Scaling Up Participatory Sustainable Forest Management Program, SUFORD-SU

General

(The funding amount only reflects the support from Finland= all of Finland's funding, as, if widely understood, it could be included in the support of land tenure) The major focus – and added value - of the Lao PDR Forest Investment Plan (Lao FIP) is to promote participatory sustainable forest management (PSFM) of all types of forests, with a major emphasis on promoting the capacities of villagers and other grassroots managers. SUFORD-SU is the fourth in a series of projects promoting participatory sustainable forest management. The current project covers 13 provinces, 41 of the country’s 51 PFAs, comprising 2.3 million ha and more than 1000 villages. The current project is also piloting an approach to forest landscape management in four provinces, and piloting village forestry in at least 30 villages in this area. It is supporting work on payment for environmental services (PES) and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Forest and wildlife law enforcement activities continued to be supported, as well as work on key relevant policy, legislative, and regulatory issues. The project also disseminates information on project issues, and aims to raise awareness regarding climate change and REDD+. SUFORD-SU is not only developing its own monitoring and evaluation systems for the project, but working to develop and strengthen government monitoring, reporting, evaluation, and analysis capabilities. A PFA Monitoring System (PFAMS) will be built, to complement other ongoing work such as the National Forest Information System (NFIS) under development.