This Professional Training and Exposure Visit program on “Community-Based Forest Management and REDD+” (Thailand Module) is a participant centered short program focusing on experiential learning, and field and exposure visits to discourse the successful case studies on how Thailand has progressed so far on its Forest Management through local participation and cooperation, and at the same time has experienced on local level adoption and implementation of REDD+. This program is being coordinated by AIT Extension in cooperation with experts from the academic institutions, professional bodies and different departments under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), Thailand.
The specific contents of this program will cover:
- Technical Inputs Sessions on CBFM, Livelihoods, Forest Biodiversity, REDD+ etc.
- Field/Exposure Visit Programs to few of the respective field projects and implementations sites.
- Integration and Presentation Session at the end of the program.
Forest is one of the most important and crucial resources to National and State’s economies; likewise, forest management is an important carbon mitigation strategy for developing countries (e.g., REDD and REDD+). Community forest management has long been recognized for achieving forest sustainability, improving the livelihood and welfare of rural people and conserving natural forest systems through local participation and cooperation around the world.
In Thailand, community forestry with participatory approaches are gaining momentum to increase the local awareness and adaptation capacity to climate change. The approach helps influencing social capital and knowledge to adaptive forest management through forest restoration activities. Royal Forest Department (RFD) and Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNPWPC), both are under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) of Thailand, play vital roles to promote adaptation activities to support local level climate change adaptation by enhancing resilience in multiple ways, viz., supporting livelihoods and income, increasing food security, leveraging social capital and knowledge, reducing disaster risks and regulating microclimates in the community forests with the application of Geoinformation Technology, and often in conjunction with awareness-raising on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus Conservation, Sustainable Forest Management, and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks).
