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RECOFTC
RECOFTC is derived from an abbreviated form of the organization's legal name, Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific. Formerly the organization was known as RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests.
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests is an international not-for-profit organization that focuses on capacity building for community forestry in the Asia Pacific region. It advocates for the increased involvement of local communities living in and around forests - some 450 million people in Asia-Pacific - in the equitable and ecologically sustainable management of forest landscapes.
The Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) opened in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 1987 with support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Government of Switzerland (through the Asian Development Bank), and Thailand's Kasetsart University.
Community forestry is widely acknowledged as a powerful solution for many of the challenges facing local people and the wider society, especially in improving rural livelihoods, enhancing community governance and empowerment, transforming forest-related conflict, protecting and enhancing the environment, and helping to fight climate change. As a capacity-building organisation, RECOFTC improves the ability of people and organisations to conduct community forestry effectively and sustainably.
RECOFTC works toward its mission through four thematic areas:
- expanding community forestry
- people, forests and climate change
- transforming forest conflict
- securing local livelihoods.
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Resources
Displaying 381 - 385 of 485Digging Deeper: Decoding REDD+
REDD+ is a proposed mechanism to make forests more valuable living and healthy than dead or damaged. Its advocates believe it could help fix a lot of persistent problems in forest management. Its opponents fear it will make these things worse. It's too early to tell, but this brief covers some important lessons learned after decades of successes and failures in forest management, and it asks how REDD+ could benefit, or burden, Asia-Pacific's forests and the people who need them.
People, Forests, and Climate Change
Forests in Asia-Pacific are under threat. That's not a new story, though it becomes more important with every lost hectare and every family denied their means of survival. The big new question that journalists should be asking themselves, and their sources, is what climate change means for the forests of the region and the people who depend on them. This media brief provides an overview of REDD+ and things to watch as efforts to protect forests in the name of carbon gather momentum.
Trouble in the Forests? Carbon, Conflict, and Communities
A single word can describe the history of forest management in the region: conflict. Too often this happens because local people are excluded from decision-making and the benefits of forest management. REDD+ is a proposed mechanism to make forests more valuable standing than destroyed. This media brief looks at the reasons for forest conflict and how REDD+ could impact this contested terrain.
RECOFTC Annual Report 2008-2009
For RECOFTC, the highlight of the past year has been the launch of its Third Strategic Plan, which covers the five years from 2008 to 2013. The plan has the title ‘People and Forests in a Time of Change: Strengthening Capacities for Community Forestry to Respond.’ This report looks at the progress the organization made for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
Conflict Over Forests and Land in Asia
Violent conflict affects three quarters of Asia’s forests and tens of millions of people. In Cambodia, for example, nearly half of the 236 land conflicts recorded in 2009 escalated to violence. Because forest conflict is such a major issue in the region, we need a better understanding of the underlying causes, impacts, and management solutions. This issues paper sheds light on these topics, drawing lessons from eight new case studies.