Bangkok, Thailand December 2016

Transcription

1 Bangkok, Thailand December 2016 The International Family Forestry Alliance, with the Asian Farmers Association for sustainable rural development and RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests and Tree Bank, associated with the Forest and Farm Facility are co-organizing a conference on challenges and opportunities of forest and farm producer organizations. Program

2 Day/Time Program Comments Monday Dec 5 Tuesday Dec Noon 2-6 pm Arrival of Partners Arrival of Participants Meeting of Partners Venue Set Up RECOFTC AFA, IFFA, AFFON RECOFTC Day 1 - Wednesday December 7 CAPTURING LESSONS LEARNED FROM PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS EXPERIENCES Registration Welcome Remarks by RECOFTC, Tree Bank, Royal Thai Forest Service and FAO Opening Remarks IFFA, AFA, AFFON, FFF FAO RAP (tbc) Main findings of background paper and overview of sessions schedule Questions: Who are we? What do we do? What are our challenges? :15 Session 1- Part 1 : Introduction of Participants Country caucuses (15 min) Country Presentations (7 mins each, 8 countries) The discussions will focus on five themes (1) promoting rights to secured tenure; (2) promoting sustainable forest management practices including through extension service; (3) promoting sustainable livelihoods including improving market access; (4) significant participation of family forestry associations in governance structures relating to forestry or forest landscapes; (5) building associations and forums of farmers in forests and forested landscapes Group Photo - Health Break Session 1 - Part 2 : Learning From Each Other Country-level discussion (25min) Country Presentations (50min) Divide into groups per country Question per country: Based on the introductions, what would we like to learn from other associations who are here? Innovative forest and farm producer organizations success stories (Duncan Macqueen IIED/FFF) Lunch

3 Day/Time Program Comments Session 3: Capturing Lessons Learned Break-out groups according to five themes (60min) World Cafe rounds (75min) Groups to be divided according to five themes ( voluntary membership in the group) World cafe rounds every 15minutes Health break Plenary Reporting Quick Synthesis (IFFA) Each theme reporter to have 9 minutes to report on the final results per theme Field Visit Details RECOFTC FIELD VISIT DEPARTURE Travel to Field Visit site/dinner RECOFTC Session 4: Early evening Discussions with Leaders of Tree Bank Foundation Breakfast in the Field Lunch RECOFTC Day 2 - Thursday December 8 FIELD VISIT TO TREE BANK Session 5: Continuation of Discussion in the Field Travel to Bangkok Shopping / free night Day 3 - Friday December 9 POLICY ENGAGEMENT AT REGIONAL LEVEL Session 6 : Reflections of Participants on -Field Visit Groupings per country (40 minutes) Plenary Reporting (50 minutes) Quick Synthesis (IFFA/AFA) (20 minutes) Question: what learning will we take home? Random groups - make a visual presentation of reflections.

4 Day/Time Program Comments Session 7: Reviewing past declarations -World Forestry Congress Building Momentum declaration (presented by IFFA) -Asia Pacific Forestry Week declaration of AIPP, AFA, NTFP-EP (presented by AIPP) Health Break with coffee break at 10:15-10:30 Session 8 : Regional Programs on Forestry ASEAN (NTFP-EP) SAARC (tbc) FAO RAP (tbc) Session 9 - Capturing Lessons Learned and Ways Forward in Engaging Regional Organizations with forest and farm producer associations -Workshop per sub region 10 minutes per presentation and 10 minutes open forum Question: what are the issues and/or platforms on which we can work together in the future? Lunch break Plenary Reporting (10 minutes per sub region) Response from IGO partners (10 minutes per IGO partner) Response of partners: How can we support you? Synthesis of the Conference Adoption of the Strategy ( should detail calls and actions by associations) Closing Remarks by representatives of partner organizations

5 Background Challenges and opportunities that forest and farm producers and their associations are facing Smallholders in Asia number in the billions. They produce a large proportion of Asia's food supply, and a range of other products and environmental services that are one of the pillars of the rural and larger economies throughout the region. Many smallholders are involved in both agricultural and forest-based production. As producers of forest products, they face challenges similar to those faced by their counterparts in other continents: - Lack of secure tenure in forest land and trees - Access to markets limited by some or all of : weak market power, restrictive/discouraging government regulations, poor infrastructure - Inadequate capacity-building support services such as extension - Democratically-controlled, representative associations have limited capacity in general, or specifically in relation to forest-related issues, or may not exist at all Organizing family/community forestry, farmers and indigenous peoples in associations (at local, national, regional and international level) are a strong means to: - Strengthen property rights and land tenure reforms - Improve market access and negotiating strength - Gain recognition and respect from market actors as well as authorities and governments - Achieve most of the SDGs - Mitigate/adapt to climate change Previous regional conferences on family forestry In September 2014 and June 2015, IFFA initiated two regional workshops/conferences with national members, in Mexico and Kenya respectively, to share experience among associations and develop regional networks. These two workshops provided an opportunity for broad sharing of experience, and affirmed the belief that family forest owners, along with community and indigenous foresters share a common perspective on how they value forests, depend on them, but also how they would benefit from better enabling conditions for locally controlled forestry. These workshops set the stage for establishing regional networks and identifying opportunities to support development of new associations. Follow-up efforts are underway in several countries, led by the IFFA member association. Objective of an exchange forum in Asia Building on the experience of the previous conferences/workshops, this Asia conference is meant to facilitate networking between existing associations and provide them a platform to build their capacity by sharing experience. Examples from different producer organizations both in a background paper and from presentations at the conference and the field visit will inspire, give visibility to and energize participants and their organizations. It will also be an opportunity to show that local initiatives and organizations are not alone as they (can) belong to a bigger popular movement.

6 The detailed objectives are: Expected outputs - Strengthen existing family forestry associations through exchange of experience on successes and challenges (related to tenure security, market access, inadequate extension services and insufficient investment) with discussions and a field visit. - identify opportunities for collaboration among associations - Building on statements from the World Forestry Congress and the Asia Pacific Forestry Week, produce a strategy/action plan for policy influencing at regional level - Initiate the setup of a family/community forestry associations forum if this need is identified by the background paper research and the participants The main purpose of the conference will be to strengthen capacity of the associations through peerto-peer discussions and exchanges of experience. Specific outputs will include: The conference - The background paper, including testimonies allowing to prioritize issues and needs of Forest and Farm Producer Organizations in the region - An action plan for policy influencing at regional level - Set up of a forum of family/community forestry/farmers associations in forested landscapes Host: RECOFTC with Tree Bank Foundation Location: RECOFTC Training Center, Bangkok, Thailand Dates: December Participants: representatives of national or local family forestry organizations, or smallholder organizations whose members have forestry interests, smallholders from FFF around 70 participants Partners: IFFA, AFFON, AFA, FFF, Tree Bank, RECOFTC, WeEffect, AIPP, NTFP-EP Main Process: The conference will focus on five themes: 1. Promoting rights to secure tenure 2. Promoting sustainable forest management practices including through extension services 3. Promoting sustainable livelihoods including improving market access 4. Significant participation of family forestry associations in governance structures relating to forestry and forest landscapes 5. Building associations and forums of farmers and small forest owners in forests and forested landscapes There will Presentations of successful experiences

7 There will be presentations and workshops on sub regional policy engagement: Southeast Asia/ASEAN; South Asia /SAARC and Asia /FAORAP. A strategy for follow-up, including priorities for collaboration, encouragement of new associations, developing and strengthen networks, and policy engagement will be developed by the conference A field visit to a Tree Bank Foundation site will be conducted, for mutual learning by workshop participants and Tree Bank. Translation: Simultaneous Thai/English, whisper translation for other languages (depending on budget) Background paper: will be prepared and distributed prior to the conference; it will provide a profile of family forestry, including forest and farm producer associations at both the regional and national levels. Funding sources: IFFA (through support from the Forest and Farm Facility), partner organisations (in kind and through own participation), We Effect (tbc), Agricord (tbc), FAO South-South Cooperation (tbc), FLEGT (tbc) The partners The International Family Forestry Alliance (IFFA) IFFA was founded in 2002 to provide a common voice for national associations of family forest owners in international forest policy discussions, raising local voices to national level and finally at international level. A second purpose has been sharing of experience among its members. While forestry and social/political/economic circumstances differ widely among countries, all parts of the globe are facing common challenges as conventional economic policies seem less and less reliable, and as we confront the critical need to integrate our economic and environmental stewardship practices. Until recently, IFFA s members have been almost exclusively from Europe and North America. Recent memberships from associations in Mexico, Kenya, and Nepal have been important steps. Much more needs to be done to support development of family forestry associations in the global South, and expand the membership of IFFA so it is a truly global voice. The Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) AFA is a regional alliance of independent national farmers' organizations, with 17 member organizations in 13 countries (with a combined membership of around 12 million individual smallscale farmers, fishers and indigenous peoples. It works at local, national and regional levels, facilitating knowledge sharing and learning; conducting consultations and building consensus on various policy issues; representing small-scale farmers in Asia in regional and international gatherings and building capacities on organizational development, sustainable agriculture and farmer-led agro enterprises. With the support of FFF, it has conducted national and regional consultations and formulated its policy and program agenda with its members living in forested landscapes. RECOFTC The Center for People and Forests Since 1987 operating from Bangkok, RECOFTC is an international organization with a vision of local communities actively managing forests in Asia and the Pacific to ensure optimal social, economic,

8 and environmental benefits. Training, capacity building and other learning and networking activities are central to RECOFTC's work, which is complemented with on-the-ground demonstration and pilots, policy work, and strategic communications. RECOFTC works also through country program offices in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam. These countries have made a commitment to scale up community forestry, and RECOFTC's enhanced on-the-ground presence is designed to help ensure their commitments develop into tangible results that contribute to national development goals and SDGs. Tree Bank Tree Bank is an independent civil society organization that aims to motivate farmers to grow trees in various agricultural lands as well as on farmers own land to stimulate adding valuable assets to the land. More importantly the Tree Bank promotes tree ownership and rights to harvest them despite unclear land tenure in Thailand. Tree Bank members operate around the objective of managing trees on their lands and harvesting them when they are mature to obtain the highest benefit from its timber. The Tree Bank also manages a database documenting and valuing living trees from farmer groups and eventually aims to act as a financial institution from which advance cash or loans can be obtained. Through the valuation trees can be treated as collateral, to overcome the lack many farmers have of land tenure certificates normally required and accepted by banks. Association of Family Forest Owners Nepal (AFFON) AFFON, the common platform of private and family forest owners, was established by a national summit of private and family forest owner in Kathmandu on March The Association has the main objectives of: securing and establishing rights of family forest farmers, economic transformation of family forest farmers through sustainable management of family forests, advocacy for formulation and implementation of policy for ensuring rights of family forest farmers. Playing effective role to ensure policy making and implementing, the association is moving forward abiding to the forest Act of Nepal (1993) Appendix-8 and is actively working as a civil network that establishes enhanced family forest owner's rights. AFFON currently has 30 district working committees and 5000 members. Supported by The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) In 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and IUCN launched the FFF partnership to fund collaborative agreements and small grants at local, national, regional and international levels. The intention is to promote cross-sectorial coordination and enhance the capacity of local people for forest and farm community advocacy, livelihoods, and sustainable landscape management. FFF focuses on forest and farm producer organisations as the primary actors within the largest rural private sector. It engages in practical approaches to working within a global agenda encompassing: the growing global interest in forests within landscapes, the role of forests in food security, the emphasis on a green economy, the role of the small and medium scale private sector, and a new sustainable development framework. Other partners include the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), the Non-Timber Forest Product Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP), and WE EFFECT (formerly Swedish Cooperative Centre).