GrassrootREDD newsletter Issue3 v4
Issue 3: July 2014
REDD+
Grassroots
Dear Readers,
Newsletter
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
Grassroots Capacity Building for Redd+
Training and Capacity Building of Forest Sector Grassroots Stakeholders for
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Asia
Project updates from country teams and partners
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.
Representative of partners organizations and project alumni facilitators at all levels
participated in the relection and refresher workshop organized by Indonesian project
team in March 2014, Bogor.
Lao PdR
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 incountry 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.
Box 1: Wisdom Box Tool for Participatory Learning
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
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.
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.
Forest and terrace cultivation area at Pein Nei Kone area,
Lashi Township, Myanmar.
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).
“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.
MyanMaR
nePaL
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 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.
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.
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.
Box 3: Summary of key issues and concerns of
grassroots stakeholders with regards to REDD+
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
A community level focus group discussion during the Community Awareness
Raising Program on 6 January 2014, at Pein Nei Kone village, Lashi Township,
Myanmar.
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.
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+.
Since forestry sector offers both mitigation and
adaptation benefits, training and capacity development
should also include forestry based adaptation
mechanisms.
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.
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.
Lack of alternative employment opportunities for forest
loggers has also been identified as one of the major
causes of deforestation.
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.
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 Vietnam, 16 - 18 April 2014.
Project news
First regional reflection workshop of Phase III
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.
To read more about the Post COP19 discussions, visit this link
http://bit.ly/postCOP19-Warsaw
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.
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.”
“The Grassroots Project gave me the chance to
develop my capacity not only as a trainer, but
also in developing a series of training programs
related to REDD+ in Indonesia. I am ready to
take this learning forward and internalize it
within CFET.”
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
- Dr. Kusdamayanti, Senior Trainer, CFET, Indonesia
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
The Grassroots Project continued producing REDD+ capacity development material to
and interactive exercises was very new to the participants
support grassroots facilitators. Key publications published in the last quarter include:
and they enjoyed it a lot and improved thier engagement
in the training.
FPIC Booklet: English and Lao
A question and answer booklet on FPIC in the context
Today a few of the women from the preachers’ groups are
of REDD+ has been developed to support local trainers
actively engaged in sharing their knowledge with others
and facilitators who are engaged in delivering REDD+
and also use it to promote afforestation in and around
training and capacity development, and who have a
their community. This is evidence of the success of the
basic understanding of these subjects. Available in
cascading appraoch promoted by the Grassroots Project.
English at this link - bit.ly/1kRw9EB and in Lao at this
link - bit.ly/1nX9CEy
Recognizing her skills and expertise on REDD+ capacity
development, Dr. Kusdamayanti has been invited to
facilitate a number of similar training events organized
Gender in REDD+: Lao and Vietnamese
by the Ministry of Forestry, in addition to developing and
Another question and answer booklet aimed
institutionalizing REDD+ and climate change training
at local facilitators with information on gender
curriculum within CFET.
mainstreaming in climate change and REDD+ related
training and capacity development has now been
Dr. Kusdamayanti attributes her improved competence
translated in Lao and Vietnamese languages, while
to the Grassroots Project; the various trainings and
other language versions are under publication.
workshops conducted by the project has enabled her to
Available in Lao at bit.ly/gender-redd-QA-Lao
be confident in the subject of climate change and REDD+
Available in Vietnamese at bit.ly/gender-REDD-QA-VT
and to deliver effective trainings at different levels.
Featured publications
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.
Issue 3: July 2014
REDD+
Grassroots
Dear Readers,
Newsletter
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
Grassroots Capacity Building for Redd+
Training and Capacity Building of Forest Sector Grassroots Stakeholders for
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Asia
Project updates from country teams and partners
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.
Representative of partners organizations and project alumni facilitators at all levels
participated in the relection and refresher workshop organized by Indonesian project
team in March 2014, Bogor.
Lao PdR
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 incountry 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.
Box 1: Wisdom Box Tool for Participatory Learning
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
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.
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.
Forest and terrace cultivation area at Pein Nei Kone area,
Lashi Township, Myanmar.
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).
“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.
MyanMaR
nePaL
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 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.
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.
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.
Box 3: Summary of key issues and concerns of
grassroots stakeholders with regards to REDD+
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
A community level focus group discussion during the Community Awareness
Raising Program on 6 January 2014, at Pein Nei Kone village, Lashi Township,
Myanmar.
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.
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+.
Since forestry sector offers both mitigation and
adaptation benefits, training and capacity development
should also include forestry based adaptation
mechanisms.
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.
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.
Lack of alternative employment opportunities for forest
loggers has also been identified as one of the major
causes of deforestation.
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.
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 Vietnam, 16 - 18 April 2014.
Project news
First regional reflection workshop of Phase III
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.
To read more about the Post COP19 discussions, visit this link
http://bit.ly/postCOP19-Warsaw
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.
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.”
“The Grassroots Project gave me the chance to
develop my capacity not only as a trainer, but
also in developing a series of training programs
related to REDD+ in Indonesia. I am ready to
take this learning forward and internalize it
within CFET.”
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
- Dr. Kusdamayanti, Senior Trainer, CFET, Indonesia
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
The Grassroots Project continued producing REDD+ capacity development material to
and interactive exercises was very new to the participants
support grassroots facilitators. Key publications published in the last quarter include:
and they enjoyed it a lot and improved thier engagement
in the training.
FPIC Booklet: English and Lao
A question and answer booklet on FPIC in the context
Today a few of the women from the preachers’ groups are
of REDD+ has been developed to support local trainers
actively engaged in sharing their knowledge with others
and facilitators who are engaged in delivering REDD+
and also use it to promote afforestation in and around
training and capacity development, and who have a
their community. This is evidence of the success of the
basic understanding of these subjects. Available in
cascading appraoch promoted by the Grassroots Project.
English at this link - bit.ly/1kRw9EB and in Lao at this
link - bit.ly/1nX9CEy
Recognizing her skills and expertise on REDD+ capacity
development, Dr. Kusdamayanti has been invited to
facilitate a number of similar training events organized
Gender in REDD+: Lao and Vietnamese
by the Ministry of Forestry, in addition to developing and
Another question and answer booklet aimed
institutionalizing REDD+ and climate change training
at local facilitators with information on gender
curriculum within CFET.
mainstreaming in climate change and REDD+ related
training and capacity development has now been
Dr. Kusdamayanti attributes her improved competence
translated in Lao and Vietnamese languages, while
to the Grassroots Project; the various trainings and
other language versions are under publication.
workshops conducted by the project has enabled her to
Available in Lao at bit.ly/gender-redd-QA-Lao
be confident in the subject of climate change and REDD+
Available in Vietnamese at bit.ly/gender-REDD-QA-VT
and to deliver effective trainings at different levels.
Featured publications
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.
Issue 3: July 2014