1. MAKING FORESTRY RESEARCH WORK :
BRIDGING SCIENCE, PRACTICE and POLICY
Robert Nasi
INAFOR Conference, 5-7/12/2011, IPB Bogor
THINKING beyond the canopy

2. The policy change
process
‘The whole life of policy is
a chaos of purposes and
accidents. It is not at all a
matter of the rational
implementation of the socalled decisions through
selected strategies.’
Clay and Schaffer (1984).
THINKING beyond the canopy

3. The gap between
knowledge and
practice
‘Constraints to successful
management of sustainable
forest management over
the years largely relate to
the adoption of
recommendations - not the
generation of ‘best
practice’.
Dawkins & Phillip (1998).
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4. A (never ending)
silviculture story
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5. The Indonesian silvicultural
systems
• Indonesian Selective Cutting System (Tebang Pilih
Indonesia – TPI): 1972
• Indonesian Selective Cutting and Replanting System
(Tebang Pilih Tanam Indonesia – TPTI): 1989
• Selective Cutting and Strip Planting System (Tebang Pilih
Tanam Jalur – TPTJ): 1995
• Intensified silviculture’ (SILIN) or Intensified Selective
Cutting and Replanting System (Tebang Pilih Tanam
Intensif Indonesia-TPTII): 2005
• Silvicultural Multi-system (Multisistem Silvikultur)….
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6. TPI and TPTI
• TPI abandoned for TPTI without real assessment and lowland
forest disappeared
• TPTI: still prominent but
•
•
•
•
•
•
Indiscriminate (all production forests; all population structure)
Growth assumptions are too optimistic (most species <1cm/yr)
No control of logging intensity (RIL ineffective if >8 trees/ha)
Discrepancy between concession duration (20yr)/cutting cycle
(35yr)/rotation (70yr)
Expensive ($10-15/m3)
Line planting is not really successful (concession, maintenance)
 As a result the condition of the logged-over stands is not as
good as could be expected
Appanah 1998; Yasman, 1998; Sist et al. 2003
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7. Scientific recommendations
Sist et al. 2003
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8. SILIN/TPTII
• Diameter felling limit
reduced to 40cm
• Line planting of 200
seedlings/ha
• Rotation cycle down to 25
yr.
• Concession given for
periods of 55 to 70 yr
• Growth assumption of
planted trees 2cm/yr
• Extensive stand perturbation
• Minimum fructification
diameter generally> 40cm
• First growth estimates only 7
to 13% of planted trees reach
2cm/yr
• Costs $15 to 40/m3
• Still complex prescriptions
• Authorize cutting in loggedover area
Priyadi et al. 2011
 Seems to go against all the previous recommendations
THINKING beyond the canopy

9. How to foster
adoption and
implementation
of good
research based
practices and
policies?
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10. Uptake / Adoption Curves
Research shows that when 10 to 25% of a target ‘population’
has adopted an innovation, the whole process becomes selfsustaining.
ONLY THEN DO ‘GOOD PRODUCTS SELL THEMSELVES’
Late
Majority
Early
Majority
Number
of
users
Pioneers
Early Adopters
Cumulative
Laggards
Frequency
Time

11. Publications
Number of downloads /yr

12. Publications
Title
Realising REDD+: national strategy and policy options
Hutan pasca pemanenan: melindungi satwa liar dalam kegiatan hutan
produksi di Kalimantan
Moving ahead with REDD: issues, options and implications
Dari desa ke desa: dinamika gender dan pengelolaan kekayaan alam
Belajar dari Bungo: mengelola sumberdaya alam di era desentralisasi
Payments for environmental services: some nuts and bolts
Plantulas de 60 especies forestales de Bolivia: guia Ilustrada
Panduan singkat cara pembuatan arang kayu: alternatif pemanfaatan
limbah kayu oleh masyarakat
Atlas industri mebel kayu di Jepara, Indonesia
Partisipasi masyarakat dalam pembuatan kebijakan daerah di kabupaten
Tanjung Jabung Barat, Jambi: ketidakpastian, tantangan, dan harapan
Menuju kesejahteraan dalam masyarakat hutan: buku panduan untuk
pemerintah daerah
Riquezas da floresta: frutas, plantas medicinais e artesanato na América
Latina
Download
(2005 - 2011)
46,793
38,947
29,252
28,974
22,992
22,350
22,035
21,875
20,014
19,712
19,160
18,623
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13. Quantifying
impact
RESEARCH TEAM
Understanding
process
Consultation
Partnership
Ownership
Changing levels of stakeholder involvement
during successful innovation and uptake
processes
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
Development
Start-up
Douthwaite 2001
Adaptation
Application / expansion
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14. Outreach and uptake efforts that
have little or no effect
Educational materials (distribution of
recommendations for changed practice;
including practical
guidelines, audiovisual materials, and
electronic publications)
Didactic educational meetings
(lectures like this one!!)
Pile of 855 guidelines in general practices in the Cambridge and
Huntingdon Health Authority
“The mass of paper we collected represents a large amount of
information, but it is in an unmanageable form that does little to aid
decision making”
Spilsbury & Nasi 2004

15. Interventions of variable
effectiveness
 Audit and feedback (or any summary of


performance)
The use of local opinion leaders (practitioners
identified by their colleagues as influential)
Local consensus processes (inclusion of
participating practitioners in discussions problem focus & appropriateness of solutions)
UNFF 4, Brazzaville 2004
THINKING beyond the canopy

16. Consistently effective outreach
efforts.





Educational outreach ‘visits’
‘Social’ media (blogs, twitter, facebook, website).
Repeated reminders (manual or computerized).
Multifaceted interventions a combination that
includes two or more of the following: ‘audit’ and
feedback, reminders, local consensus
processes, or marketing).
Interactive educational meetings (participation of
intended users in workshops that include
discussion or practice).
UNFF 4, Brazzaville 2004
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17. Impact on scientific publication
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18. THINKING beyond the canopy

19. Conclusions
• Passive dissemination of information is generally
•
•
•
ineffective
Best practice for dissemination and promoting
effective diffusion is well known but seldom
implemented by research institutions
Applied and strategic research institutions must
reward success in uptake / adoption not just count
publications
Further empirical studies on the relative
effectiveness and efficiency of different
dissemination and uptake strategies is required –
build this into the research process
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20. www.cifor.org
THINKING beyond the canopy