Social Forestry Knowledge Tree

The social forestry knowledge tree

A knowledge tree for decision making for effective, efficient and equitable social forestry

What is the knowledge tree?

The knowledge tree is a rich source of information about social forestry practices in Southeast Asia.

It is a compilation of intelligence gathered by the ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry since 2005. The work of partners under the ASEAN Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change has enriched this body of knowledge.

The knowledge tree supports decision-making processes during the design and implementation phases of effective, efficient and equitable (3E) social forestry.

It also contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by achieving multidimensional social, economic and environmental outcomes in an effective, efficient and equitable way.

What is Social Forestry?

Social forestry offers an alternative form of forest management. It is an approach that balances the needs of local people with multiple external interests.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.

Contextual Building Blocks

Social forestry operates in a specific context and involves people with varied values and interests. It is important to understand this when planning social forestry programs to ensure they are implemented following the 3E criteria.

Successful social forestry programs include the following contexts:

Local aspirations
Rights and tenure
Forest potentials
Capacities and institutions
Enabling policies
External actors and markets

These contexts are not necessarily sequential and do not guarantee a particular set of outcomes. Each context, question and resource can be used independently depending on the needs and interests of users.

Under each context, there is a set of checklist questions and resources.

The checklist questions are framed around the 3E criteria to consider when planning, implementing and evaluating social forestry programs. They are not exhaustive and exclusive within each context.

There may be cross-cutting questions, and other questions may be relevant to some users. The resources include evidence, lessons learned and tools that can be used as reference or adopted and adapted as needed.

Building blocks