Written by: Soviriya Chhoeng

Under the ASEAN Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC) project, NTFP-EP Cambodia in association with CoDE-REDD Philippines and the ASFN Secretariat facilitated a learning and exchange study visit for participants from key social forestry and REDD+ officers, civil society partners and ASFN focal point persons from Cambodia and the Philippines last July 29 to August 4, 2012.

The exchange visit was held to cultivate a creative space for a multi-stakeholder engagement among government and civil society towards the formulation of a national REDD+ strategy and the implementation of social forestry programmes and initiatives. The resource persons from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Forest Management Bureau (DENR-FMB), Climate Change Commission (CCC), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), CoDe-REDD, IDEAS, FFI, BMU-GIZ, UN-REDD and NTFP-TF shared lots of significant experiences on formulating strategies for sustainable forest management through community based forest management, REDD+ implementation, land use planning and multi-stakeholder engagement as a major approach for a successful social forest programme. During the last two days of the visit, the participants visited the YISEDA and KICCFA communities in Southern Leyte, Philippines.

The study trip has been very insightful and a lot of knowledge has been learned through the exchanges. Hopefully, the Cambodian participants can apply the experience they learned and assist to demonstrate their skills and knowledge for the next future.