Guest post from ActionAid senior program coordinator Sally Henderson.
We are sitting on a raised wooden structure, surrounded by verdant forests, the kind which feels like it would grow on you if you stood still for long enough.
Surrounding us, are members from a group of community foresters who live in the village of Sambour Meas right-up on the border between Cambodia and Thailand in Oddar Maenchy Province.
They begin their presentation referring to large butcher paper sheets covered with the curves of Khmer letters. This community collects honey, leaves, mushrooms, rattan and berries amongst other non-timber products from the forests. They grow rice but the yields have been poor especially in the last few years due to duration and frequency of drought.
We are getting a bit hot and sweaty, but what they are about to tell us is so inspiring that we manage to forget about our state for a while.
