GACF

The members of the Global Alliance of Community Forestry are :

Asia	Nepal	Federation of Community Forestry Users of Nepal (FECOFUN)
	Indonesia	Kalimantan Barat
Oceania	Papua New Guinea	Foundation for People and Community Development (FPCD)
Africa	Cameroon	Coopérative Agroforestière de la Trinationale (CAFT) (Tri-National Agroforestry Cooperative)
	Democratic Republic of Congo	Appui aux Initiatives Locales pour le Développement Communautaire (AILDECO-CONGO) (Support to Local Initiatives for Community Development)
Europe	Finland	Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)
North and centeral America	Costa Rica	Asociación Coordinadora Indígena y Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria de Centroamérica (ACICAFOC) (Central American Indigenous and Peasant Coordinator of Community Agroforestry)
	Mexcio	Comunidad Indígena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro (Indigenous Community of Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro)
South America	Peru	Coordinadora Indígena y Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria del Perú (COICAP) (Indigenous and Peasant Agroforestry Coordinator of Peru)
		Comunidad Santa Rosa del Chivis- Empresa Ecopoyeniri (Santa Rosa del Chivis Community- Ecopoyeniri Entreprise)
	Colombia	Junta de Acción Comunal El Porvenir (El Porvenir Community Action Group)
	Ecuador	Asociación de Apicultores de Vilcabamba (APIS) (Vilcabamba Bee-keeping Association)

The challenge is now to build and start implementing this Global Alliance by building an extensive communication between the focal points and give a follow-up to the guidelines and proposition made during the meeting of Guatemala. In addition, the community organizations decided to hold a second meeting in October 2006 in Nepal to discuss their advance on the construction of their global agenda and share more specific information on their experiences, like the important organizational process of FECOFUN. It is hoped that roles and responsibility, Terms of References, membership mechanism, executive structure, funding sustainability and future plan of the GACF will be discussed in the Nepal encounter. The Second International Encounter of Community Forestry, Nepal was proposed for February 2006 and will now take place in September 2006..

Objectives of GACF

	General Objective
	The objective of the Global Alliance on Community Forestry is to build a political and community process that will be able to present and defend a concerted position on community management of natural resources, to international, national and regional organizations and institutions related to environmental and social issues.
	Specific Objectives
1.	Build the structure of the GACF whose bases have been created during the International Encounter of Communities in Guatemala in November 2004.
2.	Develop a communication link and a database on community forestry to be able to concert a common position on community access, use and management of natural resources.
3.	Participation of the GACF focal points in key events and meetings for the community forestry position to be able to have an impact on international, national and regional policies and decisions.
4.	Systematize some of the organization’s experiences for the exchanges between communitarian organizations to be as rich as possible and to demonstrate that community forestry is the solution for environmental and social problems.

Expected Results

The expected results of the Global Alliance on Community Forestry activities and the Second International Encounter of Community Forestry in Nepal are

	Consolidating the structure and functioning of Global Alliance on Community Forestry (GACF).
	Define a concerted position on access and use of natural resources to present and defend it in international meetings and forums.
	The Nepal meeting will be a milestone for the other participants to learn more in community forestry from the Nepal field visit.
	The experience sharing from each region and individual community organization and participants will help to broaden the knowledge of community forestry. It is hoped that best practices will be replicated by others.
	The case study, regional presentations, global issues of community forestry, way foreword and process of the whole meeting will be documented in prints and electronic (video documentary also) publications.

The conclusion, the Global Alliance of Community Forestry was created by community organizations worldwide to secure that their position and needs are heard and reflected at international, regional and national level, and to demonstrate the importance of community forestry worldwide and its contribution to protect the environment and better the life conditions of communities.

The Global Alliance is now in the process of building at an internal level and consolidating a common position after the main guidelines have been laid out in Petén, Guatemala by the organizations. A communication link already exists for the GACF all the focal points report their activities, their negotiations with their government and regional meetings, and consult us on the activities. The Second International Encounter of Community Forestry in Nepal will be organized in October/November 2006.