From the foreword: "A major goal of CFI's mission in Cambodia is to support the involvement of civil society in the management of forests. Rural communities have a special role to play as forest stewards, both due to their logistical proximity to natural forests, but also because of their dependency upon these resources for shelter, water, fuel and food. In many parts of the world, forests are important components of the local economy, whether for subsistence goods, non-timber forest products, employment in commercial lumber production, livelihood generation, or involvement in the tourist industry. In Cambodia, rural communities are concerned over the destruction and mismanagement of local forests and are seeking to address problems of rapidly changing landscapes by establishing community forestry committees, mobilizing forest patrols to guard against illegal logging and land grabbing, framing user rules to control access, and securing management tenure."