Uniting Stakeholders for Forest Impact
A four-day kickoff in Taiwan marked an important milestone for the Ecosystem Services Verified Impact Pilot. From 10–13 August, FSC, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA), Chung Hsing University Forestry Team, Saisiyat Community, and an international technical expert gathered in Taiwan to officially launch the project’s next stage. The Ecosystem Services Verified Impact Kickoff Meeting and Workshop, marking the pilot’s transition into technical execution. It created a space for teams to build consensus, exchange expertise, and begin translating a shared vision into practical implementation.
Building a Shared Foundation
Bringing the project team around one table was the first step toward building a strong foundation for implementation. FANCA Director General Hwa-Ching Lin, FSC Asia-Pacific Regional Director Cindy Cheng and Technical Advisor Mauro Ciriminna opened the meeting with remarks that encouraged cross-sector collaboration and underscored the importance of ecosystem services verification. As discussions unfolded, participants developed a common understanding of the project by aligning ecosystem service selection, available data, information requirements, and technical priorities for the work ahead.
Exploring Forest Practices in the Field
The journey into the Saisiyat Community offered participants a firsthand look at one of Taiwan’s benchmark examples of forest co-management. Walking through the community and its surrounding forest, Elder Ken shared with the group on how generations of traditional knowledge continue to guide the stewardship of the landscape today. The visit also introduced practical forest management activities supporting carbon monitoring, biodiversity enhancement, watershed protection, and non-timber forest products development. Seeing these practices in action helped participants gain a deeper understanding of how diverse management practices affect various ecosystem services. The experience also sparked further discussion on how best to capture the richness and unique value of these influences within the Ecosystem Services Report.
Translating Practice into Measurable Impact
Back indoors during the workshop, field observations became the starting point for rigorous technical discussions on impact measurement. Guided by the Technical Advisor, participants co-developed Theory of Change models that logically connected forest stewardship practices with measurable outcomes and impacts. Teams also exchanged ideas on indicator selection, data collection, and methodological applications to ensure that future impact claims are grounded in robust scientific evidence. The team further explored the Ecosystem Services Report framework and examined how existing datasets and monitoring information can support credible verification. Together, these discussions shifted the project from field learning toward a concrete and technically sound implementation pathway.
Advancing Toward Verified Results
With stronger collaboration across FANCA, academia, the Indigenous community, and FSC, the pilot is now entering its implementation phase with a clearer technical direction. The work now turns to applying these discussions in practice and building the evidence needed for verification. Looking ahead, the project aims to deliver verification results in 2027 while exploring how ecosystem services verification can create broader value and new applications across FSC-certified forest in Taiwan.