The USAID Cambodia Supporting Forests and Biodiversity Project (USAID SFB), implemented by Winrock International improves conservation and governance of the Eastern Plains and Prey Lang Landscapes. To assist forest communities to improve governance and obtain equitable benefits from forest resources, USAID SFB developed this NTFP (Non-Timber Forest Products)-Based Livelihoods Enterprise Development and Management Training Manual.
This manual provides a practical framework and technical guidance to develop sustainable natural resource extraction. USAID SFB envisions that this manual will be used by forest communities, development partners, government institutions, and NGOs to train persons who will train others as well as to train community members directly.
This NTFP Training Manual consists of six modules:
- TRAINING MODULE I – Sustainable Livelihood Approach: To provide a basis for understanding the concept of sustainable livelihoods approaches and to use the sustainable livelihood analysis tool to identify potential livelihoods options in communities
- TRAINING MODULE II – Group Formation Process and Rules and Regulation Development: To enable facilitation with NTFP groups to develop internal rules and regulations for community forestry development.
- TRAINING MODULE III – Guidance for Management and Sustainable Harvest of Bamboo Resources: To improve knowledge about basic concepts of bamboo taxonomy and its growth, sustainable harvesting techniques, and field monitoring and management of bamboo.
- TRAINING MODULE IV – Sustainable Resin Harvesting and Processing Techniques: To impart technical knowledge for sustainably tapping resin and how to protect resin tree seedlings.
- TRAINING MODULE V – Resin Tree Inventory: To share information to community forest resin group members about the steps of the inventory process, describe how to train villagers and resin group members, and present how to conduct a participatory inventory of resin trees.
- TRAINING MODULE VI – Business Plan Guideline: To enable participants to calculate cost of NTFP products per unit, analyze the market and prepare a market strategy, conduct a cost analysis and a break-even analysis, and prepare a business plan.
We hope this NTFP Training Manual will encourage sustainable harvesting, improve market development, and increase incomes to forest communities through improved sustainable management of Cambodia’s limited natural resources.
— USAID SFB
