Larry A. Fisher

The science of decisionmaking: applications for sustainable forest and grassland management in the National Forest System

Sustainable management of national forests and grasslands within the National Forest System (NFS) often requires managers to make tough decisions under considerable uncertainty, complexity, and potential conflict. Resource decisionmakers must weigh a variety of risks, stressors, and challenges to sustainable management, including climate change, wildland fire, invasive species, insects, pests, diseases, demographic shifts, economic conditions, and changing societal values. The craft of natural resource decisionmaking will demand more adaptive qualities in the future and a more flexible toolkit. In light of these current and emerging challenges and the need for science delivery to keep pace with advancements in the disciplines of decision science and risk management, now is a good time to refocus on supporting and enhancing natural resource management decisionmaking. The science of decisionmaking can provide managers with useful concepts and tools to address risks, stressors, and challenges and to achieve desirable outcomes.

Promises and perils of decentralized forest governance: the case of Indonesia’s Forest Management Units in Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+)

Indonesias forest management unit (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan or KPH) system can be a promising mechanism for balancing international and national interests for global carbon mitigation initiatives with local interests in project implementation. We discuss the potential role of the KPH system in implementing REDD+ (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects and improving decentralized forest governance. Substantial financial gains from international initiatives like REDD+ and others can provide appropriate motivation for the central government to ensure successful decentralization of forest management. Development and implementation of REDD+ activities can also support the KPHs in performing their basic functions: conducting forest inventory, developing and implementing forest management plans, and strengthening communication and coordination with local communities. However, engaging indigenous peoples and local communities, which is a legal mandate for the system, will require building some measure of democratic process that can hold the KPHs accountable to local people.

Branding K-REDD+ and its implications for South Korea's middle power diplomacy

ABSTRACT The need for new and stronger middle power diplomacy is growing as global challenges are increasingly governed by various horizontal inter- and trans-national networks. Climate change is one of the most complex and urgent global challenges that require collective action, and it is an issue for which more middle power leadership is greatly needed. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has been successful in becoming a primary actor in green growth governance, and its success has been attributed to its strategic middlepowermanship, integrating both material and ideational contents. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in tropical developing countries has been lauded as an immediate and effective solution to mitigate climate change. ROKs unique history of forest transition before rapid economic growth highlights the fact that improving forest management is possible even with imperfect governance, rapid population growth, and low economic development. The lessons learned from ROKs forest transition can be developed as a distinct contribution to the international effort to address forest-related impacts on climate change, and offer an important opportunity for ROK to play a constructive role and achieve enhanced stature within the international community.