Seeing the Community for the Trees: Assessing Locally-developed Sustainability Indicators for the Angkor Community Forest Project, Cambodia

The vision behind community forestry is to ensure the sustainability of local forests, by engaging the local communities who depend on these resources. Community forestry is practiced widely across the globe, with varying degrees of success. This study focuses on alternative approaches and tools used to evaluate project performance (in terms of sustainability) and increase participation at the evaluation stage of a project. I selected a representative case study, the Angkor Community Forest Project, located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I conducted a comparative analysis between a participatory 'bottom-up' approach and conventional 'top-down' approach to develop indicators as tools to assess sustainability. I assessed performance of the indicator sets against the Sustainability Indicators Standard (SIS). Locally-developed indicators perform better than the conventional indicators. However, neither set is a perfect match for sustainability. The Local Indicators (LI) perform better in gauging site-specific measures, identifying intangible benefits, and targeting participation, capacity building and education as critical measures of project success. The conventional or Project Indicators (PI), are better at measuring economic viability of the project, identifying both the short and long-term benefits, and capture a blend of local and broader goals associated with the public good. Overall, I found that the two indicators sets are complementary and could be used together for a more comprehensive evaluation. Participatory approaches are not suited for all projects, and guidelines have been established to help decide under what circumstances participatory project evaluations should be used. iv My research demonstrates that alternative forms of project evaluation exist, and that a participatory approach can assess sustainability of community forestry projects and as well, increase participation by local beneficiaries. By using a mix of approaches and tools, it is possible to produce a comprehensive set of indicators to measure sustainability. Project evaluation is a necessary part of the learning process for international development agencies and local communities. Invigorating the process with new approaches and tools could produce more accurate project evaluations and engage meaningful participation by local beneficiaries.