First Regional Forum for People and Forests

Who Attended?

Eighty participants from 12 countries attended, with high-level government officials and international organization heads, carbon company representatives, researchers, and forestry experts from the region.

The keynote speech was delivered on the opening morning by Senator Heherson Alvarez, the Philippines Presidential Adviser on Climate Change. Read more about this inspirational environmentalist and human rights advocate on his personal website.

Other notables included Hua Duc Nhi, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Andrew Speedy, FAO Vietnam representative; Yam Malla, Executive Director of RECOFTC - the Center for People and Forests; Vicki Tauli-Corpuz, Executive Director of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigeneous Issues; Derek Trau, CEO of Carbon Conservation; and Kenn Mondiai, Executive Director of Partners With Melanesians Inc.

What Happened?

Day One - 18 August

Opening speeches by Hua Duc Nhi, Yam Malla, and Andrew Speedy.

Keynote address by Philippines Presidential Adviser on Climate Change, Secretary Heherson Alvarez

The remainder of the morning featured a screening of the video documentary The Burning Season, which was followed by a panel discussion moderated by RECOFTC's Thomas Enters.

The afternoon kicked off with three presentations: Payments for Environmental Services, carbon financing from the buyers perspective, and then carbon financing from the community/seller viewpoint. After a Q&A session and coffee break, the day wrapped up with an FAO presentation on relevant regional and global UN work, and a briefing on a Clean Development Mechanism project, where participants will visit on day two.

Day 2 - 19 August

Participants visited the Hoa Binh Afforestation/Reforestation Clean Development Mechanism project site. Divided into three groups they will discuss the project with local farmers, the project's social fund committee, and project initiators (Vietnam Forestry University, Honda, and JICA). Group presentations were synthesised and

Day 3 - 20 August

The morning began with a presentation synthesizing the lessons learned from the field visit, which was followed by a plenary discussion. Country forest carbon financing case studies were then presented from Cambodia, China, Nepal, and Vietnam; and followed by another panel discussion.

The final afternoon saw participants break into three groups to analyze the role of government, civil society, and the private sector in forest carbon-financing. After reporting back and a plenary discussion, the Forum drafted a Call for Action document.