To protect the environment and natural resources in green and sustainable ways

This is a success story about promoting community participation in the management and sustainable use of natural resources, whether it is defining the boundaries of forest reserves and village reserves, creating rules, creating monitoring groups, etc. It provided knowledge on disaster preparedness, promoted the production of more energy efficient stoves to reduce fuel consumption and help solve the climate change problem. which has some outstanding articles showing the success of some projects, invite you to read and follow along:

MHP's contribution to the FLEGT program and raising awareness of the use of wood—protecting the forest for the community

The Woman Mobilizing for Development Association Or Maeying Huamchai Phatthana (MHP) is a non-profit organization established on July 13, 2010, with the main goal of building the capacity of the community to have better health and living conditions, to be self-reliant and sustainable. Overall, the MHP Association is active in the fields of education, agriculture and forestry, nutrition, the environment, community development, empowerment, and business development for society.

Before participating in the implementation of the Forest Law, Management, and Timber Trade Program, or FLEGT program, the MHP association had never participated in the implementation of forest management work in the community before, with the project only focusing on improving the livelihood of the community, especially the ethnic women and ethnic groups in the mountainous areas, with an emphasis on income generation and food security. After participating in the FLEGT-VPA work since 2015, the MHP Association has also participated and contributed to the development of FLEGT work, namely: It has participated in the promotion of work and the creation of legislation on the Timber Legality Definition (TLD), in consultation meetings and training meetings held by the government sector, international organizations, and other parties. For VPA work, the association also participated in the meeting and contributed to many negotiations. Later, the association was improved to better support the community through various projects related to forest management, such as the project to promote women's groups, beekeeping groups, collective tea plantation cooperatives, forest protection chain management projects, and youth empowerment projects.

Currently, the MHP Association is strong enough to encourage and assist the community in better forest management. Mr. Inkong Boualaphit, the village head of Namyon Village, HouaiXaiy District, Bokeo Province, one of the target villages, said: "Before the forest management work was implemented, most of the people in the village cleared the forest for floating farming, but by 2015, the project started to change to permanent agriculture, and the clearing of forest for floating farming gradually decreased and eventually stopped."

Written by: Sengdao Phonmany, Date: Oct 2022

The Enabling the Lao CSO FLEGT civil society networks to support forest-user CBO to protect and promote their rights in Lao PDR (CBO FLEGT)