Role of Jurisdictional Tropical Forest Programs

JURISDICTIONAL APPROACHES HAVE BEEN A PROMINENT PART of the broad effort to catalyze sustainability transitions in tropical forests for at least the past 10 years. Working at jurisdictional scale has appeal as it can enable alignment with government interests and management systems, provide a common orientation for different actors, and enable strategies and actions that match the scale of different challenges. More than 30 jurisdictional programs have been started around the world.

At the same time, jurisdictional approaches and programs remain difficult to define and characterize due to their diversity, complexity, overlap with other approaches, and ongoing evolution. How can jurisdictional programs best contribute to addressing the challenges of sustainable landscape management?

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been supporting broad, multi-stakeholder jurisdictional programs in Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico for the past 10 years. In “The Role of Jurisdictional Programs in Catalyzing Sustainability Transitions in Tropical Forest Landscapes” we synthesize our updated perspective on how jurisdictional programs can be most effective. Based on our experience, jurisdictional programs can accelerate sustainability transitions if they can catalyze collective systems leadership, whereby a network of influential and representative leaders work in compatible ways to address key systemic challenges and co-create sustainable landscapes. This paper is primarily intended for leaders of jurisdictional programs and international actors either directly supporting jurisdictional programs or involved in designing support facilities for jurisdictions.

In developing this synthesis, we first looked carefully at the three jurisdictional programs that we have been directly involved in and produced the three case studies found below. We also developed background papers on experiences in other sectors with two issues we see as critical to jurisdictional programs—cross-sector collaboration and systems thinking.

Download the full report and case studies below.