Food security

Climate change

Biodiversity

Green economy

Sustainable Development ‘Big 5’

“For

estr

y”Source: Holmgren 2013

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Evidence-Based Forestry: a model from medicine

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Why not a collaboration for forestry and landscape management?

PartnersCIFOR, ICRAF, IUFRO,

CATIE, CIRAD, University

of Oxford

• CIFOR leads initial phase,

including capacity

building

• DFID provides inititial

funding

The collaboration draws from examples in other sectors1987 Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health medicine1988 Centre for the Study of Learning performance (Canada) education

1993 Cochrane Collaboration medicine

1993 EPPI Centre (UK) social policy

1994 Centre for Review & Dissemination (UK) medicine

1995 Joanna Briggs Institute (Australia) medicine

1995 Blueprints for Violence Prevention (USA) crime & justice1999 Center for Evaluation Research & Methodology (USA) crime & justice

2000 Campbell Collaboration Social policies

2003 Centre for Evidence-based Conservation environment

2007 Collaboration for Environemntal Evidence environment

2009 3iEinternational development

2013 EBF - CIFOR & Partners forestry

Systematic reviews: “gold standard” in these collaborations16/11/2013

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Objectives of Evidence-Based Forestry initiative

• Conduct systematic reviews in forestry and landscape management

• Identify priority questions for review and policy development

• Promote good practice in establishing robust evidence bases landscape management (including forestry)

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Systematic Reviews: key tools

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1. Question framing• Policy-relevance• Involves stakeholders• Define what is to be

examined and how

2. Rigorous review methodology• Comprehensive• Transparent • Repeatable

3. Engage wider community with findings• policy makers• academics• stakeholders

Active dissemination

of results

Systematic evaluation

of evidence

Systematic Reviews: a collaborative process

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Policy-relevant question Commitment to

update

Source Petrokofsky et al., 2010

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Steps of a systematic review

1 Formulate the problem and register

title

2 Write the protocol, submit for peer-review,

publish

3 Locate and select studies

4 Appraisestudies for risk of bias

5 Collect and extract data

6 Analyse data and present the

results

7 Interpret the results

8 Complete the review, submit for

peer-review & publish

9 Update the review

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and systematic map

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Evidence based forestry (EBF) initiative: progress to date

• EBF Steering Committee• EBF support group (Wen Zhou & Jessica Clendenning), CIFOR • 2013 work-plan• 1st tranche of CIFOR-led reviews underway:• Events to promote awareness of EBF Initiative &

collect ideas for reviews• Call for proposals for new review – DG, CIFOR

(November 2013)• Development of resources cifor.org/ebf

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• What are the environmental impacts of different property regimes in forests, fisheries, and rangelands?

• Are alternative livelihood projects effective at reducing local threats to defined elements of biodiversity and/or improving or maintaining the conservation status of those elements?

• Forests sustaining agriculture: the contribution of forest-based ecosystem services to agricultural production.

• How does gender affect the use and access of assets (forests, land, information, knowledge) on household food and nutrition security?

• What is the potential role of land use change dynamics in Miombo woodlands in relation to REDD+?

• What are appropriate criteria and indicators for defining and measuring transdisciplinary research quality in natural resources management research?

Ongoing reviews

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Workshop(s) Online

from the literatur

e

from online

surveys

from ‘experts

’

Phase 2: grouping

Phase 1: review questions collected

Phase 3: prioritising

Priority Questions

Phase 4: validating

Coming soon T20Q – Get involved!what do YOU think are high-priority questions?

T20Q (Top Twenty Questions For Forestry) uses an iterative internet survey approach coupled with workshops and the use of a Delphi group to determine a set of priority questions for:• systematic review• policy development

Will use previously successful methodology- ecology, forestry, agriculture examples.

EBF Steering Committee endorsed and will promote actively.

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Session questions and EBF

• What makes knowledge generation and uptake successful?• What are some of the barriers to sharing knowledge about landscapes?• How well do we know what other people

need to know?• What are some of the tools we can use to

listen and design more effective knowledge products and pathways?

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Thank you for listening!