Task Force Concept Note

Anticipated Task Force Members and Working Strategy:

The following are potential members, with those who have confirmed their interest in participating marked by an asterisk. We continue to seek others:

Carol J. Pierce Colfer,* Ravi Prabhu,* Rene Oyono,* Eva Wollenberg,* Chimere Diaw, Anne Marie Tiani, Nonto Nemarundwe, and Peter Cronkleton from CIFOR
James Mayer and his colleagues at IIED
Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend* and her colleagues at IUCN
Gill Shepherd* and others at ODI
Emily Harwell at Human Rights Watch
Colleagues in universities (e.g., Michael Dove* of Yale, Louise Buck of Cornell Universities, Marianne Schmink* of University of Florida, Louise Fortmann at the University of California-Berkeley in the US; Gun Lidestav* at SLU in Sweden; Michael M’Gonigle at the University of Victoria in Canada; Mustafa Agung Sardjono of Mulawarman University in Indonesia; Bob Fisher* at the University of Sydney, Australia)
NGOs such as Marcus Colchester* at Forest Peoples Programme (UK); Irene Guijt with Learning by Design, Netherlands)
Trainers, such as Yam Malla and colleagues at RECOFTC
Marilyn Hoskins,* Kady Warner, and others from FAO’s earlier efforts
Donor representatives such as Liz Fajber of IDRC, Caspar Schmidt* and Jane Carter of InterCooperation (Switzerland); Deborah Barry of Ford Foundation/CIFOR

Given the absence of funding (except CIFOR’s underwriting of the time of its personnel), we anticipate conducting most of our work via email, with Colfer as a central node. We will begin with our existing network, and gradually build over time, seeking broad representation in terms of geography, gender, ethnicity, and discipline. Meanwhile Task Force members and affiliates will begin co-publishing with IUFRO and developing new materials as we progress. If there are opportunities for the group or sub-sets thereof to meet, we will take advantage of those, since face-to-face interaction is almost always preferable. We will practice a form of devolved leadership, in which all members are encouraged to be pro-active in developing analyses, networks, and outputs of various kinds on our Task Force topic. Such ideas can then be shared with other Task Force members (particularly the leader---in order to maintain some cohesion to our efforts and consistency with IUFRO’s policies).