This document discusses the Evidence-Based Forestry (EBF) initiative, which aims to conduct systematic reviews of evidence related to forestry and landscape management questions. The EBF draws on models from other fields that use systematic reviews to establish robust evidence bases. It is a collaborative effort led by CIFOR that involves stakeholders from research, policy, and practice. The objectives are to identify priority review questions, conduct rigorous reviews, and actively disseminate results to inform policy. Several reviews are already underway covering topics like property regimes, alternative livelihoods, and gender. An upcoming project will use surveys and workshops to determine the top 20 questions to guide future EBF systematic reviews and policy development.

1. Long-term Ecology &
Resource Stewardship Group
‘Evidence-based forestry’:
Constructing bridges that connect science,
policy and practice
Gillian Petrokofsky
University of Oxford
gillian.petrokofsky@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Global Landscapes Forum, Warsaw, 16-17 November, 2013
Technical & Networking Session: Knowledge for impact: How to bridge the gap between
science, policy and action to achieve complex climate and sustainable development goal

2. The policy context: influence
•
•
•
•
What ‘facts’?
What data?
How reliable are they?
What about bias?
Source: Farming First
http://www.farmingfirst.org/unfccc-toolkit-how-to-use/
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3. The policy context: knowledge
Source: Petrokofsky, 2011
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4. The policy context: forestry and the
‘bigger-picture’
Sustainable Development
‘Big 5’
“Forestry”
Poverty
Food security
Climate change
Biodiversity
• Political relevance
• Credible science
• Collaboration
Green economy
Source: Holmgren 2013
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5. Evidence-Based Forestry: a model
from medicine
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6. Why not a collaboration for forestry
and landscape management?
The collaboration draws from examples in
other sectors
Partners
1987 Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in
Health
1988 Centre for the Study of Learning performance
(Canada)
CIFOR, ICRAF, IUFRO,
medicine
education
CATIE, CIRAD, University
1993 Cochrane Collaboration
medicine
1993 EPPI Centre (UK)
social policy
of Oxford
1994 Centre for Review & Dissemination (UK)
medicine
1995 Joanna Briggs Institute (Australia)
medicine
1995 Blueprints for Violence Prevention (USA)
1999 Center for Evaluation Research & Methodology
(USA)
crime & justice
2000 Campbell Collaboration
Social policies
2003 Centre for Evidence-based Conservation
environment
2007 Collaboration for Environemntal Evidence
2009 3iE
environment
international
development
2013 EBF - CIFOR & Partners
forestry
• CIFOR leads initial phase,
including capacity
building
• DFID provides inititial
funding
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crime & justice
Systematic reviews: “gold standard”
in these collaborations
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7. Objectives of Evidence-Based Forestry
initiative
• Conduct systematic reviews
in forestry and landscape
management
• Identify priority questions
for review and policy
development
• Promote good practice in
establishing robust
evidence bases landscape
management (including
forestry)
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8. Systematic Reviews: key tools
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9. Systematic Reviews: a collaborative
process
1. Question framing
• Policy-relevance
• Involves stakeholders
• Define what is to be
examined and how
Policyrelevant
question
2. Rigorous review methodology
• Comprehensive
• Transparent
• Repeatable
Commitment to
update
Systematic
evaluation
of evidence
Active
dissemination
of results
3. Engage wider community with findings
• policy makers
• academics
• stakeholders
Source Petrokofsky et al., 2010
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10. Steps of a systematic review
and systematic map
1 Formulate
the problem
and register
title
2 Write the
protocol, submit
for peer-review,
publish
3 Locate and
select studies
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6 Analyse data
and present the
results
5 Collect and
extract data
4 Appraise
studies for
risk of bias
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7 Interpret the
results
8 Complete the
review, submit for
peer-review &
publish
9 Update the
review
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11. Evidence based forestry (EBF)
initiative: progress to date
• EBF Steering Committee
• EBF support group (Wen Zhou & Jessica Clendenning),
CIFOR
• 2013 work-plan
• 1st tranche of CIFOR-led reviews underway:
• Events to promote awareness of EBF Initiative
& collect ideas for reviews
• Call for proposals for new review – DG, CIFOR
(November 2013)
• Development of resources cifor.org/ebf
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12. Ongoing reviews
•
•
•
•
•
•
What are the environmental impacts of
different property regimes in forests, fisheries,
and rangelands?
Are alternative livelihood projects effective at
reducing local threats to defined elements of
biodiversity and/or improving or maintaining
the conservation status of those elements?
Forests sustaining agriculture: the contribution
of forest-based ecosystem services to
agricultural production.
How does gender affect the use and access of
assets (forests, land, information, knowledge)
on household food and nutrition security?
What is the potential role of land use change
dynamics in Miombo woodlands in relation to
REDD+?
What are appropriate criteria and indicators
for defining and measuring transdisciplinary
research quality in natural resources
management research?

13. Coming soon T20Q – Get involved!
what do YOU think are high-priority questions?
from
‘experts’
from
online
surveys
Phase 1: review
questions collected
from the
literature
Phase 2: grouping
Phase 3: prioritising
Will use previously successful
methodology- ecology,
forestry, agriculture examples.
Workshop(s)
Online
Phase 4: validating
Priority Questions
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T20Q (Top Twenty Questions
For Forestry) uses an iterative
internet survey approach
coupled with workshops and
the use of a Delphi group to
determine a set of priority
questions for:
• systematic review
• policy development
GLF, Warsaw
EBF Steering Committee
endorsed and will promote
actively.
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15. Session questions and EBF
• What makes knowledge
generation and uptake
successful?
• What are some of the
barriers to sharing knowledge
about landscapes?
• How well do we know what other
people need to know?
• What are some of the tools we can use
to listen and design more effective
knowledge products and pathways?
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16. Thank you for listening!