The Center for People and Forests in Cambodia (RECOFTC)

About us

Since our founding in 1987, this vision has provided RECOFTC with a clear direction, acting as a stabilizing goal in RECOFTC’s  rapid world of change. RECOFTC, however, is part of a larger history of community forestry. In the late 1970s, a growing consensus developed that recognized government - controlled forestry as inadequate. Following decades of centralized control and particular policies that focused on natural resource extraction, the Asia - Pacific region saw a rapid loss of forest cover along with a general decline in the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of forest - dependent people. This recognition was the first step in achieving our vision. Yet as community forestry progressed, it became clear that a lack of technical knowledge, skills, and effective approaches were hindering policy making and the implementation of community forests.

This regional understanding lead to the founding of the Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Government of Switzerland (through the Asian Development Bank) and Kasetsart University, Thailand. Acting as a regional hub for training and research on Community Forestry, RECOFTC was led by Dr. Somsak Sukwong of Kasetsart University. Thirteen years later, RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests was recognized as an autonomous international organization; an additional ten years after that, RECOFTC had expanded into regional countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam.