Overall Progress and Achievements

110 THAILAND While formal adoption of the Community Forestry Bill is still in the Parliament, the RFD has been providing a number of technical pilot projects to help local communities manage their forests and to prepare the department for when the Bill is officially passed. These projects include: Community forest and buffer zone pilot projects: Implemented in national forest reserves surrounding national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The projects aim to increase understanding of local tools and processes for developing collaborative management arrangements between local organizations and the RFD to manage forests in buffer zones. Small-scale forest plantations: Aim to support TAO in its role as primary local manager and encourage small-scale enterprises and employment. Areas of 10- 20 ha are allocated to the TAO for reforestation e.g., eucalyptus and teak plantations. The RFD works with the TAO to ensure stability. Forest and forest fire protection: Initiated in 1997, the project promotes people’s involvement in forest fire protection. The RFD aims to support TAOs in developing forest fire protection plans to reduce the impact of forest fires on local economies and ensure that fires do not devastate national parks and other sensitive forest areas. Forest management and the TAO: Covers all 75 provinces and aims to develop procedures for local forest officers to work effectively with the TAO administration to manage forestland in their territories. TAOs develop forest management plans and activities, while forest officers play a crucial role in providing extension support to plan and implement forest management activities. One Tambon One Product OTOP: The government program that supports local communities to develop value-added products that have potential to become commercialized. For example, products from medicinal plants e.g., wine, wild fruit juice, and medicinal tea are promoted in many villages in the Northeast. Financial Disbursement Mechanisms to Support Community Forestry. including those mechanisms from decentralised government No financial support is directly disbursed to community forests. However, TAOs are supposed to allocate a certain amount of money to support local forest management programs, including CFs as part of TAO’s natural resource management responsibility. Although local budget allocation for CFs is not yet effective, some TAOs have funded CF activities. For example, Dong Keng TAO, Nong Song Hong, and Khon Kaen allocate its budget of Baht60,000 a year to pay wages for forest protection groups Poo Pitak Paa forest guards, responsible for forest patrols at least 2-3 times a week. Currently, each forest guard receives a Baht 500 monthly wage.

4. Overall Progress and Achievements

The RFD’s 1987-2004 regional records show the following numbers of villages registered and involved in community forestry:1 North: 3,359, 2 Northeast: 4,809, 3 Center: 1,621, and 4 South: 1,059, with a total of 10,848 villages. There are approximately 20-25 million forest dependent people. There is no governmental official federation organized specifically for CF matters alone. Only a Wichawutipong 111 certain number of environmental andor social NGOs e.g., Phu Khieo Conservation Foundation, Northern CF Network 733 northern CFs, Northeastern CF Network, Central CF Network, Southern CF Network, and People Federation work on local issues, especially rural development and are therefore involved in community-based forest management. These organizations provide local communities with technical support e.g., job training, production of forest products and marketing, and background information. Income Generated Through Community Forestry There are two major types of uses of forest products - household consumption and income generation. Household consumption is the chief use of NTFP’s, but the income generated from NTFP’s is not insignificant. Use of forest products, specifically timbers for commercial purposes is prohibited due to the 1989 National Logging Ban. NTFPs are harvested by villagers in order to supplement diets, especially during family hard times. NTFPs harvested vary from village to village but can be identified as mushrooms, wild vegetables, wild fruits, insects, resin, bamboo and bamboo shoots, rattan, fuelwood, medicinal plants, and wildlife and parts e.g., amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Annually villagers gather great amounts of forest products from CFs. A rough estimate indicates that about 1,277,964.85 kg of NTFPs are harvested by villagers at Dong Keng CF a dry Dipterocarp forest covering an area of 287 ha, Nong Song Hong, Khon Kaen in 2004. About 81.7 of villagers indicated that these NTFPs were primarily used for household consumption such as food, fuel and medicines. Only a minor portion of the villagers 18.3 reported selling NTFPs. Approximately Baht283,663.70 US7,181.36 was brought into Dong Keng’s local economy in 2004 from exporting NTFPs. The money earned by each household from selling NTFPs accounted for 5.26 of an average annual family income. This pattern is common in the Northeast, about one third of its harvested products are sold for income generation. The Thailand Environment Monitor Series 2004 biodiversity conservation reports that local village communities extensively harvest forest products. Villagers obtain forest products equivalent to 1-4 million Baht per village a year. With about 73,467 villages in the country, this portion of forest resource value may contribute as much as 75-300 billion Baht per year or 1-5 of GDP.

5. Lessons Learned