Community Forestry (CF) can play a fundamental role in achieving nearly all the SDGs through its focus on improving livelihoods, strengthening local governanceand, halting deforestation and improving forest quality.Various experiences of CF in the region have demonstrated that the allocation of forest management rights and responsibilities to local people is an effective strategy for sustainable forest management and provides potential contribution to improved outcomes for forest cover and condition and local livelihoods.

As negotiations on the shape of REDD+ continue at national and global levels, REDD-Net’s network of civil society organizations has identified the issue of trust as a high priority for further examination. In this issue RECOFTC explores the importance of trust in REDD+, why the success of REDD+ depends on trust, and how trust may need to come with its own set of warnings.

Over the past two decades, the Government of Vietnam (GoV) has experimented with a variety of policies seeking to include local people in sustainable forest management. For example, Decree 02/CP (dated January 1994) marked a radical move in shifting forest management responsibility away from state organizations to individual households. IGOs are expected to encourage local people’s participation in forest management, which would make a significant contribution to sustainable forest management.

Since forests are both source and sink of carbon, scholars have suggested reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, including conservation and sustainable management of forest and enhancement of forest carbon stock (REDD+) to be part of climate negotiation. Studies have shown that forests can play a role in reducing emissions in a cheaper, quicker and effective way, while generating important co-benefits, including biodiversity conservation and watershed management.

RECOFTC and RRI co-organized the International Conference on Poverty Reduction and Forests: Tenure, Market, and Policy Reforms, which was held 3-7 September 2007 in Bangkok.

How can REDD+ benefit from the lessons of community forestry? 

The Forest Governance Learning Group brought together 12 experts from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam, and the UN-REDD Programme to discuss how community forestry strengths and shortcomings can influence the further development of REDD+. This booklet summarizes their responses to nine timely questions and provides recommendations for future steps.

The stories in this report illustrate the invaluable contributions being made by community members, pioneering government personnel and others who are actively participating in forest management – leading to improved livelihoods, and more equity and a fairer share of benefits. The stories highlight the challenges faced and opportunities created by people in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam who are promoting community forestry.

This guide aims to support states, community-based organizations, civil society organizations, the private sector and other relevant actors, to take proactive measures to implement the standards and recommendations of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT). The goal is to achieve legal recognition and protection of tenure rights to commons and community-based governance structures.

Dự án này do Hội đồng Nghiên cứu Kinh tế và Xã Hội Vương quốc Anh, có sự tham gia của các nhà hoạch định chính sách, các chuyên gia lâm nghiệp và người dân liên quan đến lâm nghiệp cộng đồng tại Việt Nam. Dự án này nhấn mạnh những vấn đề chính về quản lý rừng và vận động thay đổi chính sách ở cấp quốc gia về quyền hưởng dụng rừng cà quản lý rừng cộng đồng.

Cuốn sách hướng dẫn này cung cấp nền tảng cơ sở cho việc phát triển hướng dẫn quốc gia cụ thể về Đồng thuận dựa trên nguyên tắc Tự nguyện, Trước và được Thông tin đầy đủ trong REDD+.

In the dynamic socio-demographic contexts of the world’s forests and their users, climate change, including climate change mechanisms such as Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), along with energy and food security issues, have brought emerging challenges for women and men in adopting new roles in resource management. Consequently, a renewed focus on the world’s forests and their users is warranted.

Implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is designed to relieve pressure on tropical forests, however, many are concerned that it is a threat to the rights of forest communities. These potential risks need serious attention as earlier studies have shown that the Asia-Pacific region is a forest conflict hotspot, with many economic, environmental and social implications at global (e.g. climate change) to local levels (e.g. poverty).