Future Perfect

[

] 114

ustainable

agriculture

wildlife

food

security

consumption

and

production

patterns

systems and creating the sub-district network through RECOFTC

and other organizations,” says Amporn Phetsart, President of the

Prednai Mangrove Conservation and Development Group, “but we

are facing new challenges now from climate change and need techni-

cal and institutional support.” In the past two years, RECOFTC has

run more than 50 workshops to help villagers handle conflict and

climate change impacts through adaptation techniques. Field studies

have corroborated the enormous climate change mitigation result-

ing from mangrove regeneration. In 2010, the Good Governance

for Society and Environment Institute found that mangroves help

absorb 1,205 tons of carbon dioxide each year. They act as a power-

ful wind shield, while their massive root systems help protect the

village against extreme weather events like hurricanes and tsunamis;

according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations, “mangroves can absorb 70-90 per cent of the energy

of a normal wave.”

In April last year, the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand, H.E. Ms

Katja Nordgaard, visited Prenai with RECOFTC and Mangroves for

the Future, to launch the first phase of coastal resource management

through the Community-based Learning Centers project. A green

economy is a knowledge economy and the project will research the

restoration of about 5,150 hectares of mangrove forest, to serve as a

greenbelt, carbon sink and income source from seafood. Two other

innovative pilots include the adoption of a low-carbon lifestyle in one

community and the leveraging of the Prednai Community Mangrove

Forest Management Fund, which could provide a prototype for a

future village climate change fund. Recently, the Fund supported

the purchase of seven hectares of land for mangrove expansion. The

six Learning Centers will be teaching the skills and knowledge for

sustainable mangrove practices to locals, who will return as teachers

and mentors for their communities. RECOFTC has been collecting

information from the 19 villages from June 2011, to study differences

in how these communities use natural resources and

how this impacts their livelihoods and surroundings.

This research will result in an action plan for sustainable

coastal resource management along the entire eastern

seaboard of Thailand, once the most degraded along

the Andaman Sea. The learning network will provide

economic, environmental and climate change solutions

to communities within this coastal province, while at the

same time engaging the younger generation in the chal-

lenges of future sustainability.

None is more pressing than the legal passage of the Bill

for Community Forestry, which would greatly enhance

the tenure rights of marginalized forest communities and

give them access to development funds. For two decades,

RECOFTC has been working with civil society and the

Royal Forest Department in helping 10,000 community

forests get legal recognition and take on the challenge of

sustainable development. Forests are the last frontier for

development in the world’s fastest urbanizing continent,

inviting us to find green solutions to the looming food,

water and energy crises threatening to undermine our

future prosperity. The people of Prednai have found a

green growth solution that has helped them flourish in

what was once an inhospitable swamp.

Mangrove walkway built by villagers attracts 1,000 tourists each year

Nearly 2,000 hectares of mangroves were restored through

community efforts

Image: Phinyada Atchatavivan

RECOFTC’s Vision:

Local communities can actively manage forests in Asia

and the Pacific to ensure optimum social, economic, and

environmental benefits.