Transcript for GFP Canopy Equity, CBM

The biggest threat to forests

are poverty and also large scale commercial agriculture

I think that one of the biggest area that we don't tackle is consumption

Today, in this world, those who have resources are making decisions

We must include indigenous communities

in all levels of the decision making processes on forests

I think it's very difficult if you take a large logging company

and a pygmy village

you have to deal with the fact that there are difference powers

It's a much bigger risk if you try to ignore those social movements

and they totally frustrate your projects

We can't manage our resources

as long as the populations concerned

don't benefit

If government can put in place, a real good policy

regulations and laws, that's the start of everything

In order to engage those communities

the government decided, "Let's give the control of resources to local communities"

Local communities getting together and forming associations

and they get into partnership with the private sector

for example, industries that use fuel wood

so they plant trees when they make sure that they can sell to them

Most of those projects are no longer there in terms of sustainability

With many things, governments get the money

and people that really are concerned

they don't see very much of that

I think that there is a very strong need to capacity building

for autonomous indigenous people's organizations

really, the network they've established themselves

This is their forest it really has a lot of value

Not only in terms of logging or bush meat

but other things and carbon credit they can get

without even cutting a single tree

Sometimes we arrive in places where people don't even know

it has value. It's others that come to exploit

With these resources, in many villages

we have seen communities that we able to

manage the forests that we returned to them

Often that's been done very badly

Now, that's been done badly because that's been done very quickly

It's often been done because it's cheaper

at the state level

but the tab gets picked up both in terms of loss of

forest degradation of forests, impacts on communities

The system has to benefit everyone including the most vulnerable

You can decide on an international level whatever you want

the reality shows that it's not implemented in the field

I think that the responsability we have at the international level

is to facilitate this dialogue

A partnership should always be on the same level, bilateral

so that there is not one "I am the giver"

"and yes you are the taker and you better do what I say"

You have to help us strengthen our governance and accountability mechanisms

but when it comes to the actual development work

it has to be done by us