As the successor to our FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) Updates, this redesigned newsletter offers more frequent, bite-sized updates by region. It will cover any topic that Fern’s civil society partners consider important to the understanding their country’s forest governance context. This will possibly include the VPAs, as the process remains a backbone of participatory rights, transparency and accountability, but also other recent legislative or political developments that civil society organisations (CSOs) on the ground deem relevant.
This first edition focusses on Indonesia and Vietnam and the articles were written in collaboration with our local partners. In many cases, they report that they are more able to contribute to policy discussions and that at least some authorities are paying closer attention. It still seems, however, that CSOs walk a tightrope between enthusiasm for exercising their rights and nervousness at least in some Asian partners, that these could be restricted if pushed too far. As a result, sometimes even where they feel important progress has been made, CSOs proceed gingerly and comment with caution – or decide that it is perhaps better not to comment at all.
We hope that you enjoy this first issue, and above all, that you do not hesitate to send us your suggestions about how to make it more useful. Please also send us information about announcements to include in the next issue, which will be sent in early 2021.
