Youth in Cambodia and Lao PDR strengthen communication and content creation skills to boost forest advocacy

RECOFTC has completed two training workshops aimed at equipping young people with practical communication and content creation skills to support community-led forest advocacy efforts. The workshops, titled ‘Youth communication for social change: Graphic design, photography, video and content creation’, were held in Cambodia from 17–18 January 2026 and in Lao PDR from 20–22 February 2026.

The trainings brought together youth champions from RECOFTC’s ‘Youth as guardians of the forest’ project, including participants from rural and Indigenous communities, university students and young government officers. Building on earlier capacity-building events on forest knowledge and communication, these workshops focused on hands-on learning and real-world application.

Youth in Cambodia working in a group to practice graphic design.

Participants were coached on storytelling and graphic design principles, photography and videography techniques, production workflows and commonly used digital tools. Through group work, field exercises and guided practice, young people enhanced their ability to craft powerful stories and create compelling visual and audio content tailored for community advocacy and social media outreach.

Lao youth presenting a draft post for their social media campaign during a training in Vientiane.

The workshops mark the completion of the project’s youth training plan. With new skills and strengthened confidence, participants are now preparing to launch a coordinated social media campaign and a series of community-based advocacy events from March to August 2026 to amplify community voices and advocate for the sustainable use and protection of forest resources.

RECOFTC will continue to support the youth with mentorship and learning opportunities as they move from training to real-world action, helping strengthen a new generation of forest champions across Cambodia and Lao PDR.

###

Lu Qian is a communication and project support coordinator (on a secondment from APFNet) at RECOFTC.

The ‘Youth as guardians of the forest’ project aims to create a new generation of forest guardians in Cambodia and Lao PDR. It focuses on enhancing youth awareness about forest conservation, wildlife and forest crimes and sustainable forest management practices. It is supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) through funding provided by the Government of Canada.