I. First progress report (November 11, 2008)
Activities undertaken:
1. Conduction capacity building activities on relevant subjects through seminars , workshops and study tour
2. Conducting resources inventories on native plants
3. Launching nursery for native plant propagation
4. Conducting participatory evaluation

Results of activities:
1. Seven members exhibiting increased capacity and volunteering to pilot the reproduction of native plant species systematically, while other members at a lesser degree (planting some selected species along marginal area or as hedges in their premises)
2. Acquired over 20 native plants species ,some of endangered species, for nursery and reproduction in seven plots
3. Increased awareness and capacity of 10 out of 28 selected participating students, evinced by the emergence of an environment study curriculum and a plan ? Planting Native Medicinal Plant Species to Fight Global Warming?
4. The evaluation resulting in more mutual understanding among project members and a modification of some activities to ensure effectiveness under changing circumstances

Project communication:
1. Producing 100 tracts to make the project more visible
2. Producing 60 T-shirts for students to launch campaigns with wording ? Rehabilitate & Conserve Native Plant Species for Food Security, Revival of Indigenous Knowledge and Reduction of Global Warming?
3. Airing project activities , through interview , on community radio, FM 101 , on Saturdays and Sundays of August 2008

Experiences and lessons learned:
During the period, the grantee summarized three areas of issues which required the management to adjust to prevalent situation as follows:

1. On project management:
Problem and issue: Escalating price of fuels from THB: 27/litre to THB: 40/litre and other uncertain economic situation resulting in price increase of other commodities as required by project management.
Corrective or adaptive measure: The project slowed down some activities requiring heavy investment or expense , but proceed with activities requiring less expense such as capacity building.

2. On field activities:
Problem and issue: Economic variance evidenced in higher cost of living and more or less the same rate of earning of several members had affected proposed activities and anticipated results . There appeared to be more numbers of elderly and students.
Corrective or adaptive measure: Anticipated results of projects were adjusted, both in term of quantity and quality. Reduction of numbers of meetings and participants but focusing on direct access to communities and sharing experience in simple style at individual home to ensure increased capacity of communities.

3. On relation with other organization:
As the project was developed and implemented under current ?Global Warming? situation, it was well recognized by other organizations, such as Tambol Administrative Organization and the Provincial Natural Resources and Environment Office. Planting trees to reduce global warming has been publicized at national level thus gave a good name to the project.

Remarks: While the project promotes plantation and use of native tree species, several other organizations promote palm tree plantation. There has been uncertainty from community on short-term benefits of the two. The uncertainty could produce negative effect to the project as well.

Project expense:
The project reported the expense of THB: 185,890 out of the first disbursement of THB: 194,383.90

II. Monitoring Visit by the NC (January 14, 2009)
Findings and observations:

The project is an integrated ecosystem of agriculture -forest type in Parkphanang Basin , a once rich paddy field in southern Thailand. Somehow, implementation of less well planned development projects during the past four decades was attributed to less productive paddy fields in the area and less income from them including other social problems, one of which involved migration to big cities or other richer lands . To contribute to addressing food and income issue, some community members had launched efforts to demonstrate a solution by conserving and planning sustainable use of biological resources in their homeland.

A plot of one family which is a project member in Baan (village) Bangwa was visited. Of about one ha, the plot was filled with various types of native species thriving ,with remaining seedlings in the nursery awaiting to be planted. According to the owners, there were over 200 kinds of plants whose medicinal and nutritious values the family was able to identify and make wise use of. This kind of plot is called ?Dusong Garden ? by southern Thai Muslim , Gardens of Community Elders by southern Thai , and Kitchen Forest, or family garden by other groups, reflecting a currently community famous phrase ? Grow Things You Eat, and Eat Things You Grow? .

Still in Baan Bangwa, a plot of similar character a few hundred meters away was visited. In stead of telling & showing on medicinal and nutritious plants, the family focused on how to make a good use of some species in their plot for household utensils, such as baskets and fish traps. It was told that there was only a few elderly community members who possessed the skill to weave and fabricate , therefore , required attention to maintain and transfer down the skill to others, especially, new generation.

In order to grasp more about the status of new generation of the project, the NC kindly asked the project leader to make an unscheduled visit to the Wichianprachasan School, a high school of 200-300 students in Chianyai District. Luckily, ten students who are members of the Youth-for Environment Group were met during their break. They said they had made commitment by their own will at the beginning of the project, where they raised their hands, and walked up to sign some documents. There are 29 members in the group.

Another plot of the project location in Baan Tool, the owner showed his garden of similarity and a premises , along a road leading to the Asian Highway. The premises was allocated as the main outlet of products from some 60 project members who were piloting the family garden approach, and a small workshop to fabricate 200-litre metal drums to be used in efficient charcoal production. The NC found that this member was also a member of a back GEF SGP project in phase 2 nearby (THA-02-19/ Capacity Building for CBOs? Network on Management of Natural Resources in Park Phanang Basin), which had seen its completion in 2005. Sustainable use of fire-woods by efficient charcoal production was one activity in this back project. The fabrication of the drums for such production had gained its momentum and popularity until now.

III. Second progress report (March 10, 2009)
Activities undertaken:
1. Conducting participatory evaluation
2. Conduction capacity building activities on relevant subjects through seminars , workshops and study tour
3. Continuing launching nursery for native plant propagation
4. Disseminating project results through compiled relevant community-based research and through mobile shop offering project outputs in various traditional events

Results of activities:
1. Increased capacity & awareness of project members: eight members conserving and re-planting native species for household use and sales of small surplus, ten others practicing the same and on top of that encouraging others to do the same, however, majority of project members just conserving the inventories.
2. Three youth members demonstrating increased capacity and awareness by demonstrating conservation activities in their families
3. Increased income of THB: 500-900/person/week from flea market organized twice a week.

Project communication:
During this period, the project launched the following through

1. Words of mouths about project outputs
2. Visitation from two groups: students from Rajabhat University Nakhornsithammarat Province and Traditional Medicinal Doctor Club of Nakhornsithammarat Province

Experiences ,lessons learned, problem and issue:

During the period, the grantee referred to climatic condition adversely affecting project, i.e. ,the deluge during November 14-December 27, 2008 , then the draught between January 20- end of February 2009. The situation prompted some members to leave their activities and sought other type of activities outside their premises. In addition, current public promotion on species of commercial value was the main hindrance to project campaigns.

In order to reverse this effect, the project adopted a more relevant strategy, such as promotion of community service centre for native species and support of mobile shop for selected communities.

Project expense:
The project reported the accumulated expense of THB: 324,128 out of the sum of first and second disbursement of THB: 399,341.72

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.

V.Completion report (February 2, 2010):

Date of Participatory Evaluation( December 30, 2009):

Number of Beneficiaries/ Participating personnel:
Women: 8
Men: 29
Children: 35

Number of persons trained/ attending seminars, joining study tours:
Women: 64
Men: 116
Children: 84

Expense:

Amount received from SGP (3 disbursements): Baht: 609,586.5
Total amount spent out of SGP budget: Baht: 668,658
Balance: Baht: (- 59,071.50)
Amount authorized for the final payment: US$: 1,958.16
Amount Received from others: THB: 171,000 (in cash)
THB: 387,900 (in kind)


Activities undertaken:
1. Conduction capacity building activities on relevant subjects through seminars, workshops, study tours
2. Conducting resources inventories on native plants
3. Launching nursery for 63 direct beneficiaries
4. Supporting necessary material & equipment for nine model farmers
5. Conducting participatory evaluation every four months
6. Disseminating results , product and experience of the projects in various community events and in schools

Results of activities:
1. Acquired more precise and genuine community context and approaches on agricultural practice
2. Increased technical capacity of :
? members in 37 households witnessed through ability to articulate quality of native species and their relationship to ecosystems and local livelihoods
? 35 students of which at least 8 with ability to articulate relationship of ecosystems to daily livelihood and to sustain environment activities
? 10 families practicing farming by acquired knowledge and being model plots for youth groups and community members
3. Establishment of the following facilities
? Seven plots with total eight ha Eight ha to collect native species to support self-sufficiency economy practice and learning process for youth and other communities
? Six nursery plots for at least six native species with at least 100 seedlings
? One centre as an outlet for native species supplying seedlings of project members to consumers
4. Increased income of project members from selling by-products of native species and indigenous knowledge as follows:
? THB: 700/day for 150 days from dessert from nipa
? THB: 2,000/year from spicy sauce from tamarind and santol (sentul)
? THB: 80/day for 200 days from nipa vinegar and nipa leaf
? THB: 800/month for 12 months from handicraft (reeks and bamboo)
? THB: 300/person/month from selling seedlings
? THB: 400-500/week from selling fresh vegetable to markets
5. Increased institutional capacity of project members, leaders and relevant government agencies witnessed through more harmonious living and expressing of ideas on periodic modification of project implementation
6. More famers and general public ( youth members included) paying attention to the significance of native species witnessed by numbers of attendances of the funeral of the late chairperson of the Association and number of visitors to the learning plots and project members
7. Sensible pleasant atmosphere (cooler air ) being felt, more humidity in the soil witnessed, more small animals in the soil and birds in the trees witnessed in a plot where more trees and other seasonal plants being thriving together

Project Communication:
One project member was awarded at national level ? The Green Globe Award? at its 11th session for his outstanding practice on ?Gardens of Community Elders?. On January 30, 2010, Television Channel 9 of Mass Community Organization of Thailand aired the story about his story titling? Ordinary or Down-To-Earth Scholar?.

Plans and Activities for Sustainability:
Each project member thinks of different detailed activities according to terrain of cultivation, i.e. from ridge to reef, but with the same goal in mind such as,

1. For low land paddy field, plots of project members would be developed into learning places for native edible vegetable and uses by indigenous knowledge.
2. For wetland area, plots of project members would be developed into learning places for native tree species and centres for plant propagation and techniques for making use of the species for self-reliance.
3. For mangrove area, members had plans to develop suitable adaptable agricultural practice
4. For youth groups, members would activate and transfer knowledge and experience to in-coming generations replacing the out-going generation.
5. The grantee planned to develop another project that encourage linkage target population to rehabilitation of mangrove and Ao (bay) Park Phanang

Experience , Lessons Learnt , Problems and Issues:
1. The unstable global economic had directly affected the project. At mid-2007l until the beginning of 2008, the project fared fairly smoothly. After, with global economic recession and at commencement of the project, participation from project members and leaders was not up to what had been expected. For example, 74 % increase of gasoline had affected many individuals and in many aspects resulting in some seeking part time service and employment to solve family problems. In order to cope with the issues, the project
? Convene meetings to adjust project approaches and activities focusing more on anticipated results proposed in project document.
? Divide and classify project location for responsibility appropriately
? Visit project site more often and conduct activities as appropriate , instead of once-and-for-all activity.
? Use modern concise dissemination materials replacing long meetings such as projectors and vinyl.
2. At the beginning of 2009,with two project leaders passing away, other members facing economic variance, the project had decreased numbers of planned meeting, retaining only the ones with deemed necessary. Project coordinator was encouraged to meet and seek advice from project committee and leaders. In M & E , the project received volunteerism from available committee members supporting the coordinator just in time.