Financing sustainable small-scale forestry: policy issues and lessons from developing national forest financing strategies in Latin America

This policy brief reviews some issues and shares some lessons from efforts to finance Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), particularly when carried out by local communities, indigenous groups and small forest owners. In particular, it reflects on the findings from a regional knowledge-sharing initiative and from FAO and its partners’ ongoing work in support of national forest financing strategies in various countries. These results are linked to the opportunities and challenges that arise from carbon-based forest financing (e.g. Clean Development Mechanism Afforestation/Reforestation (CDM A/R); reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD+)).