Challenges. First Regional Community Forum 90
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THAILAND
rely on existing administrative structures and budget. TAO can authorize local rules that do not conflict with existing laws.
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Benefit distribution: benefits should be proportionately distributed to contributors. Currently, none of the benefit sharing mechanisms differentiates local
users who participate in CF activities from outsiders who have access to the forest without making any contributions. Furthermore, lack of conflict negotiation and
mechanisms to reduce conflict causes CF debates, especially over resource benefit distribution, creating a never-ending process. Throughout Thailand’s CF evolution,
there is constant debate over who should have rights to claim access to and responsibility over the forestland.
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Cost-benefit incongruence: investment from local institutions i.e. allocating budgets to cover CF management expenses e.g., wages, office supplies, and
construction materials does not generate monetary returns or if it does so, the returns are considered very limited.
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Community understanding and roles: local people often do not clearly understand their roles as users, contributors, and planners in CF management. They
usually perceive their roles as recipients of top-down decision making and therefore only put assigned projects into practice – they cooperate but not actually participate.
Although mostly the registered CFs are clear about their roles.
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Property rights regimes: complicated PRRs of forest resources require triangulated dimensions of rules and regulations. Protection of timbers is necessary
but not sufficient to maintain forest diversity as long as all users have access to NTFP’s.
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Ecological sustainability: forest health indication. The majority of CF activities focus on increasing forested areas and improvement of local livelihoods. A limited
number of studies examine forest health and ecosystem resilience. In fact, CFs can possibly be developed as an ecological connector between local community forests
and protected forests. If CFs are promoted beyond community subsistence forests, they can positively contribute to sustainable forests. Over 71 plant species 36 families,
mostly in Dipterocarpaceae were recorded of which 28 species were identified bird food plants at Khoa Noi-Na Pang community forest a dry Dipterocarp forest with, to
some extent, mixed deciduous forest covers an area of approximately 88 ha, Phu Waing, Khon Kaen. These plants can introduce wildlife e.g., birds into the area to
make the forest more livable and ecologically diverse. Admittedly, though, there is no clear monitoring and evaluation to ensure CF will be managed sustainably.