We are a growing ASEAN civil society community – now numbering 47 organizations who are active in 8 countries, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The Civil Society Forum is participated in by civil society and community based organizations (CSOs) and indigenous peoples network and membership organizations present in ASEAN who are all active in the forestry sector in the implementation of capacity building, awareness raising, and technical support in programs on forest and NTFP livelihood and marketing, forest rights and tenure, and traditional and indigenous knowledge systems on natural resources, and projects in REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus). The ASFN Civil Society Forum, established in 2012, is a platform to distill, consolidate and relay key messages from CSOs and communities to ASEAN member states via the ASEAN Social Forestry Network .

In the 3rd year gathering of the ASFN Civil Society Forum in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia on May 22-23, 2014, the CSO Forum affirmed that there has been progress made in more than the thirty (30) years of practice in social forestry particularly when under a framework of cooperation among forestry stakeholders that include local communities, particularly indigenous communities and other forest dependent groups and civil society organizations (such as non-government organizations, academe, and research institutions).

In particular, progress has been made in terms of the continuous roll out of improvements in community forestry through policy reviews and clarifications; the twinning or integration of community forestry with rural development and livelihood projects. In some countries, support by both civil society organizations and government to community forestry and producer groups have made possible linking them to traders, intermediaries and processors in order to improve access to markets and efficiency in the value chain; and linking community forestry to business development services and other financing schemes. Finally, national multistakeholder coordination or consultation bodies have been established in some countries for social forestry and climate change, particularly REDD+ with civil society and indigenous community representatives, for example, in Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam.

Despite the significant progress, however, critical gaps still remain in the political will and commitment of Member States to realize long-term social forestry goals. Recently released assessment report on Social Forestry in climate change adaptation and mitigation in the ASEAN region by the Centre for People and Forests (RECOFTC 2014) noted that the deforestation rate still outpaces forest growth and national achievements on social forestry. Between 2010-2013, deforestation figures were at 13.3 million hectares compared to only 2.2. million hectares designated as community forests. The latter represents only 3.5% of forest area being managed by local people with official community forestry agreements. Some ASEAN countries demonstrate notable community forestry expansion within the last five (5) years such as Thailand (154%), Cambodia (62%), Philippines (38%) and Vietnam (15%) within the last five (5) years. However, the collective community forestry target within ASEAN at only 15.9 million hectares to a total remaining forest area of 434 million hectares (with forest cover decline at a rate of 6.3%) is not significant enough to generate maximum social and economic benefits for community economies that is consistent with ASEAN and its Member States’ sustainable development goals.

Under the auspices of the ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC), herewith we commit to engage with the ASFN towards the common objectives of:

(1) Developing and integrating social forestry approaches into the climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies of ASEAN and Member States and (2) Ensuring that socio-economic benefits are derived from the meaningful inclusion of the communities, women and vulnerable groups in social forestry and climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.