Since 2009, the Government of Switzerland and RECOFTC have partnered with ASEAN through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)’s support to the ASEAN Social Forestry Network (ASFN) and the ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC). This is a brochure describing the RECOFTC activities under the ASFCC Phase II (2014-2016).

This policy brief developed by the NORAD-funded Grassroots capacity development for REDD+ Project addresses the use of the cascade  approach  for  capacity development  on  REDD+, establishing  collaborative  arrangements  with local partner organizations, and drivers  of  deforestation  and  forest  degradation in Nepal.

In this report the results of an independent assessment of the needs for capacity building for the development of community forestry in Indonesia, are presented. Needs were assessed at the level of the institutional context of community forestry development, key organizations and individuals. The team of 2 national consultants carrying out the assessment used the steps and methods of CBNA procedures developed by RECOFTC. 

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.

Center for Sustainable Development in Mountainous Areas – CSDM signed with GREEN Mekong a project: “Wider awareness on Grassroots Equity in Forests and Climate Change for ethnic minority in northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam”, from April 2014 – November 2014 (total 8 months). This is the final report. 

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.

While participation is seen as an important part of sustainable natural resource management, it is not always successful – a number of studies to date indicate conflicting values and power inequalities can significantly undermine participatory processes. A new paper in the Journal of Forest Policy and Economics examines another source of conflict: differing views of reality and underlying cultural biases.

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.

This annual progress report highlights key achievements and lessons learned of the “Grassroots Capacity Building for REDD+” project in the Asia‐Pacific region in 2013.

Opportunities for forest managers to gain knowledge and skills in participatory resource management processes are still limited. A recent survey by IUCN has brought this out where a third of PA managers indicated that one of the areas priority training areas for them was related to sustainable development. Recognising the need for such training, a number of organisations including CARE, FAO, MSTCDC, RECOFTC and WWF initiated a series of workshops and training courses on different facets of this topic. 

This guide intends to assist forestry lecturers in Southeast Asia in developing their forest policy curricula with a particular focus on policy analysis. As an initial step in this direction, it is hoped that lecturers will use the guide to tailor their courses to the specific requirements of their students whose experiences and lessons will be shared with others in the future; this will produce better grounded and more relevant sets of course materials and handouts in the future.

Governance is the keystone of sound natural resource management. Its core principles - accountability, transparency, participation, and the rule of law - are at the heart of the efforts being made at local, national, bilateral and multilateral levels to ensure that decisions that affect natural resources and resource users are well-informed and implemented equitably. There is a real need for all those who are involved in making and implementing decisions to understand the basic concepts and principles of governance and be able to apply them in their daily work.