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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 471 - 475 of 485Contribution of Community Forestry to Protected Areas Management
In most countries in the region, local communities' use of forest resources is strictly regulated. The strategy of managing forests through stringent protection and regulation has in fact not been very successful in protecting forests in Asia, and has resulted in conflicts between enforcement officers and communities. New strategies are required that acknowledge the high costs and conflicts in classical protected area management approaches and look at complementary strategies for achieving conservation by working with, rather than against, local communities.
Insight: Notes from the Field, Issue I
Insight: Notes from the Field is a response to this need, and with this publication, we aim to give practitioners a forum to share field level cases and lessons in Community Forestry (CF) or Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). In this edition of Notes from the Field, there are inspirational stories on Community Forestry in Thailand, development of Village Forest Councils in India, experiences on Public Hearing and Public Auditing in community user groups in Nepal, and how to improve buffer zone co-management in protected areas of Vietnam.
Community Forestry Forum: Regulatory Frameworks for Community Forestry in Asia
The Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific hosted the First Regional Community Forestry Forum for the Asia Region in Bangkok, Thailand, August 24 -26, 2005, providing a platform for senior level government delegates to discuss forestry policy frameworks and experiences from the region. Representatives from the governments of seven countries formed the principle group of participants, along with forestry and policy experts from a number of agencies working in the field of forestry in Asia.
Hanging in the Balance: Equity in Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Asia
How equitable are benefits and costs being shared in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programs? To what extent are the voices of marginalized groups shaping the design and implementation of community based resource management systems?
Community Forestry in the Philippines
Dr. Juan Pulhin reports how the forest sector is addressing this challenge with some ambitious targets that include: uplands poverty halved in 15 years; forests under sustainable management, within 10 years; healthy forest-based industries, within 5 years in this report.