I.Progress Report ( June 29, 2013)
Activities Undertaken
1.Launching capacity building through training
2. Launching demonstration of conservation activities through biomass bank, mangrove restoration, and environmentally-friendly products
3. Launching dissemination of project results
4. Launching participatory evaluation

Result Produced
1. Increased capacity of 9 out of 30 youth group members evinced by ability to communicate as eco-tourist guides and represent youth group in technical forestry conference and exhibition organized during March 6-8, 2013
2. Established nature study trail comprising 31 learning stations consistent with local ecosystems and livelihood activities
3.Compilation of data & information of flora & fauna in three ecosystems, i.e. orchards, paddy fields and mangrove
4. the project website being ?liked? by 111 out of 2,800 project members

Project Communication and Visibility
1. On 5-6 Apr 13,a group of Forestry Students, Kasetsart Unviversity visited the project to learn about orchard and mangrove
2. On 23 Apr 13,staff members of Mangrove Development Station 2, Rayong Province participatee in survey and investigate mangrove area
3. On 27 Apr 13,students and staff of Wat Suk Phraisan School, Rayong Province visited the project to learn about the orchard ,paddy field and mangrove
4. On 28 Apr 13,students from Na Yai Arm Witthayakhom School, Chanthaburi Province visited the project to learn about orchard ,paddy field and mangrove

Emerging Issues/problems and Solution
1.Some landlords who were not community members were difficult to work with and cooperate
2.Some influential figures, especially shrimp farm entrepreneurs, made community members/project leaders cautious and scare in carrying out some type of activities.
The project chose to avoid any conflicts with the landlords and entrepreneurs but gave priority to an area/community group with no or seemingly less problem. In addition, more cooperation/coordination with relevant government agencies had been sought.

Experience & Lessons Learnt
1.The project experienced that easy cooperation/participation could be found in activities that generated or were likely to generate income or direct benefits for communities, especially individual benefit which was not in conflict with influential persons. Two activities which were quite clear were establishing the biomass bank , training young guide to promote and producing environmentally products. However, semi-livelihood activity would not fare smoothly or would fail without sufficient financial support. So, the project just wished to provide a strong foundation for future financial support.
2.The project was quite careful and considerate about working with influential persons and local administrators, because these persons still displayed more personal desire than collective desire. At times, these persons intentionally misinterpreted concerning laws and regulations for their personal gain, especially on land and forest ownership. The project was not able to cope with this issues but gave data & information to responsible authorities and focused more on environment activities.

Project Expense
The project reported the expense of THB: 245,022 out of the first disbursement of THB:244,022.17.


II.Monitoring Visit(March 8, 2014 )
Findings & Observation
The visiting team interacted with 7 project leaders & members in a premises allocated as the office of the grantee in Baan (village) Kongdin - also the targeted location. The interaction included substantial sharing & discussion about history, background and prevailing environment threats of the location, an updated undertaken activities and evinced immediate results. All proposed activities seemed to be carried out as planned with some promising results.

To witness some of such results, the visiting team was led to walk a trail in succession ,starting from orchards to paddy field to forest, and mangrove. The trail was established as a nature study trail of the project- intended to mainstream conservation and protection of land encroachment in the location. Along the trail, project leaders took turns to explain how biological resources were inventoried ,how to solicit participation from communities and other stakeholders, and how conservation activities were carried out. One notable sectorial cooperation was received from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources regarding identification and demarcation of mangrove area against land speculation and intrusion. By resorting to a win-win situation approach, this cooperation was quoted as fairly successful in checking further intrusion Another involved communal cooperation regarding proper disposal of biomass waste by processing it into compost to be used in planting trees and other types of valuable landraces.

Under this brief interaction, the team agreed that the project had been in progress satisfactorily. Project leaders, and representative of the youth group demonstrated both capacity and awareness to reverse degradation trends of the ecosystems. Nevertheless, there seemed to be more work for the grantee to sustain this acquired results, since the location was rated as a rich in both terrestrial and coastal biology, tempting supranational entrepreneurs to invest more in large scale but less environmentally-friendly aqua-culture, let alone a group shrimp farms already there . In addition, project leaders related that several community leaders were land speculators themselves thus gave more burdens to project leaders. However, project leaders interacted with seemed to understand the situation and offered to the visiting team that the project planned to mainstream the conservation into surrounding villages and tourists which were in numbers yearly who visited some nearby attraction sites in the eastern coast of Thailand.

III. Completion report (September 22, 2014 ):
Date of Participatory Evaluation(August 28, 2014 ):

Number of Beneficiaries/ Participating personnel:
Women: 72
Men: 51
Children:75

Number of persons trained/ attending seminars, joining study tours:
Women: 13
Men: 9
Children: 8

Expense:
Amount received from SGP (2 disbursements): THB: 443,253.97
Total amount spent out of SGP budget: THB: 443,253.97
Balance: THB: ( -0)
Amount authorized for the final payment: US$: 1,592.83
Amount Received from others: THB: 7,000 (in cash)
THB: 356,000 (in kind)
Activities undertaken:
1.Launching capacity building through training
2. Launching demonstration of conservation activities through biomass bank, mangrove restoration, and environmentally-friendly products
3. Launching dissemination of project results
4. Launching participatory evaluation

Results and indicators:
1. Increase capacity of targeted population witnessed by ability for form 4 actions groups: biomass bank (20 members), eco-tourism (9 members), mangrove conservation (10 members) and production group (9 members) operating continuously
2. Established community conservation areas: 40-ha mangrove and 16-ha cultivated land
3. Established community learning place and eco-tourist spot for surrounding communities and local schools with dissemination documents
4. Emergence of unique community products (organic paddy, broom, seafood products) to generate additional income

Project Communication:
In addition to the ones mentioned in the progress reports, the project reported 5 visitations from groups/individuals to learn from the project, during March 16-August 4, 2014.

Problems and Issues:
The same problems and issues were mentioned as in the progress report.

Experience , Lessons Learnt :
The experience and lessons learnt stated in the progress report still maintained their significance.

Plans and Activities for Sustainability:
The project planned to continue activities of various livelihood groups ( ecotourism group, conservation group and production group) and establish a cooperatives or fund to mobilize additional resources from group members.