A dry and dusty savannah, Emaciated cattle plodding dejectedly past the last remaining scraps of grass that have survived the merciless heat and sandstorms. Such images are all too familiar. Across the globe, soil degradation and desertification cost about 490 billion euros per year, according to expert estimates.
Decisions about resource tenure – or who can use what resources of the land for how long, and under what conditions – are among the most critical for forests and livelihoods in many contexts.
community development, forestry, human capital, labor productivity, property rights, risk, vertical integration
The project covers two pilot sites encompassing 41,000 ha of forest land: Vinh Tu Commune in Quang Tri Province and Huong Son District in Ha Tinh Province. Both sites are commercially used forest and have potential for a certification mechanism. The certification project presumes that ecosystem services can be provided alongside sustainable forest management.
In what is a big step towards commercial community forestry, Cambodia’s Forest Administration, in partnership with RECOFTC and with technical assistance and funding from the Wildlife Conservation Society, began pilot testing in 2008 community-based production forestry in the Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area.
Land-degradation neutral world is an aspirational goal, which was agreed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012. To achieve this goal, land degradation should be avoided and for every hectare of degraded land a hectare of land should be restored preferably in the same ecosystem and landscape.
Wood energy is vital to the livelihoods of rural communities in the Mekong region, where over five times more fuelwood than timber is extracted for daily use. However, the energy needs of the community are commonly not factored into the establishment of market-oriented enterprises, which can lead to supply disruptions and subsequent impact on income as well as the environment.
Forinfo aims to strengthen the capacity of the Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office (PAFO) by supporting the implementation of improved bamboo management within the two concession areas in Meung district.
The main objective of the handbook is to support local trainers and facilitators who are already familiar with climate change and REDD+. It provides them with useful information on gender considerations for climate change and REDD+ related training and capacity development programs.
Building on a very successful previous strategic phase, the new RECOFTC Strategic Plan (2013-2018) has an increased focus on clearer strategic outcomes in RECOFTC’s four thematic areas: Securing Community Forestry; Enhancing Livelihoods and Markets; People, Forests and Climate Change; and Transforming Forest Conflicts.
This report reflects analysis of the current situation of community forestry in the Asia–Pacific region. The study indicates that people will conserve biodiversity, reduce deforestation and manage forests sustainably when they derive regular benefits from them and when they are empowered to participate in decision-making processes regarding those forests.
Quantification of global forest change has been lacking despite the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services. In this study, Earth observation satellite data were used to map global forest loss (2.3 million square kilometers) and gain (0.8 million square kilometers) from 2000 to 2012 at a spatial resolution of 30 meters.