1. Training of Trainers extends help to forest communities in Lower Mekong 2. CSO reflection workshop looks back at training, impacts on forest
communities in the Lower Mekong
3. USAID-Funded Program Unites Equity Champions from the Lower Mekong with ASEAN Social Forestry Network Members to Reflect on Impacts and Plan for the Future
4. VIDEO: The Regional Learning Group: Promoting equity-based approaches among local forestry officials
5. Infographic: Equity in forests and climate change 6. VIDEO: The equity effect: what is social equity? 7. Q&A booklet: equity in climate change and REDD+
8. Equity case studies in forest governance from the Lower Mekong
9. VIDEO & DISCUSSION GUIDE: A fair climate: gender equity in forestry and REDD+
10. GREEN Mekong success stories
11. VIDEO: Without indigenous women: what happens to our forests and forest communities?
GUIDE TO EQUITY
About the GREEN
Mekong Program
This resource kit and news update is produced by the USAID-funded Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong Program (GREEN Mekong), which aims to improve capacities of policymakers and grassroots stakeholders in the Lower Mekong region to promote equity in forest-based climate change mitigation policy and practice.
Training of trainers extends
help to forest communities in
Lower Mekong
Seventeen local forest practitioners from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam met in Chiang Mai, Thailand to participate in a Training of Trainers workshop with Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong Program this month. Participants learned how the principles of social equity can advance their communities while the training strengthened their abilities as facilitators to promote and apply the concept in the forests and climate change context.
The training of trainers ultimately extends the reach of the program, ensuring trainees can share their knowledge further, resulting in better forest governance and management policies and practices. As a result of the training, which included a field visit and an opportunity to engage with a community that has applied the principles of social equity, participants were able to identify opportunities for addressing issues in their respective workplaces. They also developed new skills to effectively engage with grassroots stakeholders and communicate their perspectives to policymakers. Finally, trainees used this opportunity to create new relationships between governmental and civil society actors that can strengthen collaboration in forest governance both in countries and regionally.
Finally, the training also saw visit a field site in Baan Thung Yao, Thailand where a community applied the concepts of equity and resulted in protection of community resources. This essential aspect of the workshop gave trainees the opportunity to engage with the community and learn first-hand how improving gender equity led to an overall improvement in the community.
CSO reflection workshop
looks back at training,
impacts on forest
communities in the Lower
Mekong
In late August, the USAID-funded GREEN Mekong program wrapped up its three-year training of civil society representatives, who have already started to see impacts from the skills they learned. The program trained civil society organizations from Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam with an approach to engage forest communities and make their voices heard, granting them equity in forest management with government officials.
Eight CSOs received additional grants through the GREEN Mekong Challenge Fund (GMCF) to carry out further activities. While originally conceptualized to support CSO participants in implementing the action plans produced during training workshop, the GMCF has since provided opportunities for the CSOs to put their equity training to use while utilizing their knowledge of the local context.
The final regional CSO training also included a field visit to a forest community where representatives put their skills to the test in consultations with forest community stakeholders in Baan Hua Hin Lard Nai, Thailand. Here, participants saw firsthand how equity strengthened the community and enabled them to engage government officials to protect their rights. One of the CSO representatives, Teng Rithiny from NGO Forum in Cambodia, commented, “The forest community came together to protect their forests and share the benefits. And they shared their work with
Local forest practitioners participate in a field trip in Baan Thung Yao, Thailand
USAID-Funded Program
Unites Equity Champions
from the Lower Mekong
with ASEAN Social Forestry
Network Members to Reflect
on Impacts and Plan for the
Future
The Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong – GREEN Mekong, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by RECOFTC, wrapped up its activities on a high note this week by bringing together over 20 forestry officials and representatives from civil society organizations - as well as members of the ASEAN Social Forestry Network (ASFN) - to reflect on equity in forest governance.
Covering five countries in the Lower Mekong region – Thailand, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia – GREEN Mekong has over the past three years carried out its Regional Learning Group approach with forestry officials and training workshops with CSOs. Having created
Two separate groups benefited from the training, with the Regional Learning Group consisting of regional forestry officials and the CSO training including representatives from local organizations with a focus on forest governance and management. Both groups now constitute “Equity Champions” who understand the positive impact social equity has on forest communities and its importance for reducing deforestation and mitigating climate change.
Throughout the program, which concludes in December 2015, GREEN Mekong created a series of knowledge products covering important aspects of social equity, including gender, and more specifically, indigenous women. These resources provide insight into the obstacles in achieving equity in forest management and governance as well as highlight the importance in improving them. The Regional Learning Group training helped members from Vietnam’s Forest Administration (VN-Forest) to incorporate this equity approach into their program related to Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES). They created their own knowledge products as a result, based on the equity framework, including a policy brief outlining the need to improve local engagement with
forest communities in the design and implementation of the PFES mechanism, which got picked up and published in a VN-Forest newsletter reaching out to over 13,000 forestry officials.
Likewise, the CSO training program brought greater insight into forest management and governance while the GREEN Mekong Challenge Fund (GMCF), a small grants program empowered CSOs to carry out additional activities utilizing their local institutional knowledge to affect change. In Cambodia, the NGO Forum used its GMCF grant for a number of activities including equity training of their national network, which had a cascading effect. Non-timber Forest Products – Cambodia, NTFP-Cambodia), a local CSO that received the training from NGO Forum, implemented their skills when engaging local communities. Mr. Chum Chhean, a program manager for NTFP-Cambodia, said: “After the training, the community forestry meetings in Yarkpoy and Kachoun in Rattanakiri province had more women participating in the meetings because we trained them on the principles of equity to encourage female participation. Now women are actively reporting on illegal logging and educating the community on problems they face when deforestation has led to a lack of cooking timber or wild vegetables. This protects the entire community.”
Results like these show the potential for a good concept to incur positive change on a large scale in a short period of time. In the case of the Regional Learning Groups, the work was done without additional financial support, demonstrating long-term sustainability of the program’s efforts to promote equitable forest governance. “GREEN Mekong was able to close gaps in understanding between local communities and government agencies,” said Aurelia Micko, acting director of the Regional Environment Office for USAID in Asia. “The project created a platform where all of these stakeholders could come together and learn from each other to create the best policies to support forest dwelling people, reduce deforestation and mitigate carbon emissions.”
At this week’s event, invited ASFN delegates welcomed valuable input from GREEN Mekong’s Equity Champions. AFSN also recommended channels through which the Equity Champions could bring their voices to the regional level to influence potential future policy.
The Regional Learning Group:
Promoting equity-based
approaches among local
forestry officials
This short video puts on view our work in the Mekong region and an approach to prioritize the development of provincial and local forestry officials’ capacities with an aim to strategically improve social equity in forest governance.
With an attempt to close the gap between communities and the government, provincial and local forest officials of the Lower Mekong countries have been trained and supported to improve and implement more equitable approaches in forest governance policies and practice.
Infographic
USAID GREEN Mekong Produces an Infographic to
Explain Equity in Forests and Climate Change
Illustration credit: GREEN Mekong/RECOFTC.
To expand outreach efforts after training CSOs and government officials across the Lower Mekong region, the USAID Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong program released a two-part infographic that explains the importance of social equity in forests and the basics on putting it into practice. The infographic defines equity and provides an easy to understand overview of the key elements that will empower forest-dependent communities.
The equity effect: what is
social equity?
What is equity? And how is it different from equality? This short animation video explains the answers to these questions and basic principles of social equity in forest governance.
This video also has subtitles available for all five GREEN Mekong languages: Thai, Lao, Myanmar, Khmer and Vietnamese. To watch the video, please visit: http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/videos/equity-effect
Equity in climate change
and REDD+: A handbook for
grassroots facilitators
Equity in climate change and REDD+: A handbook for grassroots facilitators is now available. The handbook was developed by RECOFTC and co-supported by the USAID-funded GREEN Mekong program and the NORAD funded Grassroots Capacity Building for REDD+ project.
The handbook will help grassroots facilitators with the aim of increasing their understanding of processes and dimensions of social equity in forests and climate change, and to develop specific skills to put this learning into practice.
Read more and download the handbook at http://www.recoftc.org/ project/green-mekong/training-manuals-and-guides/equity-climate-change-and-redd-handbook-grassroots-facilitators
Equity case study briefs in
forest governance from the
Lower Mekong
To accompany GREEN Mekong’s equity training, five case study briefs were produced to give a deeper look at how the principles of equity have produced results in forest governance. These five briefs represent a range of equity dimensions while addressing multiple equity elements.
Equity Case Study Brief #1
http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/training-manuals- and-guides/equity-case-study-brief-1-access-information-securing-resource-and
Brief #1 covers the importance of access to critical information as it pertains to achieving equity in forest governance focusing on teak farmers.
Equity Case Study Brief #2
http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/training-manuals-and-guides/ equity-case-study-brief-2-participation-and-decision-making-improving
Brief #2 covers community-based forest governance, focusing on increased participation by the community, and on securing rights and tenure, brought about by the lack of tenure and resource rights for the individual households.
Equity Case Study Brief #3
http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/training-manuals- and-guides/equity-case-study-brief-3-establishing-benefit-sharing-mechanism-bu-nor
Brief #3 covers community-based forest governance, focusing on providing incentives for local community in forest management via benefit sharing mechanisms.
Equity Case Study Brief #4
http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/training-manuals- and-guides/equity-case-study-brief-4-participation-decision-making-securing
Brief #4 is an equity case in community-based forest governance, focusing on increased participation by the community.
Equity Case Study #5
http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/training-manuals- and-guides/equity-case-study-brief-5-effective-participation-decision-making
Brief #5 is a contractive equity case in community-based forest governance, focusing on the development of a mechanism for community participation in natural resources management.
VIDEO & DISCUSSION GUIDE:
A fair climate: gender equity
in forestry and REDD+
Together, this training video and dicussion guide target community forestry practitioners to improve gender equity on the ground. The video explains the concept of gender equity in the context of forest communities and highlights best practices for achieving gender equity.
Shot in Vientiane in Lao PDR and the Baan Thung Yao community forest in Thailand, the video features grassroots and institutional knowledge and experience, on forest governance and management practices. The video is produced by USAID-funded programs Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in Mekong (GREEN Mekong) and Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests program (USAID-LEAF).
In addition to the video, the discussion guide allows trainers and grassroots facilitators to delve deeper into the gender aspect of social equity in terms of forest-based climate change initiatives, including REDD+. The questions in the guide will help facilitate discussions concerning forest management practices and forest governance in the local and institutional contexts.
The discussion guide is available in English, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Myanmar, Khmer, Nepali and Bahasa Indonesia, while the video is available in all of these languages as well as Malay.
Download the discussion guide here: http://www.recoftc.org/project/ green-mekong/training-manuals-and-guides/fair-climate-gender-equity-forestry-and-redd-discussion-guide
Watch the video here: http://www.recoftc.org/videos/fair-climate-gender-equity-forestry-and-redd
GREEN Mekong success
stories
Success story #1: Innovative Training Process Ensuring Equity in Forest Management
In this success story, we follow the journey of a Lao PDR RLG member, capturing the importance of equity on the grassroots level http://www.recoftc. org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/ GREEN Mekong_RLG Laos Success Story_RECOFTC_USAID.pdf
Success story #2: Small Grant from USAID Program Enables CSO to Engage Policy Makers and Build Awareness
This success story features a GREEN Mekong Challenge Fund recipient, the Centre for Rural Development in Central Viet Nam and how grant program enabled them to engage a wider community and share the importance of the equity approach, especially the participation of forest communities, in the policy development process. http://www.recoftc.org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/ GREEN MEKONG_CF NGO Forum NTFP_RECOFTC_USAID_0.pdf
Success story #3: USAID Program Drives Institutional Changes in Lower Mekong, Brings Equity in Forest Governance
This success story shares how the importance of equity was demonstrated in Thailand and how it was adopted by an institution as a positive tool for engaging forest communities. http://www. recoftc.org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/GREENMekong_ Thailand Success Story.pdf
Success story #4: USAID Program Enables Civil Society Organizations to Reach Forest Communities, Improve Equity
In this success story, CSOs from Lao PDR are highlighted, explaining how they benefited from the GREEN Mekong training and what it has meant for their programs. http://www.recoftc.org/sites/default/ files/uploaded_files/GREENMekong_CSO training Success Story.pdf
Success story #5: Small Grants Program Empowers Local Organizations to Protect Their Own Community
Through this success story, we follow the impact of the GREEN Mekong Challenge Fund in Cambodia and the impact these grants had with our CSO partner, NGO Forum. http://www.recoftc.org/sites/ default/files/uploaded_files/GREENMekong_Smal grants success story.pdf
what happens to our forests
and forest communities?
This video provides examples of when constructive policies are made
and responsive actions are taken, indigenous women are empowered and can contribute meaningfully to successful forest governance.
TRAINING MANUAL: Improving
grassroots equity in the
forests and climate change
context
This training manual, the principal publication from GREEN Mekong, targets grassroots facilitators with the aim of increasing their understanding of processes and dimensions of social equity in forests and climate change, and to develop specific skills to put this learning into practice.
It is based on the principle that grassroots stakeholders must be engaged in the decision-making processes for setting national policies and for designing and planning programmes. Grassroots stakeholders need to have meaningful opportunities to participate and their perspectives must be heard at all levels of the forests and climate change discourse to achieve more equitable outcomes.
While most of the existing REDD+ related training manuals focus on the theoretical concepts around forests, climate change and REDD+. This training manual provides guidance to train grassroots facilitators to better engage all stakeholders and to promote equity in forest-based climate change and forest management practices and interventions. Its main premise is to extend the practice and process of active participation towards effective engagement, through which equity can be improved.
This training manual has been developed with the support of two regional initiatives – the USAID-funded Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong (GREEN Mekong) program , and the NORAD funded project Grassroots Capacity Building for REDD+ in Asia.
Read more and download the training manual at: http://www.
recoftc.org/training-manuals-and-guides/improving-grassroots-equity-forests-and-climate-change-context-training
To obtain hardcopies, please contact green.mekong@recoftc.org
EQUITY RESOURCE KIT
The GREEN Mekong Equity Resource Kit contains key products to enhance your knowledge on social equity in forests. The Kit is a compilation of GREEN Mekong knowledge products developed over the past three years, including the products featured in this newsletter. Together, these resources will help provide users with a working basis to understand and utilize the principles of social equity to improve forest governance and management and address climate change. The material includes videos, case studies, a training manual and success stories from program participants.
http://www.recoftc.org/project/green-mekong/basic-page/green-mekong-equity-resource-kit
This resource kit and news update is published by:
The GREEN Mekong program
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests P.O. Box 1111
