2015 marks the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a regional initiative that envisions liberalizing trade through the elimination of intra-regional tariffs and non-tariff barriers. In a move to forge stronger cooperation among the ASEAN member states to advance as one united force against many larger players in the region, ASEAN envisions an economic community with a single market and production base with free flow of goods, services, investment, capital, and skilled labor.

Industries and the manufacturing sector are receiving the most attention for AEC. However, though forestry agriculture and fisheries (FAF) is one of the specific measures requiring support and demanding action, forestry and social forestry appear to be somehow left behind.