Menu
Chapters Foreword

Introduction

  1. Foreword
  2. Message from the Executive Director
  3. The year that was
  4. Working towards impact

Ensuring forest landscapes provide climate solutions

  1. Eight forests, six countries and a shared framework for learning
  2. New terms for community forestry in Riau, Indonesia
  3. Community forest groups in Nepal invest in recharge ponds
  4. Moving beyond monoculture in Viet Nam’s coffee farms

Securing rights and inclusive governance

  1. Making forest tenure processes work for women
  2. Planning for forests through participation
  3. Strengthening inclusive governance in Chitwan’s buffer zones

Supporting growth of forest landscape-related businesses

  1. Building a mangrove business around mud crabs
  2. From forest management to forest income
  3. Building stronger coffee businesses in Viet Nam’s Central Highlands

Securing finance for sustainable forest landscapes

  1. Restoring watersheds, one tree at a time

Generating evidence for influence

  1. Chiang Mai’s community forests take ownership of biodiversity data
  2. Building a regional research community
  3. From development site to urban conservation area
  4. Mapping oil palm from the ground up
  5. Thai community forests earn Green Globe recognition

Engaging the public on forest landscape issues

  1. A new generation of forest guardians
  2. Community members map their forests in western Thailand
  3. Peering into curtained forests
  1. Board of Trustees
  2. Our project donors, partners and networks
Nur Masripatin

Foreword

For the hundreds of millions of people who live in and beside the forests of the Asia-Pacific, healthy forests are not merely a backdrop to development. They are among the most biodiverse and ecologically important regions on Earth. They regulate water and anchor livelihoods. They absorb carbon and sustain cultural identities that reach back generations.

RECOFTC was established nearly four decades ago on the premise that community-based approaches to forest governance are not only more equitable, but more effective. That premise has only grown in standing over time: Where communities hold secure rights to forest landscapes, deforestation slows, biodiversity is better maintained and livelihoods are more resilient. The challenge is to keep working to put this knowledge into policy and practice at the scale that global commitments to climate and biodiversity demand.

This annual report presents the work RECOFTC undertook in 2024–25 across Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam. That breadth of work reflects how much community forestry now demands: capacity development, governance reform, landscape interventions, research and knowledge exchange.

Yet the context in which RECOFTC does this work is shifting. The funding landscape for development cooperation is under considerable strain. Sustaining the breadth and ambition of what this organization does requires continued investment from donors who recognize that community-led forest management is not a peripheral development concern.

RECOFTC's Strategic Plan for 2023–2028 charts a deliberate course: deepening the landscape approach, securing rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, strengthening governance and expanding access to economic benefits from sustainable forest use. The ambition is right and the partnerships are in place. What this period demands is the resolve to hold this course.

As Chair of the Board of Trustees, I am grateful for the commitment of RECOFTC's staff, the confidence of our partners and the generosity of our donors. I am also grateful to the communities whose knowledge and persistence are, in the end, what this organization is built on. The forests of this region still stand – and thrive – because of them.

Nur Masripatin
Chair of the Board of Trustees
RECOFTC

RECOFTC’s work is made possible with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Government of Sweden.