TBI objectives and approach

TBI's overall objective

TBI's overall objective - improving forest management for the benefit of people, conservation and sustainable development - emphasizes the role of people. A better forest management should benefit people. People who live in or near forests and depend on forest and forest resources for their livelihood, but also those who depend on forests for the environmental services they provide and whose employment and income depend directly or indirectly on the forest industry. This emphasis on people is important given the organization's wish to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals: eradicate poverty and ensure environmental sustainability.

The emphasis on people has another reason as well. It comes from the recognition that people play a key role in forest management. They are not just beneficiaries of the products and services that forests provide but they are also key actors whose problems and opportunities determine to a large extent the fate of forests. Initiatives designed to improve the use and conservation of forests therefore should specifically address their problems and opportunities and their participation - and ownership - in these initiatives is essential for its success.

TBI believes that any real, long term improvement in the use and conservation of forests requires strong institutions that regulate access and use of forests and organizations staffed with knowledgeable and well-trained people who identify and apply state-of-the-art information for the benefit of people and sustainable development.

TBI's institutional objective and strategy

The institutional objective of TBI - to increase knowledge, capacity and uptake to support sustainable forest management - reflects the evolution of the TBI's strategy to achieve its mission through research and capacity building.

Good forest policy and better forest use requires good information. Few will question this statement, but the reverse statement: good information leads to better forest use and good forest policy certainly will be met with raised eyebrows. Good information and knowledge will only lead to better forest use and forest policies if the research programme designed to generate this information and knowledge meets certain requirements:

Research should answer questions, solve problems or create opportunities that are identified by those who use the forest or those who are responsible for formulating policies or implementing them.
Also, the results obtained through research will be taken up only if they are actively and inter-actively targeted at or made available for those who need it or will benefit from it.

A good and relevant research programme therefore begins with the consultation of forest users and policy makers, followed by an analysis of the problems and opportunities that they identify, and finishes with tailor-made dissemination of its results.

A precondition that determines the effective uptake of research results is the existence of a properly functioning forest sector in the partner countries. Without such an enabling environment it is unlikely that information and knowledge, the product of good research, will benefit forest users and policy makers.

For that reason, TBI invites key forest users and policy makers to become members of the Bi-national steering committees in each of the countries where TBI is working. TBI operates as a platform for discussion and joint identification of priorities for the forest sector with emphasis on those that require information or institutional capacity. This general feature of the TBI programme ensures that the organization is well-connected with the forest sector and that the sector has a say in the governance and setting of objectives of each programme.

For institutions and organizations to function better, two things are important. First, organizations need good information that allow them to make better decisions on forest use and conservation, preferably in a well-established relation to regional development (plans), national forest programmes (NFPs) and national poverty reduction strategies (PRSPs). Secondly, organizations need staff capable of adequately identifying information needs, designing strategies to obtain such information through relevant research and using this information.

These insights are summarized in the following characteristics of TBI's strategy.

Local ownership of programme development,
Integration of research and capacity building,
Research targeted to the needs of forest users and policy makers, i.e. a development-oriented research agenda.
Capacity building in research relevant for forest users and policy makers
(Increased) emphasis on the uptake of the programme's findings by forest users and policy makers,
Partnership between southern and northern research organizations

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