1st Quarterly Meeting of Steering Committee of CSO REDD+ Network in Cambodia

The Cambodia CSO-REDD+ Network of the NGO Forum on Cambodia facilitated the First Quarterly Meeting of Steering Committee on February 26, 2020. The meeting had three main objectives
1. Disseminate the 2020 operational plan of the Cambodia CSO-REDD+ network.
2. Strategic Discussion on the Up-coming activities,
3. Strengthening Voices of Non-State Actors including CF, CPA, and CFi,

There were 06 (1 Female) Steering Committee members and secretariates who participated in this quarterly meeting, which was facilitated by Mr.Pheap Sophea, Land and Forestry Program Manager of the NGO Forum.

The results of the meeting as below;

1. Disseminate the 2020 operational plan of the Cambodia CSO-REDD+ network.

The Annual Operational Plan of CSO-REDD+ Network divided into four mains areas:

  • Capacity Building focused on training, exposure visit, and strengthening knowledge related to REDD+, customary rights, land tenure rights, and others.
  • Networks and alliance coordination included national and international meetings, annual reflection meetings, quarterly meetings, monthly meetings, and other network meetings or consultation meetings.
  • Evident-Based Information included producing research, documentation, case study, fact-finding, investigation, evaluation, video producing, and data analysis reports for further dialogue.
  • Policy Dialogue and Engagement brought evident-based information from network members and partners to meet with the national and sub-national government. As well as organized policy dialogue for solving issues, policy and law enforcement and improvement for the benefit of the poor and vulnerable people.

2. Strategic Discussion on the Up-coming activities,

2.1 Organizing Awareness Workshop on Concept and Implementation of REDD+ Program

The network is going to organize awareness-raising workshops to strengthen the concept of REDD+ implementation to University students such as the Royal University of Agriculture and the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Besides, the Secretariat of the network is looking for a Steering Committee member and Network member, who has enough ability to share any related to topics of the REDD+ program that has been implemented in Cambodia.

Steering Committee mentioned that the selection of resource persons should be identified for those who are implementing the REDD+ program, as well as who is REDD+ researcher for the national and international from the basic to expert level with the high confidence and reliability.

2.2 Organizing Training Workshop to CSO-REDD+ Network Member (iv) Contribution to Community Forestry (CF),

The Steering committee members understood that the network membership should be updated in advance to prepare training more effectively and better results for network members.

After updating the network members, the Secretariat of the network has to organize evaluation assessment training topics that are selected by the network members as well as the capacity development plan made by the V4MF project. In this case, it will help them to understand the subject quickly and also respond to their requirement.
In this case, the Network Secretariat may raise some thematic issues as an alternative to them relating to customary tenure rights, land tenure rights, and REDD+ program implementation that have been implementing in Cambodia.

2.3. Discussion on the topic of organizing ASEAN Forestry 2020 in Cambodia

The ASEAN Forestry Forum is going to organize in Cambodia by June 2020. The Forestry Administration encouraged CSOs to organize a CSO meeting before the ministerial meeting.
It is advised to consult with NGO members and partners who have experience in organizing the forum. Also, we can mobilize funds and resources to prepare the event.

3. Strengthening Voices of Non-State Actors including CF, CPA, and CFi,

The secretariate was under communicating with network members for updating a list of network members as well as encourage representatives of CF, CPA, and Cfi to involve effectively in the network meeting to share the progress, lesson learned, challenges, and propose options to deal with those challenges. It would help bridge and strengthen the voice of the community to the government through the coordination of NGOs.

Next action plan

☞ The network members’ meeting will be held in March 2020 before the consultation on the simplification of the community forestry management plan of the Forestry Administration.
☞ The Secretariat must update the network members list.
☞ Member organizations can request support if the target community has a problem that is related to the core mission of the network.
☞ The secretariat shall meet with other members and partners to discuss the preparation of the ASEAN Social Forestry.
☞ Consider organizing a visit to the Carbon Monitoring Area and the Agroforestry community to study the lesson learned at the ground.

Finally, Mr. Pheap Sophea, Land and Forestry Program manager, thanked all members for their excellent cooperation and spent valuable time attending REDD + Network Management Committee meetings with Cambodia, and he closed the meeting.