independent forest monitoring

Independent Forest Monitoring (IFM)

Our work with civil society groups in forest-rich countries to engage with policy makers to improve access to information and advocate for capable, responsive and accountable forest sector governance – including through IFM.

Our work with civil society groups in forest-rich countries to engage with policy makers to improve access to information and advocate for capable, responsive and accountable forest sector governance – including through IFM.

Global Witness pioneered IFM between 1999 and 2008, through which we promoted cooperation between governments, civil society, and the private sector in timber-producing countries such as Cambodia, Cameroon, Honduras and Nicaragua.

IFM entails the use of an independent third party that, by agreement with state authorities, provides an assessment of legal compliance, and observation of and guidance on official forest law enforcement systems (see our Guide to IFM).

Between 2009 and 2012 we continued working with local activist groups in Latin America and Africa, piloting a report card approach to assess public access to forest information.

Alongside this, we used our IFM expertise to develop the concept of Independent Monitoring of REDD (IM-REDD), advocating it as a core building block in the overall REDD+ architecture.
  • Campaign

    Forest transparency

    Making the Forest Sector Transparent was a four year project that supported civil society groups in forest-rich countries to engage with policy makers and advocate for accountable forest sector governance.
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