community forestry with recoftc: protecting people and forests jennifer keeley bangkok, thailand
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Community Forestry with RECOFTC: Protecting People
and Forests
Jennifer Keeley
Bangkok, Thailand
About RECOFTC
• Originally the Regional Community Forestry Training Center
• Re-branded as the Center for People and Forests, not just training anymore
• Founded in 1987• HQ in Bangkok, Thailand• Focal Countries: Cambodia,
Laos, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia
• Active also in: Nepal and Papua New Guinea
Community Forestry Explained
• A national forest system will not work in many developing nations, community forestry is a new way to look at forest preservation
• People depend on the forest and the forest is better protected when the community has acknowledged ownership
Their Work in Cambodia
• Capacity Building for Sustainable Forest and Land Management Project
• 2006-2010• Of all community forests
with signed agreements in Cambodia, 51% of them have had support from this project
• Project encompassed 262 community forests, 451 villages, and 59,442 families
RECOFTC’s Role My Internship
• Helps communities understand what needs to be done to gain ownership of their forest
• Provides local government officials with the training they need to help communities in the process
• They are the “middle man”
• Communications Department
• Copy edited publications• Helped launch their new
website• Organized the photo library • Took a field visit for one
week in Cambodia• Authored a series of articles
documenting success stories from our project in Cambodia
The Human Side of Community Forestry
Thanks!
• To PEI for the funding to make this possible
• To Princeton in Asia for all their help setting up and getting me through the summer
• And to the entire RECOFTC team• For more information visit
www.recoftc.org