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Vietnam has suffered deforestration and forest degradation during the past 40 years, and these processes are still issues of interest. Rapidly expanding populations and migration into forest areas are among the major reasons why pressures remain to clear forests to provide additional agricultural land. State Forest Enterprises have also contribute to forest degradation by engaging in unsustainable harvesting to meet production quotas set by contral government. The government has long recognised the need to rehabilitate the large areas of degraded forest land, and has established ambitious programmes to "re-green the barren hills" through the 327 programme structure. For now, another significant challenge is the need to change the culture of forestry agencies from one that emphasised control over forest land to one that emphasises facilitation and partnership with local communities.

Men and women from around the world describe their landscapes and adventures in collaborative management so that others can learn from their experience.

The project relied on the rich local knowledge of the Sukuma people about their natural resources and ways of managing them. “Ngitili – or “enclosures” or fodder reserves” in the local Sukuma language were traditionally used for conservation and restoration of range-lands and governed under customary law, are now the true driver for the astounding success of the forest restoration in the region.

This publication presents practical guidelines for participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation workshops that can be conducted with the members of a multi-stakeholder platform. The method consists of three tools. The first one supports looking ahead, identifying priorities for future multi-stakeholder collaboration in the landscape. The second one is used to look inward. It focuses on the processes within an existing platform in order to identify areas for possible improvement. The third tool is for looking back, by identifying the main outcomes of a platform and comparing them to the original objectives. The tools can be used together or separately – either with external consultants or by platform members themselves.

Sustainable management of the natural resource base is one of a very few, truly fundamental issues that the international community will be obliged to address effectively over the next two decades. The last twenty years have seen an emphasis on global and national economic management; the next twenty will need to address environmental management effectively. This needs to follow a globally structured approach, based on adequate, reliable, up-to-date data and knowledge, and governed by appropriate international strategies and agreements. One key product sorely lacking to reach this goal is an overview of where land degradation takes place at what intensity and how land users are addressing this problem through sustainable land management. In order to fill this knowledge gap, three projects (WOCAT, LADA, DESIRE) have come together to establish the current status, while mapping out a route forward.