How countries link forest monitoring into policy-making

Providing decision-makers with information is often seen as an important development strategy. Wishful thinking aside, to what extent do countries actually take up forest monitoring results in policy-making? And where this does happen, how are forest monitoring systems particularly suitable for informing policy-making? This paper reports on an indicator-based assessment of 38 developing countries. First, the contributions of forest monitoring were investigated throughout the stages of the policy-making cycle. In most countries, forest monitoring is instrumental in setting the agenda of decision-makers, defining solutions and evaluating outcomes. There may be an underused opportunity, however, to leverage forest monitoring in policy implementation, such as by guiding decision-making in government programmes or by underpinning fiscal incentive schemes. Second, an indicator set on the accessibility, transparency, reliability and credibility, relevance, and sustainability of forest monitoring was the basis for exploring how suitable current forest monitoring systems are for informing policy-making. The assessments showed that countries have invested more in the transparency, reliability and credibility of forest monitoring than in making sure that data and analysis are accessible and relevant to policy-makers. Moreover, in most countries, the sustainability of forest monitoring systems is at risk. Although there may therefore be the opportunity and requirement for continued investment in forest monitoring, efforts to leverage forest monitoring as a development strategy need to acknowledge that information can at best catalyse but not directly drive change. Where the point of departure is not data and analysis alone but an open window of opportunity for policy change, forest monitoring can powerfully enable better policy-making. •In 38 developing countries the contribution of forest monitoring to policy-making was assessed.•Data and analysis are instrumental for agenda setting, for defining solutions, for implementing them, and for evaluating policy outcomes.•Most impactful are forest monitoring systems that are accessible, transparent, reliable and credible, relevant, and sustainable.•Where a window of opportunity for change is open, forest monitoring can powerfully enable better policy-making.