Department of Forestry Forest Carbon and Climate Program

A climate-smart forest economy (CSFE) refers to forest management, production, and consumption activity that restores, not depletes, natural resources; reduces, not increases, emissions from value chains; and safeguards, not exploits, interests of smallholder and forest-dwelling communities. Equitable and impactful global application of CSFE social and environmental standards, and the ability for actors to make reliable claims about safeguards implementation, require diverse actors coming to a shared understanding of CSFE social and environmental safeguard definitions. This includes outlining Issue Areas relevant to a CSFE as well as related underlying objectives of CSFE safeguards assessments and implementation. This report lays a foundation for CSFE social and environmental standards with fundamental principles to guide more efficient, equitable, and impactful safeguard assessment and implementation. In addition, it explores approaches and tools for actors to implement, including existing guidance and available data sources for more efficient safeguards assessment.

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