Rehabilitation of Degraded Forest Ecosystems in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam: An Overview

background

This document describes reforestation policies and actions in the four countries of the lower Mekong river: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Conclusions & Takeaways

Forest policy has shifted from a focus on exploitation and maximizing financial returns to sustainable management and protection. However, the shift has been difficult because of illegal logging, agricultural competitors, and other economic issues the countries have been facing. The authors suggest the following changes to improve the policy and practice related to forest restoration: Improving the means of characterizing degraded land, integrating socio-economic and environmental needs with forest rehabilitation initiatives, incorporating the restoration into landscape scale land use planning, establishing an approach to achieve local community participation, develop improved options for land use planning and land allocation, develop national level operational guidelines for restoration, and carry out applied research work to improve site/species matching (especially for native species).