The meeting was held in Cagayan de Oro” Philippines on July 26 and 27. It brought together leading thinkers from Indonesia and the Philippines to discuss the challenges and opportunities for strengthening the development and implementation of a rights-based integrated natural resources management framework in their respective countries.

The gathering was sponsored by RRI and designed as part of the Listening” Learning and Sharing global exercise. Discussions will contribute to the international conference ‘Poverty Reduction and Forests: Tenure” Market and Policy Reform’” planned for Bangkok in September and sponsored by the regional Community Forestry Training Centre (RECOFTC) and the RRI. A similar meeting was held in early May and sponsored by the Regional Community Forestry Training Center (RECOFTC) in Bangkok. That meeting had included participants from Nepal” Thailand” Cambodia” Laos” and Vietnam. The meeting was jointly coordinated by the World Agroforestry Centre-South East Asia (ICRAF-SEA) and the Regional Community Forestry Training Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) with assistance from the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP). It was hosted by the Samdhana Institute at its newly established retreat centre in Bayanga” south of Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines.

Primary Objectives of the Cagayan de Oro Meeting were to:

1. Create or strengthen linkages between key players at the regional” national and local levels and who are active in promoting land and forest tenure and related policy reforms;

2. Capture new information” develop analysis on threats and opportunities” ideas and support for local strategies in Asia;

3. Facilitate the international expression of local voices or communities who are marginalized or disenfranchised by decision making processes that concern land use” forest area classifications and forest management priorities.

4. Provide an opportunity for participants to comment on and contribute to the development of a regional review of how selected Asian countries are addressing the rights and resources in their countries.

Read the complete summary of the meeting here: Summary_from_RRI_LLS_Insular_Asia.pdf