Guidelines on Community Forestry.

Community forestry is a strategy for sustainable forest management through the participation of rural people, by making the objectives of rural people central in forest management and ensuring that rural people obtain reasonable benefits from forest management. These Guidelines on Community Forestry set out draft guidelines for field level implementation of community forestry, and strategic measures to be taken at national level to support community.
Specific objectives of the guidelines include: 1. To introduce key community forestry concepts and methods relevant to promoting community forestry in Cambodia 2. To provide a framework for participation by local communities in the sustainable management of forest resources, based on conveying to communities the legal rights and responsibilities for managing, using, and benefiting from designated forest areas in which they have an active interest and dependency 3. To guide the mobilization and strengthening of community-based organizations for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of community forestry, recognizing and respecting cultural traditions and knowledge in relation to forest use and management, and including the integration of women in decision-making 4. To assist in clarifying organizational roles and relationships and to promote coordination and cooperation among RGC agencies, development cooperation agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector in the development of community forestry 5. To accelerate the introduction of new, locally appropriate techniques for improving forest production (such as agroforestry, improved swidden, seedling production, bamboo and rattan, propagation, forest intercropping and non-timber forest product production, etc.) 6. To promote private investment in association with community forestry (such as commercial forest plantations, non-timber forest product production and market development, private seedling production, and other marketoriented enterprises which can complement and strengthen community forestry).
In addition, the Guidelines put forward essential dispute resolution principles and mechanisms for consideration should difficult conflicts arise.