GrassrootREDD newsletter Issue3 v4

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Dear Readers,

The Grassroots Project is at the mid-point of its second year of implementation. In its third edition, the newsletter brings you updates on the project from all its focal countries and the region. Since the last update shared in April 2014, the project has taken up a range of capacity development activities and new partner organizations have joined this important initiative of REDD+ capacity development in Asia.

I cordially invite you to sign up for our REDD+ Grassroots newsletter on the RECOFTC website. We will be pleased to have your feedback on the newsletter, its content and message. Please send us your feedback at REDDgrassroots@recoftc.org. Enjoy reading!

Dr. Chandra Shekhar Silori Project Coordinator Grassroots Capacity Building

for REDD+ in Asia

Newsletter

Project updates from country teams and partners

REDD+

Grassroots

IndonesIa

In March 2014, the Indonesian project team organized a reflection and refresher workshop in Bogor for 22 participants, including five women. The group represented national and grassroots stakeholders, trainers, sub-national and village level facilitators. In addition to sharing project experiences and lessons learnt, the participants to provide updates on the current status of REDD+ at international and national levels.

“The most interesting topic was introduction to FPIC principles.

I realize that FPIC holds a very important role not only for the

sake of REDD+, but beyond that, we can apply the principles

for any project related to the community”

–

Mr. Suprianto

from Lampion, Local CSO facilitator, South Sulawesi

The participants were intoduced to the concept of Stories of Change and identified stories that would showcase achievements by the project on the ground. One of the stories proposed is from YAKOBI, a project partner – the story highlights the role of one of the many religious leaders who participated in the Grassroots Project training program, and who went on to help the local villagers to make an informed decision on an offer from a mining company to acquire their agriculture lands. Initially the villagers had decided to sell their land but they changed their decision after the trained religious

leaders helped them understand their rights to the land and other natural resources, and promoted the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

At the end of the workshop, participants developed an action plan for 2014. Some action plans included activities that would be integrated into government planning at the local level. For example, in Makassar, the district training center of CFET decided to integrate awareness raising on climate change at the grassroots level as part of district level environment protection program.

Training and Capacity Building of Forest Sector Grassroots Stakeholders for

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Asia

Issue 3: July 2014

Grassroots Capacity Building for Redd+

Representative of partners organizations and project alumni facilitators at all levels

participated in the relection and refresher workshop organized by Indonesian project

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In Lao PDR, the project renewed three partnership contracts with the Participatory Development Training Center (PADETC), Department of Forestry (DoF), and the Faculty of Forestry (FoF) of the National University of Laos (NUoL).

PADETC is primarily responsible for grassroots training and awareness raising on REDD+ and climate change. The project activities began with a training program for a group of 20 youth volunteers, mainly from colleges and universities, with support from RECOFTC’s in-country training coordinator and trainers from FoF, NUoL. The training used the Wisdom Box tool (see box 1), and focused on enhancing the knowledge of the youth on the causes and impacts of cliamte change, the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation, importance and approaches of effective participation, and building analytical and facilitation skills.

The training engaged the youth in tasks that focus on their own experiences and observations on the climate, and required them to think through potential solutions to address the challenges of climate change. The youth also practiced their facilitation skills by working with neighbouring community on different issues that were discussed in the classroom, including difference between weather and climate, impacts of climate change at local level, and role of forests in climate change mitigation.

“Green house gas emission and REDD+ are new topics for me.

Besides these topics, I gained knowledge and skill in preparing

and delivering presentations and sharing ideas. I also got

opportunity to learn in a participatory way and communicate

with others and work with the villagers. I think this training

is useful because the contents such as climate change and

REDD+ is related to the curriculum that I study at the faculty”

–

Ms. Soulinthone Ladthavan, a first year student of Faculty of

Environment, National University of Laos.

Another key objective of this interactive learning exercise was to see how stakeholders from two different settings – urban (youth) and rural (local communities) – perceive the causes and impacts of climate change and their potential solutions. While causes and impacts of climate change listed by the youth was largely similar to the experiences of the local villagers, the solutions to address these challenges were different between the two groups; thus demonstrating the importance of promoting participatory and bottom up approaches in finding solutions to challenging issues such as climate change.

“It is good that the youth conducted interviews with our

villagers because the information presented by them is a

reflection of the actual problems in our village. I will disseminate

this information to all villagers during village meeting” - Mr.

Soukanh Kenesi

–

Village Headman, Sang Houa Bor village,

Vientiane

“I am satisfied with the new knowledge I learnt, which is

different from what I have been studying in my college. In

addition to the theoretical knowledge, I also learnt about

methods of facilitation and participatory process of working

with community. Given an opportunity, I feel confident of

applying these skills at local level”

–

Ms. Samkham Meunsy,

Fourth year student of Souksavath Business Management and

Administration College.

Box 1: Wisdom Box Tool for Participatory Learning

Wisdom box tool uses five key steps – (i) developing skills and capacity of the youth to coordinate with local communities; (ii) observe and study topical issues associated with grassroots communities livelihoods and their interaction with natural resources; (iii) collate field data collected through community surveys and participatory observation exercises on the topical issues; (iv) participatory analysis of the information together with local community members; and (v) keep a record of the information collected for future action plans and reference.

Lao PdR

PADECT staff facilitating the youth participants, together they analysed the linkages among the issues related to climate change that the youth identiied through the community member interviews, at Suanmailao Eco-Forest Learning Center, Vientiane (17 May 2014).

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nePaL

The Nepal country team has taken a crucial step forward in bringing the grassroots voices to the national level stakeholders. The team has synthesized the concerns and issues of grassroots stakeholders on climate change and REDD+ (see box 3), to contribute to ongoing discourse on REDD+ in Nepal. The national level dialogue with key policy makers was jointly organized by the project partners FECOFUN, HIMAWANTI and ForestAction. The synthesis was based on information gathered through a series of consultation meetings organized in different parts of Nepal.

In addition, partner organizations brought the members of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations alliance in REDD+ together on a common platform and facilitated the sharing and analysis of key issues and challenges for grassroots level REDD+ capacity development.

MyanMaR

The Myanmar team has a new partner – Friends of Wildlife (FoW), FoW will be implementing project activities in Bago Yama region, in central Myanmar. The partnership with FoW was established after consulting Forest Department and REDD+ Core Unit of the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MoECAF), which is implementing a REDD+ capacity building project in Taungoo District in Bago region with support from International Tropical Timber Organization. Other partner organizations, namely, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) extended REDD+ capacity development initiatives to the grassroots level, in Sagain region of northern Myanmar.

The efforts put into building the capacity of partner organizations over the last few months have started yielding results. Six alumni from the sub-national training of trainers program organized two community level training events in Layshi township, in December 2013. Following the cascade approach of training, four alumni from the community level training program then delivered a total of seven community level awareness raising events.

Box 2: Feedback from WCS on cascade model of REDD+ capacity building in Naga hill region in northern Myanmar

“Through the Grassroots Project, the capacity of WCS core team has improved significantly. Earlier, WCS field staff were familiar only with the education programs related to biodiversity conservation, but with support from the Grassroots Project the field staff of WCS have significantly improved their facilitation and community mobilization skills. They now feel more confident in delivering community level training programs on climate change and REDD+ by themselves in their project areas in Naga hill region” – U Saw Htun, Deputy Country Program Director, WCS Myanmar Country Program.

Box 3: Summary of key issues and concerns of grassroots stakeholders with regards to REDD+

1. Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are multiple and go beyond subsistence use of forest resources; therefore, REDD+ capacity development efforts should also go beyond forestry sector stakeholders.

2. REDD+ capacity development should target political leaders and key policy makers in order to ensure that climate change and REDD+ policies and strategies adequately reflect grassroots issues and concerns. Further, Community Forestry User Group Guidelines should be amended in order to include technical and social requirements for REDD+.

3. Since forestry sector offers both mitigation and adaptation benefits, training and capacity development should also include forestry based adaptation mechanisms.

4. In spite of the progress made with regard to REDD+ capacity development in Nepal, the discussions and consultations on climate change and REDD+ have remained limited to national level and has not yet reached the district or village level due to limited resources and thus lack of access to new knowledge. 5. Despite a number of policies advocating for women’s

participation in the decision making process, it has been observed that the involvement of women in decision making processes in community forestry and collaborative forest management has continued to be poor. Furthermore, with regards to the benefits from community forestry, although CFUG guidelines suggest 35 percent of the budget must be allocated to marginalized groups, there is no explicit mention of the amount that should be used for empowerment of grassroots women.

6. Lack of alternative employment opportunities for forest loggers has also been identified as one of the major causes of deforestation.

7. Contentious issues with regards to claiming environmental service benefits to upstream and downstream continue to remain, and they may have an impact on the REDD+ benefit sharing as well.

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The regional team of the Grassroots Project organized its first annual regional reflection workshop for Phase III. The scope of the reflection workshop goes beyond sharing the progress of the project, and aims to use the opportunity to develop the capacity of the national project teams and partner organizations.

This year, the workshop was conducted in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, between 10-13 February 2014. The focus of this year’s reflection workshop was manifold - enhance the understanding of the participants on social safeguards of REDD+; enhance capacity to document and communicate the project’s impacts through Stories of Change, videos and case studies; and learn about the global discourse on climate change, REDD+ and its implications on the forest sector in the Asia-Pacific region.

The participants visited a successful community forest in Ban Thung Yao, located in Lamphune province of northern Thailand. Through the visit participants learned first hand about social safeguards. The day long field visit provided an opportunity to interact with the community forest members and learn how they ensured implementation of various safeguards for the participating villagers in successfully promoting and sustaining community forestry.

The project also took advantage of a regional expert consultation workshop on analyzing the implications of the key decisions from the COP 19 in Warsaw concerning forests and climate change. The workshop was organized jointly by RECOFTC and FAO. Grassroots Project teams and partners attended this one day workshop, which helped them to understand the process of international negotiations on climate change, the key decisions on REDD+, and what it means in their own contexts.

Finally, each project country drafted their action plan for 2014, which was further reviewed and finalized in consultation with partner organizations. In addition, the following outcomes were achieved:

•฀ Bringing the partner organizations from each country together helped in building in-country synergies among the organizations, as well as in developing action plans, avoiding overlaps between the activities and creating spaces for each partner organization to learn from each other.

•฀ The workshop also resulted in agreement on four key indicators for the Grassroots Project; these were shortlisted from a list of indicators shared by Norad.

•฀ Practical understanding and experience of learning about REDD+ relevant safeguards measures.

Project news

First regional reflection workshop of Phase III

VIetnaM

Vietnam is progressing quickly on REDD+ preparedness in the region. The project country team delivered a timely Training of Trainers (ToT) program on FPIC in REDD+ in Bac Kan and Ca Mau provinces. A total of 40 participants attended these training programs. The focus of the ToT was to share the basic concept and key elements of FPIC, supporting the values of FPIC and key steps to apply FPIC on the ground.

Although FPIC in REDD+ is a relatively new topic in Vietnam, the Grassroots Democracy Ordinance stipulates the rights of grassroots people by stating that “People Know, People Discuss and People Decide”. The ordinance came into effect on 1 July 2007, the Ordinance refers to ensuring the people’s right to know, to contribute opinions, to decide and to exercise and supervise the exercise of democracy at the communal level. However, in view of limited enforcement of Grassroots Democracy Ordinance, the FPIC training was very well

received by the participants. Training of Trainers on FPIC for REDD+ initiative held in Bac Kan province of Viet-_{nam, 16 - 18 April 2014.}

To read more about the Post COP19 discussions, visit this link http://bit.ly/postCOP19-Warsaw

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The Grassroots Project continued producing REDD+ capacity development material to support grassroots facilitators. Key publications published in the last quarter include:

Featured publications

Grassroots team perspectives

dr. Kusdamayanti: Redd+ trainer from

Indonesia

Dr. Kusdamayanti, is a senior trainer at the Centre for Forestry Education and Training (CFET) and has been associated with the Grassroots Project for last few years. She has been leading the delivery of REDD+ ToT at national level and providing her expertise at sub-national and community level trainings. Dr. Kusdamayanti siezed the opportunity to lead the training programs to share as well as improve her knowledge on climate change and REDD+, build her skills in designing training curricula and effectively deliver training programs at grassroots level.

Recounting her experience from a sub-national training program for extension workers in East Kalimantan, Dr. Kusdamayanti emphasized the need to simplify REDD+ language, “technical terms used in REDD+ and climate change discourse make it very challenging to find appropriate translation in the vernacular language, and so it even more challenging for grassroots level facilitators to effectively deliver the key message of REDD+ and climate change.”

Another experience she recalls is from Meru Betiri National Park in East Java where she was supporting Lembaga Alam Tropika Indonesia (LATIN), to deliver a training program to a group of 20 women preachers. Explainig how she simplifies the key message of REDD+, Dr. Kusdamayanti shares, “I use local

FPIC Booklet: English and Lao

A question and answer booklet on FPIC in the context of REDD+ has been developed to support local trainers and facilitators who are engaged in delivering REDD+ training and capacity development, and who have a basic understanding of these subjects. Available in English at this link - bit.ly/1kRw9EB and in Lao at this link - bit.ly/1nX9CEy

Gender in REDD+: Lao and Vietnamese

Another question and answer booklet aimed at local facilitators with information on gender mainstreaming in climate change and REDD+ related training and capacity development has now been translated in Lao and Vietnamese languages, while other language versions are under publication. Available in Lao at bit.ly/gender-redd-QA-Lao

Available in Vietnamese at bit.ly/gender-REDD-QA-VT

This newsletter is published by: The Grassroots Project

RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests P.O. Box 1111, Kasetsart Post Office Bangkok 10903, Thailand

REDDgrassroots@recoftc.org

www.recoftc.org/site/resources/Grassroots-Capacity-Building-for-REDD-/

Copyright © 2014 RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests gives permission to make digital or hard copies of portions or all of this work for educational or non-commercial purposes without fee or prior written consent provided the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that the source is fully acknowledged. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission. Send written requests for republication to RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests, P.O. Box 1111, Kasetsart Post Office, Bangkok 10903, Thailand. Please email your queries to REDDgrassroots@recoftc.org

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect those of RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). We disclaim any errors or omissions in the translation of this document from the original version in English into other languages.

Grassroots team and representatives of project partners walking through the Ban Thung Yao community forest, while listening to the head of the community’s women’s group talk about local beneit sharing mechanisms.

knowledge and experience of the participants regarding climate change, and build on it to explain the concept of REDD+”. She asked the women to draw maps and figures to show how climate change affected their agricultural lands, forests, and other day to day activities, and how they have responded to these changes. Such participatory and interactive exercises was very new to the participants and they enjoyed it a lot and improved thier engagement in the training.

Today a few of the women from the preachers’ groups are actively engaged in sharing their knowledge with others and also use it to promote afforestation in and around their community. This is evidence of the success of the cascading appraoch promoted by the Grassroots Project.

Recognizing her skills and expertise on REDD+ capacity development, Dr. Kusdamayanti has been invited to facilitate a number of similar training events organized by the Ministry of Forestry, in addition to developing and institutionalizing REDD+ and climate change training curriculum within CFET.

Dr. Kusdamayanti attributes her improved competence to the Grassroots Project; the various trainings and workshops conducted by the project has enabled her to be confident in the subject of climate change and REDD+ and to deliver effective trainings at different levels.