ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry & Climate Change (ASFCC) - Phase III

SE-Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change and environmental degradation. More than 100 million poor people in the region heavily rely on the forests that cover 50% of the land area. Considerable efforts have been undertaken in ASEAN Member States towards the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community and the adoption of a common Vision for Food, Agriculture and Forestry 2016-2025 which is in line with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. This highlights the political willingness to pro-actively address issues related to climate change.

To contribute to food security through sustainable, efficient and effective use of land, forest, water and aquatic resources by minimizing the risks and impacts of and the contributions to climate change, addressing Social Forestry approaches developed and integrated into the climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in ASEAN Member States; and create discernible socio-economic benefits for communities and vulnerable groups and contributes to the broader SDGs targets.

Include a broader range of decision-makers and actors that influencing climate, environment, agricultural, energy and mining policies. However, forestry and climate change officials and decision makers in ASEAN member countries remain the key focus. Also targeted are ASEAN citizens, particularly poor people living in and around forests.

Three operational objectives and one institution-al objective for phase III:

1. A coordinated social forestry policy framework is developed and integrated into ASEAN and the national forest and climate change strategies of the Member States;
2. Local, national and regional knowledge sharing, Communication and networking on social forestry and climate change is strengthened & put into use.
3. Learning interventions/ best practices conducted in social forestry and climate change for broader implementation and policy development.
4. Framework for post-ASFCC period
    is implemented based on GPCC exit strategy.

Risultati principali attesi:  

Consolidation and institutionalization of social forestry into national climate change adaptation programs and REDD+, NDCs and regional cooperation initiatives; use of the ASEAN Strategic Response Fund (ASRF) flexible funding mechanism to support national and regional initiatives integrating social forestry in climate change mitigation and adaptation programs; dissemination of lessons from ASFCC to other sectoral programmes.

Risultati fasi precedenti:  

Through capacity building and research, SDC has supported social forestry approaches for over three decades in East and Southeast Asia. Phase I of the ASFCC has established a functional network to bring these results to the policy level. Phase II has integrated this network into the broader ASEAN mechanism, with the wide recognition of the role of the people depending on forests in addressing climate change. Up-scaling the social forestry/climate change nexus at a larger policy level, incl. REDD+, NDCs and SDGs is the continuing task for Phase III, combined with the institutionalisation in ASEAN framework of structures and processes established through AFSCC.

National and local technical authorities in ASEAN Member States (AMS), non-governmental organizations and communities

SDC Regional Programme for Mekong; GIZ-ASEAN support program (GAP-CC); Asian Development Bank (ADB), IFAD, World Bank, World Bank/FCPF and UN-REDD climate initiatives in 7 ASEAN countries, FAO regional office for Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok).

Fase 3 01.03.2017 - 31.08.2021   (Completed)