In February” RRI Partners and representatives of the Global Alliance of Community Forestry met in San Jose” Costa Rica and Beijing” China to lay out plans for further collaboration. Representatives agreed that RRI can play a valuable and strategic role in supporting the GACF by:

• Linking the community forestry alliance to international policy debates;
• Supporting the growth of GACF membership; and
• Promoting horizontal exchange internships among GACF members to promote horizontal learning and community-driven capacity building.

The meetings in Costa Rica followed the successful completion of a horizontal exchange between GACF members ACICAFOC” FECOFUN and CAFT from January 28th through February 16th. During the visit” FECOFUN and CAFT visited several communities to gain insights into the experience of ACICAFOC member organizations” including successes with community natural resource management” the nature of links between communities and governmental institutions” and the sharing of successful technical methods in agro-forestry.  In addition” ACICAFOC spent one week introducing FECOFUN and CAFT to its different collaborators in the region” providing an in-depth look at the implementation of its organizational strategy. Each GACF member reported valuable lessons learned from the exchange through the unique perspectives offered by GACF partners” their varying political advocacy strategies” organizational structures and technical approaches.

The GACF is currently preparing proposals for continued work with RRI along the strategic lines of collaboration identified at the February meetings. For more information on GACF” please visit their website here.