TaylorCrabbe (TC) participated in the Forest Governance, Markets and Climate Programme (FGMC) Stakeholders Forum held at the Goodenough College, London on Wednesday, 27th April, and Thursday 28th April 2022. The FGMC Stakeholder’s Forum was organised by UKaid and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Stakeholder’s forum considered current trends and developments in forest governance and trade of forest products. The forum also considered broadly the activities of the FGMC for the past ten years, what has been achieved and the broad frameworks for the next programme cycle of 2022 to 2032.
The Plenary session for the forum started with keynote speeches and scene which centred on the role of public policy in reversing forest loss. Lord Goldsmith, Minister for Pacific and the Environment at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Ghana’s Deputy High Commissioner to the UK and the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom delivered the keynote speeches. Relevant topics like trends and achievements in forest governance, land-use and trade, putting governance at the heart of sustainable land-use approaches, Focus on China (achievements and future directions), and focus on the FGMC programme were also discussed. On the regional fronts, deliberations on West Africa were primarily focused on the informal sector; Central Africa on forest rights; South East Asia on finance and investment in forest and land use; and Mekong also on cross-border trade in forest risk commodities.
Mr. Clement Akapame, a founding partner at TaylorCrabbe participated as a panellist in two sessions on “Trends and achievements in forest governance, land-use and trade and “Moving forward from Glasgow COP 26”. He shared Ghana’s experiences from the FLEGT VPA process and called for more producer country engagements on imminent new regulations on Forest Risk Commodities to ensure their effective implementation and successful outcomes.
FGMC seeks to provide grants for projects that support governance and market reforms aimed at reducing illegal use of forest resources and for the benefit of poor people. This objective form part of FGMC’s global effort towards improving forest management and tackling deforestation. Specifically, this grant supports global activities related to policy and legal reforms that eliminate illegal logging, promote legal trade and ensure rights and benefits for poor people and the local communities who depend solely on the forest for their livelihood. The FGMC restricted grant scheme funds activities of international Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and trade associations to enable them to support their national and international implementing partners, informal multi-stakeholder processes to address illegal logging and deforestation. Over the last ten years, the FGMC grants have been used to support activities such as enhanced advocacy and voice; built capacity for CSOs, trade federations and governments; provided research and evidence for policy development, legal reforms, and forest rights; supported enforcement, improved justice, transparency, monitoring, and whistle -blowing; and maintained a global ‘community of practice’ around illegal logging and associated governance issues.
