Problem overview:

     Training and educational initiatives: It is not always necessary that forestry experts are the only ones who could conduct forestry data collection. Proven in the case of Community Forestry Assessment and Monitoring in the Solomon Islands where villagers have been trained to carry out the task with assistance from technical experts.

     Meeting information requirements: Forestry monitoring and assessment are prerequisites for Ecoforestry. Information on forest density, type of wood, size of trees, etc. are important for finding the optimum level of timber that should be cut down. Therefore, meeting the information requirements should not be neglected.

Background in summary:

     Developing ecoforestry in the Solomon Islands: The Solomon Island Development Trust (SIDT) and Greenpeace Ecoforestry Programme have been assisting forest communities in the Solomon Islands on community based forestry assessment and monitoring programmes to promote small-scale ecoforestry.

     Initial process is to give training to villagers: The training process included a week of forest management and planning. The villagers were taught how to draw a land use plan and map their land boundaries, garden and village areas, water supplies, and other important features such as zones of valuable trees. Decisions were made on which areas will be protected and which will be used for ecoforestry.

     Then comes the data collection process: There was no tree inventory of the whole property, instead the logging group mapped the hectare blocks in detail just prior to an actual logging operation. They paced off the 100m by 100m grid and recorded the location, names and sizes of trees. The trees to be cut were marked. The marked trees were cut and milled where they fell by using a chain saw with a timber guide. The wood was then carried out by hand so no roads need be built.

     Accumulation of forestry data: A database of the forest area is gradually built up as each block of land is mapped. SIDT keeps a copy of the Block Record Sheet and so does the village eco-forestry management committee. In time, the locations and sizes of all trees will be mapped, including timber as well as nut trees, canoe trees and other trees.

Peer Review Committee Good practice rating: (1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score)
Sustainability		Efficiency
2	Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other.	2	Cost efficient.
2	Sustainable over time (not one-off)	Process
Adaptability		2	Participation of the community
3	Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?)	2	Participation of resource owners/users
3	Socio-cultural adaptability.	2	Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private)
2	Level of development adaptability.	-	Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments.
3	Style of government adaptability.	-	Ability to attract political interest/support
3	Degree of decentralization adaptability.	2	Procedures for feedback and review.
Comments on this example:      Training and educational initiatives: The nature of timber resource is that it takes time to grow; therefore, forestry data collection has to be a long-term task. However, funding to support such tasks does not last forever and the group of researchers to carry out the task could not work on this forever either, hence, the Forestry Department ends up with a non-continuous series of data, which will not be useful for any kind of model calculation. Fortunately, the approach of having villagers record forestry data should be the answer to eliminate all these problems. Sustainability of the project:   Adaptability of the project to other situations:       Eco-Forestry projects have been initiated in other countries but most lack direct involvement of the community in forestry assessment and monitoring. These countries could benefit from a close examination of the SIDT methods. Process of decision making and implementation:      Meeting information requirements: When the team drew the guidelines for assessment and monitoring they gave no thought to linking this data with national databases. Ideally, information gathered at the community level will flow into the National Geographic Information System. Cost efficiency:      As mentioned above in the comment section, field survey and data gathering carried out by professional researchers require a lot of funding. However, with villagers volunteering to do the job instead, the process could be carried out with very minimal cost and yet for a long period of time.