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119. With input from the Forests, Trees and People Programme, a sub-regional seminar on forestry and nutrition was held in Thailand in 1988, bringing together the staff of community forestry projects, nutritionists and forestry representatives from Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam. Work on nutritional indicators to use in designing and implementing forestry projects has advanced considerably and a guideline on this topic will be forthcoming in 1990.
120.
During 1989, FAO initiated case studies on non-timber forest products in the region, which are coordinated by a special task force.
121.
A policy document on women in forestry, "Restoring the Balance: Women and Forest Resources", was published in 1988 and is being followed by a manual in early 1990 on how to incorporate women's concerns in forestry projects. The study on women in forest-based small-scale enterprises in India, especially in laquerware and uppage collection, is being published.
122.
A regional training workshop on Rural Workers' Self-Help Forestry Projects was held in Thailand in 1988. This meeting involved representatives of hundreds of thousands of members in union groups from six Asian countries.
123. A series of studies on indigenous amd modern management practices are being carried out which include desk studies on herder and shifting cultivator decision-making in resource management. Field studies have also been done on rural industry management of wood energy sources and farmers' perspectives on tree growing, with several cases examples from Asia. A study on socio-economic attributes of trees commonly used in community forestry is being finalized in collaboration with ICRAF.
Tropical Forestry Action Plan Asia and the Pacific
124. Ten countries of the region are participating in the TFAP. In Nepal, a master plan for the development of the forestry sector has been finalized by the Asian Development Bank, co-financed by FINNIDA, and a round table type III was held on 19 May 1988. In Fiji and Papua New Guinea, a forestry sector review was carried out during 1989.
125. Under the direct leadership of FAO/UNDP, two exercises are being prepared (Laos and Viet Nam), and a request for TFAP implementation was received from Thailand. Also, during the last Commonwealth Forestry Conference, held in September 1989 in Rotorua, New Zealand, one full day was dedicated to the TFAP, and an important resolution was made by the Conference on the global forestry crisis urging the creation of a special Commonwealth TFAP support fund to strengthen the TFAP process.
XI.
INVESTMENT-RELATED ACTIVITIES
126. The principal function of FAO's Investment Centre is to assist Member Governments in the identification and preparation of investment projects in the agricultural sector for eventual financing by multilateral financing institutions. For this purpose, the Centre operates in the Asia and Pacific Region under cooperative agreements with the World Bank/IDA, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Asian Development Bank, and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
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