I. First progress report (September 3, 2008)
Activities undertaken:
1. Building and promoting capacity of forest committee , community members and youth groups on natural significance in community forest
2. Building capacity of two training teams through study tours on natural resources and environment conservation

Results of activities:
1. Established three zones for survey and inventory with identified 97 native plant species
2. One nursery established for reforestation in one spot of target location with 2,000 native seeds in process
3. Additional 3,500 native species being grown and maintained
4. Increased awareness of target population witnessed through expressed attitudes in various contexts
5. Drafted Forest Learning Places with nine learning stations
6. Additional nine members and three networks being received into the model
7. Acquired initial data of biological resources in target area

Project communication:
On April 18-20, 2008, the project training teams gave an interview on history of the team and details of project which was aired on the community radio Youth-for-Forest of Baan(village) Slaengphan, Surin Province, FM 96.75 Mhz

Experiences and lessons learned:
Change of village leaders and members of Tambol Administrative Organizations who have actively participated in the project had caused delay orreduced effectiveness of the project. The change happens every four years through election. When there was an election of any scale, some or majority of these members pay more attention to the election race than to project activities. Many members ran the race themselves, since the elected position would guarantee and secure additional income, in addition to farming for consumption and sales of surplus to pay debts. Nothing much could be done to solve this attitude, except waiting till the situation clear itself naturally.

Project expense:
The project report the expense of THB:381,418.00 out of the first disbursement of THB: 393,717.06.

II. Second progress report (March 4, 2009)
Activities undertaken:
1. Continuing building and promoting capacity of forest committee , community members and youth groups on natural significance in community forest
2. Continuing building capacity of two training teams through study tours on natural resources and environment conservation
3. Launching reforestation
4. Conducting resources inventories surveying nature study trail together with students from Mahasarakham University
5. Establishing a seed museum

Results of activities:
1. Increased awareness/capacity of forest committee witnessed through established clear roles and responsibility , active sharing thoughts and ideas in formulation of action plans and expressing more understanding on conflict resolution thus reducing antagonism among major stakeholders in the area
2. About 1,500 native trees being planted and thriving in community reclamation area
3. Inventoried 97 species of medicinal value and established relevant database by GPS
4. The Dong Nong Iad Forest being offered by the Royal Forestry Department to be registered as ? Community Forest ? under strategy of the RFD.

Project communication:
1. The governor of Roi-et Province, the chief of Jaturaphakphiman District and the chief of Roi-et Provincial Natural Resources and Environment Office officially responded to community request by assuming project advisory roles (October 6-9 , 2008)
2. The project was awarded ? Intact Forest, Clear Water? ( October 26-28, 2008) and publicized in 4 national newspaper

Experiences , lessons learned, problem and issue:
The project referred to a group of men inviting three monks to practice in Par Dong Iad, at a location where water is plenty for wildlife. Community members were divided in opinion. The first was against the practice and suggested the monks to practice in a temple in village, the second tried to avoid touching the issue to keep image and the third tried to overlook the issue in spite of their responsibilities. Conflict resolution was applied with other appropriate measures.

Project expense:
The project report the accumulated expense of THB: 497,683.75 out of the sum first and second disbursement of THB: 799,094.53

III. Monitoring visit by NC and NSC (May 28, 2009)
Findings and observation:

At the office of Tambol Dong Daeng Municipality, Roi-et Province?s Jaturaphakphimarn District, 15 project leaders gave a brief to the visiting team on undertaken activities and produced results as well as their level of satisfaction. This short friendly sharing gave a sense of positive results project activities produced on cultivated lands and local food supply. Besides, demonstrated increased capacity of the leaders had prompted the municipality to establish a welfare fund for project members under the management of the project chairperson. With annual allocation of THB: 50,000 , the fund is donated to project members to mitigate family hardship upon death, illness and child delivery.

Par(Forest) Dong Nong Iad , classified as a fragmented forest, with area about 106 ha , was walked about. During one-hour stroll, the leaders demonstrated technical capacity briefing local ecosystem, qualities of species encountered, synergies built and future plan. It was related that 103 tree species in the forest had been inventoried. Additional capacity building activities by way of community-based research was said as being carried out, and witnessed through three plots, each of 50 meters x 50 meters, barricaded for detailed inventorying process to be carried out by community members and faculty of Mahasarakharm University.

A major stakeholder, Baan Dong Daeng Community School located in the fringe of Dong Nong Iad Forest was visited. The school, confirmed the director, regarded the project as very useful for communities and had been fully participating in the courses of activities by allocating school premises to be used for nursery process and project outreach, and supporting hands-on environmental study for students. More interestingly but not included in proposed activities, the school management encouraged students to use bicycles to commute. Nearly 200 out of 319 students were participating and contributing to reducing consumption of gasoline in rural mobility.

So far,the project appeared to successfully establish a model for Community Conserved Area (CCA) which was well recognized by both relevant stakeholders such as the Royal Forestry Department, local municipality, local public health office, and local educational institute (Mahasarakharm University?s Faculty of Communication Science, and Baan Dong Daeng Community School). Mainstreaming community approaches among national partners was on its way , since the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment?s National Environmental Fund had approved a grant for scaling up this model of forest conservation including that of an ex-GEF SGP Project (THA-04-31) to cover 10 communities and 20 community schools in the locality.

One community expressed concern, however, was the expansion of residential area encroaching or imposing threat to these forests. The visiting team recommended that the municipality apply a stronger legal or technical approach to discourage any new settlement too near to CCAs?.

IV. Mid-course evaluation workshop (September 1-2, 2009)
Together with eight other projects of the same grant cycle ( Project number:THA-SGP-OP4-RAF-07-01 to THA-SGP-OP4-RAF-07-06 and THA-SGP-OP4-CORE-07-01 to THA-SGP-OP4-CORE-07-04), the project attended the mid-course evaluation workshop.

Workshop-at-a-glance:
The meeting room of Par Darng Camp, in Petburi Province?s Kaengkrajarn District, the venue of the workshop, welcomed 24 representatives from 9 SGP projects from 9 provinces across the country and other five members of GEF SGP country team comprising NSC members , National Coordinator and programme assistants participating in the event. Literally, these 9 projects were dubbed among SGP
Thailand as GEF SGP Class 9 with project numbers enumerated above. One project missed this sharing opportunity, due to its internal managerial problem.

The workshop was opened with welcoming address by an NSC member stating workshop objectives and encouraging participants to openly share results of project activities and lessons learnt, including emerging problems/issues encountered during implementation.

With project posters on the walls and project outputs on the tables, the NC proceeded with the posters & outputs session. Each project was given ten minutes to brief its story with questions from the audiences. A few projects spent adequate time elaborating their stories when being directed with questions.

With an NSC member as the chairperson and one volunteering minute taker from the projects, the following session saw presentation , both by power point and hanging posters/photos , from 8 projects repeating their background, undertaken activities, immediate results, lessons learnt , problems and issues. With 15 minutes allowed for each, the session went smoothly with average one topic/presentation for sharing/discussion. Additional discussion ,especially during dinner. That was the first day.

The second day began with summarization of activities of the previous day and reconfirmation of the agenda, followed by a presentation of the one remaining project. The floor then was given to the NC for showing ,through video, activities of each project he recorded during project site visits. The video had proven to be a very good mechanism to make activities of each project more visible and better understood by participants. The NC also reminded projects about compiling completion reports , then shared strategy of Operational Phase 4 and prospects of Thailand GEF SGP.

The final session of the workshop included open discussion to keep this infantile natural environment network active. It was agreed that each project would keep on contacting one another and sharing experience. Some issues of common interest included compilation of relevant knowledge for future activities, setting up regional mechanism to facilitate networking process, and publication pocket book telling stories of each and every project. Two persons from two projects volunteered to be the class or network coordinator for publishing the pocket book and a focal point to produce the network website.

V. Completion Report (July 28, 2010):
Date of Participatory Evaluation( 18-19 March, 2010):

Number of Beneficiaries/ Participating personnel:
Women: 365
Men: 700
Children: 2,469

Number of persons trained/ attending seminars, joining study tours:
Women: 50
Men: 250
Children: 150

Expense:

Amount received from SGP (3 disbursements): Baht: 1,224,937.16
Total amount spent out of SGP budget: Baht: 1,314,313.50
Balance: Baht: (- 89,376.34)
Amount authorized for the final payment: US$: 3,966.13
Amount Received from others: THB: 185,000 (in cash)
THB: 974,000(in kind)
Activities undertaken:
1. Building and promoting capacity of forest committee , community members and youth groups on natural significance in community forest
2. Building capacity of two training teams through study tours on natural resources and environment conservation
3. Conducting workshops for forest committee on participatory knowledge management and monitoring & evaluation

Results of activities:
1. Emergence of one natural learning facility serving major stakeholders of at least 3,000 persons
2. Increased technical capacity of 35 forest committee members witnessed by ability to be resources persons and active cooperation/interaction with other stakeholders
3. At least 300 community members participating in the operation of Community Welfare Fund
4. Compiled summaries of learning on ? Model of Community Development for Rehabilitation of Thung Kula Ronghai? being publicized
5. At least 200 landrace species being conserved and planned for sustainable use in the 100-ha forest area
6. Persistent project activities arousing curiosity and interest of surrounding communities whose 50 persons applying for membership to participate in project activities
7. No evidence of forest regulation violation in surrounding communities
8. The community forest becoming a learning place for 244 students of Mahasarakharm University?s Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy , nursing and IT.

Project Communication:
Mostly, the project was made more visible and understood through mass media within the Roi-et Province, such as local newspapers, radio, TV network. In addition, some donors helped with the project communication , i.e. the Thai Fund Foundation through it ? Beautiful Forest, Clean Water ? Award Programme; and GEF SGP through a photo story to be used in the International Year of Biodiversity 2010. In addition, a website http://www.padongnongiad.org was created to ensure more visibility.

Plans and Activities for Sustainability:
1. With Dong Daeng Tambol Municipality as the main focal point for further cooperation, the project planned to scale up activities to cover five surrounding forests which comprise one community forest and four traditional or sacred forests.
2. The project planned to promote committee roles to influence local administrative organization to be more serious about enacting conservation and protection of natural resources and the environment.
3. The project would promote the use of alternative energy such as biogas from animal manure
4. The project would work more on biological diversity indicators for more easy use and understanding among community members and as a model.
5. The project would initiate the project ? Green Communities? and submit to the municipality to incorporate as one of its action plans.

Experience , Lessons Learnt , Problems and Issues:
1. With transparent project management and mutual understanding of all stakeholders, the project , so far, did not produce any negative effect to any individual but would in long term produce benefits for all. Therefore, any project manager should be optimistic and hopeful enough , if some negative feedbacks were heard and witnessed during the course of project.
2. Project manager should do their best to ensure that their project would not be used as ?a ladder for political benefits ? by corrupted politicians, both local and national level.
3. Specifically, the project management felt that it has been lucky during the course of project, since its donors, including GEF SGP , understood ?working style? of communities ? a kind of moral supports for them to carry out activities and address emerging issues.