Community forestry models in Southeast Asia and Cambodia: - A comparative study

Abstract

A shift from conventional forest management to community forestry is arguably a major development of forest management of many Southeast Asian countries in the last few decades. This study aims to provide a picture of community forestry models in Southeast Asia and Cambodia and draw upon what Cambodia can learn from experience of Southeast Asia. The study demonstrates that, based on the types of land use certificate issued to participants, community forestry programs in Southeast Asia can be classified into three types: (1) community forestry programs in which land use certificates are issued to individuals, (2) community forestry programs in which land use certificates are issued to communities and (3) community forestry programs as forest protection contracts. In Cambodia land use certificates in community forestry are issued only to communities. The study suggests that mechanisms for granting forest protection contracts and land use certificate to individuals in community-based forest management such as those found in Southeast Asia can also be applicable for Cambodia. The study also argues that although community forestry models in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, Indonesia are those that emerged from their own social, economic and geographical conditions, most of them tend to have five key elements in common. These include 1) well-organized community organization, 2) security of rights on land and tree resources, 3) economic benefits to the rural community, 4) on-going evaluation and monitoring and 5) strong support from NGOs, central and local government. In Cambodia, however, many projects are underway without ongoing evaluation and monitoring. Thus, more efforts should be made to ensure that all projects are adequately evaluated and monitored in order to improve project implementation and to provide policy makers with data and information for future actions.