The specific goals and objectives of the Asia Forest Network are: To support the development of national policies that: Empower communities to protect and sustainably use their forests and natural resources. Provide forest-dependent communities with the tenure security, rights, and responsibilities to manage public lands. Recognize and respond to the needs of low-income, forest-dependent communities, especially ethnic minorities and women user-groups. To expand development agency programs that support tropical forest restoration through community forest protection with an emphasis on: Using natural regeneration as a cost-effective method to restore degraded tropical forest ecosystems. Meaningfully engaging local communities as stewards of local forests and watersheds. Providing support to develop the human resources and research capacities among local forestry agencies and NGOs. To increase the use and development of better processes to mediate forest management conflicts among stakeholders at the field level, through the development of: Participatory dialogue and facilitation techniques. Community mapping methods, forest department spatial diagnostic tools, and the training of practitioners in their use. To strength and develop an Asia-wide community forest management research network that monitors and documents field experiences including: Effects of policies and programs on forest-dependent communities. Grassroots community responses to forest management problems and opportunities. Ecological responses of different types of degraded forest to community-based protection and conservation efforts. To communicate the findings to global, regional, and national policy dialogues.