Enhancing Community Forestry Impact for Sustainable Development

1. Making Community Forestry Work for People and ForestsYam MallaExecutive DirectorRECOFTC International Symposium on Sustainable Forest Management 25 to 27 September 2008, Beijing

2. What Is RECOFTC? • Independent not-for-profit international organization, based in Bangkok • Strategically positioned between organizations that implement activities in the field (or the woods) and… • … pure research organizations that generate empirically-based knowledge

3. A Little Bit of History • Idea born in 1982 at a seminar on forestry extension organized by FAO and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). • Established in March 1987 as a Thai national institute to provide training on community forestry. • In 2000, formal status as an international organization with a mandate to promote community forestry in the Asia-Pacific region.

4. What RECOFTC Does? Committed for promoting community-based forest / natural resource management • Capacity building • Country projects • Networks • Documentation of lessons learned • Information center • Action research • Policy analysis

5. Main Focus • Governance • Rights • Benefits • Climate Change • Conflict Management • Markets

6. What We Mean by CF • We view Community Forestry broadly, which: • Covers social, economic, political, cultural and conservation dimensions, • Considers a range of ways/means, including: • indigenous management of sacred sites of cultural importance, • small-scale forest-based enterprises, • forest out-grower schemes, • company-community partnerships, and • decentralized and devolved forest management.

7. Key Lessons • Tens of millions of people are engaged in forest management • Some 25 million hectares are now being actively managed by local communities. • CF has made significant contributions to the Millennium Development Goal of environmental sustainability. • Not sufficiently used to replicate and upscale successful approaches and practices.

8. Key Lessons • Under current ‘imperfect’ conditions CF generates income but has only limited potential to assist in socio-economic advancement of the poor and to eliminate poverty in the forested areas. • There is considerable scope to make CF more relevant to poverty reduction, if we are serious about achieving MDG 1 and work together.

9. What’s the Evidence? • Community forestry works for forests • More people, healthier forests • But many initiatives still project based and dependent on donor support 1978 2005

10. What’s the Evidence? • Where would be the community forest? • Recent experience from Cambodia 2008

11. What’s the Evidence? Community infrastructure improvements funded partially by FUGs in Nepal (1993/1996 to 2004) Source: Dev and Adhikari (2007)

12. What’s the Evidence? Benefit distribution of Community Forestry User Group funds in three districts in Nepal (in %) Source: Ridish K. Pokharel (2008)

13. What’s the Evidence? Average daily income per person in Forest Protection Committee villages in West Bengal Source: adapted from Banerjee (2007)

14. Reasons for Poor Results • Incomplete knowledge about the causes and forms of poverty • Transfer of responsibilities, but few authorities • Little downward accountability • Weak resource security and rights • Elite capture • Undermining of local institutions in governance

15. Reasons for Poor Results • Arbitrary changes of rules and regulations • Increased state penetration in terms of decision making • “Little” or no trees for “little people” • Conflicts among different resource users over rights and boundaries • Bureaucratic procedures

16. Making CF Work for People Important requirements • Generate political commitment to contribute to achieving MDG 1, especially within the concerned agency • Acknowledge the limited role that community forestry can play in poverty reduction • Review new financing opportunities (such as REDD) • Identify information gaps, impediments, assess capacities, keep data up to date • Learn from others (e.g. Pvt Sector, NGOs, CBOs) • Work with partners – local/national and regional

17. Making CF Work for People What can foresters and forest agencies do? • Clarify responsibilities and strengthen authorities of local people • Clarify and strengthen resource security and rights • Consider existing local institutions in governance instead of creating new ones • Simplify procedures, draft minimum standards, and provide support to fulfill requirements

18. Making CF Work for People What can foresters and forest agencies do? • Avoid arbitrary changes of rules and regulations • Ensure that more decision making about forest management occurs at the local level • Provide access to “big” trees for “little people” • Ensure that community forestry becomes an integral part of national forest programs

19. APEC”s 2007 Sydney Declaration:Challenges and Opportunities • The Sydney declaration on climate change, energy security and clean dev., includes resolutions to: • Focus on capacity building and information exchange • Increase forest area by 20 million ha by 2020 • It will not be possible to achieve this target without engaging people living in and around forests • With participatory planning and equitable conflict management, local communities can be major allies for forest protection and sustainable use • Effective community engagement require enabling policies and capacity building at all levels – from policy makers down to CBOs and farmers

20. RECOFTC’s Propositions • RECOFTC is a CF knowledge management institution - supports regional capacity building thru analysis, field demonstration and training and management • Jointly APFNet and RECOFTC are in a better position to identify venues to make community forestry work better for people and forests • RECOFTC looks forward to working with APFNet to increase the scope and coverage of community forestry capacities within the region

21. Thank you!