Forestfund - 25 January 2021, Established three years ago, Independent Forest Monitoring (IFM) Executive Body organised a limited discussion event on 22 January 2021 to inform of the results of its works in supporting independent forest monitors in the past three years. Titled ‘Three Years of IFM’, this event aimed at exploring views and inputs for the organisation’s future development.
This virtual discussion is the first meeting that formally involved the Board of Trustee, Supervisory Board, and Executive Board since the organisation’s establishment in 2017. In this meeting, Bob Poerba, IFM Executive Director, presented the efforts and achievements made in 2017-2021. He mentioned that Independent Forestry Monitor Foundation was born to support independent forest monitors in Indonesia in activity funding, capacity building and quality improvement concerning TLAS implementation. In fund raising, IFM is already in cooperation with many stakeholders including MFP-3, MFP-4 and FAO in various project schemes and public fund raising. It was also mentioned that through cooperation with independent forestry monitors in Indonesia, IFM has developed its relations with individual and organisational partners through activity funding and engagement in different programmes.
Furthermore, to build the capacity of and cooperate with stakeholders, IFM is initiating a territory and administration-based monitoring scheme. This is meant to allow independent monitors to collaborate with relevant authorities in specific territories in monitoring the process to improve TLAS implementation
In general, the presentation was appreciated by the Board of Trustees and Supervisory Board because of the efforts the organisation has made. In one and a half hours, the virtual discussion eventually made recommendations relating to the importance of more appropriate and wider knowledge concerning various changes in policy, whether or not they directly affect independent monitors, and the importance of encouraging the development of communication between groups of independent monitoring. In addition, both Board of Trustees and Supervisory Board encouraged IFM Fund to establish the wider cooperation with other independent monitor organisations to support independent monitors at the local level for the better achievement of effectivity and efficiency.
In the end of the meeting, an agreement was reached on the importance of developing various organisational schemes and efforts to improve institutional capacity and active support from the members of Board of Trustees and Supervisory Board.