RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests

RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests

Type	International non-governmental organization
Industry	Community forestry Capacity building
Founded	1987
Headquarters	Bangkok, Thailand
Website	www.recoftc.org/

RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests is an international not-for-profit organization that focuses on capacity building for community forestry in the Asia Pacific region. It advocates for the increased involvement of local communities living in and around forests - some 450 million people in Asia-Pacific - in the equitable and ecologically sustainable management of forest landscapes. The Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) opened in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 1987 with support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Government of Switzerland (through the Asian Development Bank), and Thailand's Kasetsart University.

Originally a regional training and research hub for community forestry, RECOFTC now works on the ground through a network of strategic partnerships with governments, NGOs, development organizations and local people throughout Asia-Pacific, and has worked in parts of Africa. In 1999, a charter was developed with a proposal to turn RECOFTC into an international organization, which was signed by seven countries (all the Mekong countries and Switzerland). In 2000, the Royal Thai Government (RTG) signed an agreement with RECOFTC that formally recognized the Center as an autonomous international organization.

Training, capacity building and other learning activities remain central to RECOFTC's work, now complemented with on-the-ground projects, policy work, and strategic communications. In 2009, the organization adopted the new name RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests to reflect this broader scope of work.

To strengthen its regional program, RECOFTC established country program offices in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2010.

Thematic areas

The Center’s work is focused in four thematic areas:

• Expanding community forestry: Through frontline country programs, RECOFTC works to secure rights for forest-dependent communities to manage their forests.
• People, forests, and climate change
• Transforming forest conflict
• Securing local livelihoods

The Center's portfolio currently includes over 40 projects and services, including large capacity-building projects for REDD+ regionally and for community forestry in Cambodia.

Capacity building

Since its inception in 1987 as a regional training institution for forestry, the Center has trained over ten thousand practitioners at all levels in community forestry. The Center’s capacity-building program^[1] consists of training courses, learning activities and networks, workshops, and study tours. The program seeks to enhance skills in its four thematic areas, listed above.

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