RMFN–Asia will develop inclusive, collaborative and localized approaches to implementing forest landscape restoration and improving local livelihoods in the pursuit of sustainability. We aim to produce and share knowledge on forest landscape restoration approaches that demonstrably improve governance and decision-making processes, reduce human-wildlife conflict, address environmental degradation, improve social and economic equality, and build climate resilience. This focus will also enable Model Forests to identify and help to address key challenges to scaling up forest landscape restoration and sustainable livelihoods development.
We will support inclusive, collaborative approaches that raise awareness and capacity among all landscape stakeholders, enabling them to adapt to change. Sustainable livelihood approaches that we will support include agroforestry, ecotourism, collection of non-timber forest products and opportunities that arise from integrating forest landscapes into carbon, conservation and ecosystem markets.
We will also promote the development and use of practical and innovative approaches to sustainable livelihood development, forest landscape restoration and decision-making processes. Examples of approaches include using traditional ecological knowledge and practices to build climate resilience, planting living fences to keep elephants away from crops or carrying out participatory rural appraisals to identify new livelihood options. We would also utilize state-of-the-art technologies for landscape management, including geographic information systems and the use of drones and smartphone applications for mapping and monitoring.