Pact’s Community
Forestry Partnership (CFP) Program is comprised of three projects
that apply the organization’s abilities in the area of capacity
building to help rural Cambodian communities protect their forest
resources.
The CFP Program, which was absorbed into Pact Cambodia’s operation
in early 2009, has been active in the country since its 2003
founding. It aims to protect Cambodia’s threatened forests and
watersheds by helping the communities living near them to generate
sustainable livelihoods from forest resources, and to enact
effective methods of safeguarding their
forestland from encroachment.
In concert with the
Government of Cambodia and like-minded NGOs, Pact is working to
achieve these goals through the following key strategies:
Promoting and
fostering effective partnerships between the community, local
authorities and civil society organizations for improved natural
resources management;
Facilitating the
legalization and tenure security of community forests and community
protected areas;
Supporting
community-based non-timber forest product enterprises to create
meaningful grass-roots incentives for conservation; and
Securing financing
for community forest protection and sustainable income-generation
activities through the sale of carbon credits on the global market.
Program
Activities
Pact Cambodia’s
Community Forestry Partnership Program (CFP) consists of three core
projects:
1. Community Forestry Establishment and Legal Tenure. CFP has
assisted more than 150 communities to submit their claim for
stewardship of the forests near their villages. More than 150 sites
have thus far received pre-approval and a growing number of these
sites have received 15-year legal tenure. The program
also supports mapping initiatives that delineate the area of
community control, enabling more effective forest protection and
reducing contentious encounters with competing interests.
2. Forest Livelihoods Program. CFP is providing a range of
services to aid in non-timber forest product (NTFP) enterprise
development to more than 20 communities across four regions. These
services include assistance in the formation of cooperatives,
through which communities are able to better manage and benefit from
resources such as honey, rattan and resin. The program also includes
a training component in which Pact staff help community participants
to understand and utilize such techniques as resource assessment and
inventory, community organizing and the use of sustainable
techniques for harvesting, processing and marketing NTFPs. By
increasing alternative income from the forest’s renewable resources,
these programs help to decrease the pressure on timber resources,
directly contributing to conservation.
3.
Sustainable Financing through REDD Forest Carbon. In
coordination with the Cambodian Forestry Administration and several
NGO and donor partners, Pact has initiated Cambodia’s first Reducing
Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) project. The
Community Forestry REDD project facilitates the marketing of the
carbon credits generated by safeguarding 13 community forests in
Oddar Meanchey province, covering more than 64,000 hectares of
forestland. The credits will be sold on the global voluntary carbon
market, with the majority of the net income returning to the
participating communities to support the continued development of
sustainable livelihoods. To learn more about the Oddar Meanchey
Community Forestry REDD project, please visit these links:
Pact’s Community
Forestry Partnership (CFP) Program is comprised of three projects
that apply the organization’s abilities in the area of capacity
building to help rural Cambodian communities protect their forest
resources.