Side event
Communities speak about forests and livelihoods: Enabling mechanisms for a successful community enterprise initiative in forested landscapes
May 4, 2022 | 5:30 PM KST - 7:00 PM KST Conference Room 307B
May 4, 2022 | 5:30 PM KST - 7:00 PM KST
Conference Room 307B
Description
Small and medium-sized forest enterprises or community forestry enterprises have been proven to contribute to reducing poverty and improving food security. At the global level, there are around 45 million small- and medium-sized forest enterprises, accounting for 80-90% of enterprises within the forestry sector. However, sustaining the growth of these enterprises is challenging without secure tenurial rights, capital investments, and technical support to foster innovative and responsible business models—all of which are vital to providing market channels for community-based producers.
This side event aims to (1) highlight emerging models and initiatives that have successfully led to value creation and redounding of benefits to community forestry members, forest-based artisans, and small scale harvesters & producers; (2) discuss the challenges/struggles they experienced; and (3) present enabling mechanisms and responses to effectively overcome these challenges.
Cases and initiatives from various levels coming from community-based NTFP enterprises, youth organizations and young farmers network, women’s group, indigenous people’s network, and forest, and farm producer organizations will be presented.
This side event will form part of the #CommunitiesSpeak advocacy agenda, which weaves together the voices and experiences of a network of smallholders, community forest and farm producers and enterprises, local community indigenous peoples living in forests, and forested landscapes.
It will be co-organized by a consortium of three network organizations – Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), and the Non-Timber Forest Products – Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP), together with partner communities to ensure that the voices of communities will be heard in the World Forestry Congress 2021. This side event builds on the momentum gained by the consortium during the APFW2016 and 2019 in Clark and Incheon, respectively.
Convening organizations
Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme Asia (NTFP-EP Asia), Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), and the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) with support from the Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA)