August 2005 – Brisbane, Australia

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Following its official establishment by the IUFRO Board on August 6th, 2005, which gave its broad approval of the terms of reference prepared during the past year, the Task Force on Traditional Forest Knowledge held two informal discussion sessions on the evenings of August 9th and 10th at the World Congress venue in Brisbane. A total of 26 people participated in these sessions (see attached list), which included several current Task Force members who have been involved in the development of the terms of reference (work plan) for the Task Force as well as a number of newcomers from various regions of the world whose participation in our meeting and in our future activities is most welcomed.

Our discussions focused on the central aims of the Task Force, i.e., to increase understanding of the inter-relationships between traditional and formal (scientific) forest-related knowledge and to catalyze potential synergistic applications to sustainable forest management for the near- and long-term benefit of local communities and society-at-large. A number of useful suggestions for improving the terms of reference for the Task Force were brought up during our meetings.

State-of-Knowledge Report

There was a considerable amount of discussion and some differences of opinion, regarding how we should proceed with our work, in particular regarding the scope, strategy and methodologies to be used in the preparation of the State-of-Knowledge report. Further discussion will be needed in the months ahead among the current proposed authors of this publication on the structure and specific content of the report. However, it should be stressed that the intended purpose of this publication is to summarize and synthesize information that is relevant to the goals and objectives of the Task Force based on published and other documented sources. The information gathered for the SKR publication is intended to provide useful input into the planned series of regional workshops. These workshops will provide forums for discussion and sharing of experiences between the forest science community and the holders and users of traditional knowledge with the goal of fostering greater understanding and collaboration in applying both formal (scientific) and traditional knowledge in the management of forests and woodlands.

Regional Workshops

Our discussions on the proposed regional workshops resulted in a decision to organize these events largely on a geographical regional basis, rather than by forest biome (i.e., boreal, temperate, subtropical and tropical), as earlier proposed. Under the current plan, these regional workshops would therefore include separate events for the following broad regions:

• Australia and Pacific Islands;
• Northeast Asia;
• South and Southeast Asia;
• Russia and selected neighboring countries of the former Soviet Union;
• Europe;
• North Africa and Western Asia;
• Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Latin America and the Caribbean;
• North America (Canada + USA.)

There was, however, some interest in developing a separate workshop that would focus on mountain regions (globally), and perhaps another for boreal forest regions. Ultimately the total number of regional workshops to be organized will depend on the initiative (and fund-raising) abilities of the Task Force coordinators, regional focal points and regional teams. If resources are limited, we may want to consider the possibility of reducing the total number of proposed workshops (now 10 or 11), by expanding the geographical scope of certain workshops to ensure that, collectively, we will have global coverage through this series of events.

Task Force organization and communications

As the number of people who would like to be involved in the work of the Task Force continues to grow, coordination of Task Force activities, particularly those related to the regional workshops, needs to be decentralized to some extent. For this reason, the meeting participants agreed to establish regional focal points for coordinating communications and planning activities among regional team members within their respective geographical regions, as well as communications between regional focal points and the Task Force coordinators. It is proposed that the following Task Force members serve as regional focal points:

• Australia and Pacific: Cheryl Kitchener (Australia) – cki23701(at)bigpond.net.au
• Northeast Asia (Korea, Japan, China & Mongolia): Youn Yeo-Chang (Korea) – youn(at)snu.ac.kr
• South and Southeast Asia: P.S. Ramakrishnan (India) – psr(at)mail.jnu.ac.in
• Russia region: Andrey Laletin (Russia) – laletin(at)online.ru (Clarification of which countries are to be included is needed from Andrey Laletin.)
• Europe: Elisabeth Johann (Austria) & Mauro Agnoletti (Italy) – elis.johann(at)utanet.at; mauro.agnoletti(at)unifi.it
• North Africa and Western Asia: To be determined
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Alfred Oteng-Yeboah (Ghana) – otengyeboah(at)yahoo.co.uk
• Latin America & the Caribbean: Manuel Guariguata (Venezuela/CBD Secretariat) – manuel.guariguata(at)biodiv.org
• North America: Ronald Trosper (Canada) – Ronald.Trosper(at)ubc.ca

Regional Workshops: next steps

It is not too early to begin planning our regional workshops. Our aim should be for all workshops to be held between 2006 and 2009 – the timing will depend entirely on the initiative and convenience of the local organizing committees and their partners (regional team members, sponsors, collaborating organizations). The regional focal points are asked to begin the necessary networking activities with regional team members and others as soon as possible. The Task Force Coordinators will continue to develop linkages with individuals and organizations (including potential sponsors) who may become involved in these regional events – as these connections are made, the responsibility for communications between the Task Force and its partners for the regional workshops will gradually shift towards the regional focal points. Fundraising for our regional workshops is a significant challenge that will require close coordination between and among the Task Force coordinators and regional focal points (and their workshop organizing committees). The initial response to the Task Force from government agencies in many countries and from a number of international organizations (intergovernmental, NGOs, networks, …) has been very favorable, so we are hopeful that this enthusiasm for our work will soon translate into commitments for support for our work at the regional and global levels.

Next meetings of the Task Force

Although most of our work in the coming years will be via electronic communication within and among regional teams, there will continue to be a need for periodic meetings (probably 1 per year) of the core group of Task Force members – i.e., coordinators and regional focal points. Depending on the focus of each of these meetings, and the resources available for these organizational meetings, other Task Force members and collaborators will be invited to participate.

It is proposed that the next business meeting take place during some point in June or July 2006. This meeting should include all regional coordinators plus lead authors for the State-of-Knowledge report. The purpose of this proposed meeting in 2006 will be to review progress on the development of the regional workshops and to present and discuss detailed outlines or complete drafts of chapters that will comprise the State-of-Knowledge report. All regional coordinators and SKR lead authors are asked to write to John Parrotta (jparrotta(at)fs.fed.us) to indicate which weeks during June and July 2006 will be possible for this next meeting.

Meeting participants: IUFRO Task Force on Traditional Forest Knowledge (Brisbane, Australia: 9-10 August 2005)

Please click here to download a list of participants.

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