Asia Dialogue on Community Forests and Property Rights in the context of Climate Change will take place on 11 and 12 August, 2010. This promises to be an important platform for discussing how the emerging REDD+ architecture and approaches  can be considerably enhanced as we move towards COP-16 in Cancun at the end of this year. In particular, the focus will be on how the rich and diverse experience in community forestry of Asian countries can enrich this policy process not only in Asia but also the rest of the world.

The overall motive behind the workshop is to provide a space for open and frank exchange of ideas and developments amongst regional decision-makers, civil society, community groups and academics on the role of community forestry status of common property regimes and their implications for climate change mitigation within Asia. The dialogue will be convened for 2 days and be open to the public with a limited number of participants (80-100) with priority given to invited participants. It will be organize to maximize time for discussion and exchange with each session being led by an introductory presentation followed by comments from the panel members.

To ensure that the dialouge fosters a balanced and informed debate, approximately 80-100 participants will be invited from the following sectors and groups.

• Representatives from Asian governments (Climate negotiators, Ministries of forest, land, environment)
• Community representatives and local institutions from Nepal
• Civil Society (Asian, International)
• Representatives from multi-lateral funds and intitiatives (UNREDD, FCPF, FIP)
• Representatives from donor countries (SDC, DFID, Norad, Sida, USAID, etc )
• Representatives from regional institutions (e.g. ICIMOD)
• Academia and research

Organizing Partner: RRI will co-host the event with the Government of Nepal and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Collaboration with GACF, FECOFUN, Swiss Intercooperation and RECOFTC.