Financing sustainable forest management in developing countries: the case for a holistic approach

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SUMMARY Financing has been one of the primary topics of ongoing discussions on sustainable forest management (SFM) for at least two decades. Yet despite a wide array of existing data and literature, attempts to understand—let alone quantify—SFM financing as a whole remain surprisingly rare. The focus of existing research on individual flows and sectors prevents us from getting the bigger picture. This paper attempts to conceptualise SFM financing by offering a holistic approach inspired by two complementary typologies based on the source of flows and cross-sectoral interactions respectively. Together, these two typologies contribute to a better understanding of SFM financing in three ways: first, they help visualise the SFM financing landscape, composed not only of a variety of flows but also the trade-offs and synergies between them. Secondly, they help identify a set of recommendations to improve and increase SFM financing over the long term. Thirdly, they highlight the glaring data gaps that need to be...