Tropentag 2023, September 20 - 22, Berlin, Germany "Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation: trade-offs and synergies."

A policy mix for achieving ambitious goals on forest landscape restoration: analysing coherence and consistency in Ethiopia forest-related policy

Technical University of Dresden, Inst. of International Forestry and Forest Products, Germany

Abstract

As a result of the rising global trends of land degradation and deforestation, the concept of forest landscape restoration (FLR) has gained worldwide recognition as an approach that complements cross-sectoral integration and aims to restore multiple forest ecosystem services across a wider landscape. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how to integrate this approach with previous and existing policy domains, which creates challenges for policy design that could lead to conflicting goals and inconsistent use of policy instruments. The objective of this study is to present new methodologies for analysing the FLR policy mix, given the growing complexity of the policy design problem in Ethiopia. A cross-impact matrix (CIM) methodology is applied to assess the coherence of goals and consistency of instruments in the FLR. Thus, eleven major goals, and forty-six policy instruments (regulatory, economic, procedural, and information) were identified in the forestry, agriculture, climate, and mining sectors. The result demonstrates varying levels of consistency and coherence between goals and instruments in the FLR policy mix. Thus, consistent economic instruments like reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) create a positive and conducive environment to implement other instruments. Whereas inconsistent regulatory instruments like the acquisition and use of rural land have shown negative rippled effects throughout the system. We conclude that a comprehensive methodological approach is crucial to get an optimal outcome from the FLR policy mix. We argue that our methodological approach could be used elsewhere for similar studies to better design and manage policy instrument mix and coherence of FLR-related policy goals.

Keywords: Consistency, cross-impact matrix, cross-sectoral integration, forest landscape restoration, policy instruments, policy mix

Contact Address: Musse Tesfaye Gebre, Technical University of Dresden, Inst. of International Forestry and Forest Products, Blochmann straße 15, 01069 Dresden, Germany, e-mail: mussetesfaye36gmail.com