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