I. First progress report (July 9, 2008)
Activities undertaken:
1. Building capacity of target population
2.Demonstrating community approach on reversing land degradation by maintaining humidity
3. Launching re-vegetation using native species
4. Conducting participatory evaluation
5. Disseminating project results, products and data & information

Results of activities:
1. Increased capacity of target population ( 240 persons) witnessed through active participation , expressing desires to revise local practice , especially on retaining humidity in marginal lands.
2. A plot of three-quarter acre being established as a pilot for land degradation, reforested with six native species
3. Additional 57 community members from adjacent villages demonstrating increased awareness in the virtue of project approaches and requesting for membership

Project communication:
1. Through community meetings and seminar
2. Producing and distributing tracts

Experience and lessons learnt:
Since community organizations in the province was implementing its plan according to the Community Organization Council Act, the project was positively influenced and fared comparatively smoothly. Nevertheless, there were still limit numbers of CBOs having insight on and carrying out activities in this specific approach , i.e. sustainable environment development, with result-based management.

II. Second progress report (January 30, 2009)
Activities undertaken:

1. Continuing building capacity of target population
2. continuing demonstrating community approach on reversing land degradation by maintaining humidity

Results of activities:

1. (Official) community leaders such as, members of Tambol Administrative Organization, village chief and Tambol Chief gaining insight about the project and beginning to show unprecedented favour to the project
2. Additional three acre being established as a pilot for land degradation

Project communication:

The project kept on with distributing tracts/leaflets during capacity-building events and publicizing through community radio, local newspaper. On July 10, 2008, a newspaper publicized a story about the project reflecting its activities on holistic development issue.

Experience and lessons learnt:
The project referred to the escalating fuel price as a problem to slowdown some activities. This was solved by reducing car use and increasing telephone, and decreasing man but increasing man-hour.

Project Expense:
The project report the accumulated expense of THB: 295,526 out of the sum of the first & second disbursement of THB: 295,828.42

III. Monitoring visit by the NC and two NSC members(March28, 2009)
Findings and observation:
Project location in Nam Yuen District?s Tambol Yang was once a rich forest area (Dipterocarp) but was gradually turned into cultivated land of paddy , and a few decades ago, into degraded forest by logging concession. A flat land and constituting a portion of watershed, with volcanic type of soil, the location had seemingly been providing enough for target population and others. A line of remaining forest surrounding paddy fields apparently functioned as a wind break thus reduced an effect of wind on land degradation. Two kinds of species, tapioca and para-rubber were seen here and there, in addition to paddy. Some said that the area was very rich in natural resources substantially contributing to economies of Ubonrathchathani Province.

Meeting with about 10 project leaders at one participating village, in conjunction with visiting three conservation spots along the creek, the visiting team witnessed existing capacity of the leaders and some emerging result of their effort. The first spot contained paddy fields of nine project members and a humid-retaining pond circulating water from the adjacent Lam Huay Kork Darnsai Creek. As proposed, the pond would be used for re-vegetating edible native species, and in case of surplus, irrigating paddy fields of the members. At the spot, an effort to make a use of agro-waste was also witnessed.

A few kilometers along the creek, another pond of similar intent of use was visited. This one appeared to be more productive with thriving edible native species. A U-shape design of local knowledge, the pond, it was confirmed, contributed better to conserving biological diversity , let alone water circulation for irrigation and fishes for consumption.

The final spot was a proclaimed fish conservation zone , again, of local approach. Linking and supplying water to the creek , the zone was a wetland , modified to compare effect of chemical substance run-off upon water species with an adjacent zone. Apparently, the modified zone with intact existing vegetation had proven to be effective for protecting habitats and water species against excessive chemical run-off.

The sight of location and discourse with project members confirmed the progress of activities and gave an idea of community participation ,mutual assistance and support from village leaders. Besides, documents and other dissemination materials shown to the visiting team implied rural development experience and capacity of centre leaders , with notable co-finance from other donors. One concern of the visiting team, however, was the current promotion of public policy on two commercial crops, i.e. tapioca and para-rubber. During this short visit, the two species were spot here and there , both in thriving and preparing state. The project related that their members were also cultivating them but mostly in marginal fields.

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.
IV. Completion Report ( July 21 , 2010):
Date of Participatory Evaluation( May 20, 2009):

Number of Beneficiaries/ Participating personnel:
Women: 360
Men: 370
Children: 540

Number of persons trained/ attending seminars, joining study tours:
Women: 340
Men: 560
Children: 80

Expense:

Amount received from SGP (3 disbursements): THB: 450,710.08
Total amount spent out of SGP budget: THB: 500,000
Balance: THB: (-49,289.92)
Amount authorized for the final payment: US$: 1,479.29
Amount of Co-financing: THB: 120,000 (in kind)

Activities undertaken:
1. Building capacity of target population
2.Demonstrating community approach on reversing land degradation by maintaining humidity
3. Launching re-vegetation using native species
4. Conducting participatory evaluation
5. Disseminating project results, products and data & information

Results of activities:
1. Approximately 128 ha in total of four locations in the project being under consistent rehabilitation community management with observable increasing native fishes species and land races.
2. Approximately 50 project members demonstrated increased technical capacity in environment and ecosystems witnessed by ability to participate in sharing thoughts and ideas and summarize lessons learnt for further planning
3. Project members exhibiting collective awareness/concerns about climate change/global warming

Project Communication:
In addition to project open forums, the project was made more visible and understood by dissemination materials, community radio, local newspapers, the provincial people organization and the provincial office of natural resources and environment.

Plans and Activities for Sustainability:
The project had been prepared to be one of the focal points for holistic community development in the province and beyond by
1. linking development policies, i.e. Community Empowerment to self-sufficiency economy
2. advancing project experience using ? management of one-and-a-half acre of land to reduce poverty? stressing on organic farming and environmentally-friendly agriculture.

Experience , Lessons Learnt , Problems and Issues:
1. Selecting spots for water management had to be done carefully and in a participatory way. Some soil structure of some spots might not have water retaining nature.
2. Since escalating prices of materials remained to be a problem, adjustment of amongst budget categories was used to address the problem.
3. Small, non-registered vendors were not able to give a receipt. This one was solved by using identity cards as the evidence of receipt money from the project.