Building the APFNet Sustainable Forest Management Training Centre for more effective communication in the Greater Mekong Subregion
The Lancang–Mekong River is one of the world's largest rivers and the watershed area covers Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Wangzhangshan Forest Farm, Pu’er prefecture in southern China, upstream of the Lancang–Mekong River, is of great importance for water conservation, erosion, landslide control and so forth. To promote the integrated management of forest ecosystems in the watershed, improve the economic, social and ecological functions of the forest ecosystem, and facilitate the construction of an ecological civilization in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), APFNet has been supporting the “Integrated Forest Ecosystem Management Planning and Demonstration Project in the Greater Mekong Subregion (Pu'er Project Site, P.R. China)” (IFEMPDP) since 2016 , which belongs to one of the six APFNet IFEMPDP projects.
Signing ceremony among the three parties: Pu’er Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Wanzhangshan Forest Farm and APFNet. To further enhance the outputs of the Pu’er project and enhance communication among partners in the GMS, a platform for communication and a base for training programmes that can meet the current capacity development requirements in the Asia-Pacific region, are needed. Wangzhanshan Forest Farm, considering its geographic advantages and room for demonstration sites, is an ideal partner for such an endeavour. As such, the establishment of the “APFNet Training Base” for sustainable forest management (SFM) was put on APFNet’s agenda.
The project aims to build a multifunctional Training Base, which will combine training, communication, publication and dissemination, forest experience, and the demonstration of best SFM practices. The training base is expected to provide a platform for information sharing and policy dialogue among international forestry officers, which will promote SFM in the region.
On 14 January 2020, the project agreement signing ceremony was held at the APFNet Kunming Center in China. Mr Cai Maowei, the Deputy Director of Pu’er Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Mr Chen Wenjie, the Director of Wanzhangshan Forest Farm and Dr Lu De, the Executive Director of APFNet signed a three-party project agreement, which will establish a second APFNet Training Centre in addition to the first one located in Wangyedian Forest Farm, located in Inner Mongolia, China, under a different project
