Global Alliance of Community Forestry

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Global Alliance of Community Forestry

• Sustainable Forest Management, Local development
  and Poverty reduction

GACF/IFFA side event 23rd April 2007, UNFF7
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GACF Background

• First International Encounter of Community on
  Access, Use and Management of Natural Resources,
  Nov. 2004 Guatemala.
• Lack of participation spaces
• for ground-based organizations
• in international and regional
• forums where key decisions
• which have an impact at local
• level are taken.
• Creation of the Global
• Alliance of Community Forestry

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GACF Objectives

• Link community organizations efforts in order to
  have a joint incidence in international and
  regional forums on issues of
• interest for our
• organizations.
• Promote capacities,
• knowledge and
• information exchanges
• acquired, between
• community organizations.

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GACF Background

• Second Encounter of the Global Alliance of
  Community Forestry, Nov. 2006 Nepal.
• Definition of
• Vision
• Mission
• Principles
• Values
• Strategies
• Membership Criteria
• Structure
• Immediate actions.

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GACF Mission

• Empowered and autonomous federations at global,
  regional, national and local levels which have
  ability to ensure rights of local people to
  access and control natural resources.
• Local communities and user groups capable of
  driving change in the direction of
  sustainability, good governance, self reliance
  and democratization of natural resource
  management.
• Promotion of enabling and inclusive environment
  for the stakeholders to take part in policy
  formulation process.
• Poverty reduction
• Make gender equity real.

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GACF in numbers

• 11 focal organizations throughout the world some
  of them with many local organizations as members,
  e.g. ACICAFOC- 70 organizations in Central
  America and FECOFUN- 15,000 Community Forest
  Users Groups in Nepal.
• (3 new organizations membership pending)
• Around 9 millions hectares of community forests.
• More than 9 millions persons approximately
  depending directly on products and community
  forest incomes.
• Important economical, ecological and social
  potential to reduce rural poverty

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• What Change After Community Forestry ?
• Nepal Example

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Nepals hills in 1970s
Unsustainable exploitation..
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Community forestry brought Nepals green hills
back Message people can protect and manage
forest in a better way than forest bureaucracy
alone
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GACF Contribution to Millennium Development Goals

• Direct access to communities and problems they
  face for sustainable management of forests (SFM).
• Organize community internships (capacity
  transfer) based on the needs expressed by them.
• Promotion and strong support for women actions to
  increase their participation in SFM.
• Identification of communities with reduced access
  in order for them to be linked to GACF
  information and activities.

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GACF Members Contribution to Millennium
Development Goals

• Improvement of livelihood in rural areas and
  natural resources conservation through forest and
  environmental governance at community level.
• Economic value given to timber and non-timber
  products as an alternative to natural resources
  conservation.
• Participative control of natural resources
  threatened by illegal logging in Southern
  countries.

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Key issues

• Deforestation because of Army camp, war, mega
  hydro and other projects, mining company etc with
  government support
• Marketing of the community forest product
• Donors, bilateral, multi lateral and unilateral
  organizations are not providing sufficient fund
  to strength the community organizations and their
  networks and federations
• Difference between voice of commitment and real
  actions
• Lack of strong coordination

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GACF Position on UNFF Work Program

• Stronger partnership between forest policy
  makers, public sector, forest users and civil
  society to find solutions to most pressing forest
  issues.
• Define clear criteria and success indicators in
  order to quantify UNFF work program.
• Stronger commitment of governments on key issues
  such as secure land tenure and support to user
  groups to give them the means to contribute to
  the fight against deforestation.

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Thank you for your attention
www.gacf-online.org