In developing countries, support structures for forest associations either do not exist or fail to reach those who need help most. It is this lack of “connectedness” that the “Forest Connect” initiative (coordinated jointly by FAO and IIED in 13 partner countries) addresses. More specifically, Forest Connect aims to better link sustainable small forest enterprises to each other (through associations), to markets, to service providers and to policy dialogues. One of the early outputs of Forest Connect has been a draft Forest Connect Toolkit, comprised of 16 guidance modules for the facilitation of support to small and medium forest enterprises. Module 14 specifically aims to help facilitators enhance the social sustainability of community forest enterprise producers. It provides guidance on identifying appropriate institutional and governance structures for community forest enterprise organizations and on strengthening performance with regards to using a triple bottom line approach of economic viability, social equity and ecological sustainability. The third year of Forest Connect in China has been dedicated to field-testing. In order to test the applicability of Module 14 in China and to contribute to the enrichment of the overall FC Toolkit, two Forest Farmer Cooperatives in Longquan, Zhejiang Province were selected.

Type of Case
Printed publication (book, sourcebook, journal article…)

Publisher
FAO

Region
Asia Pacific

Biome
All

Forest Type
All forest types (natural and planted)

Primary Designated Function
All