The Forests, Trees and People Programme (FTPP) was established in 1987 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in order to assist governments with reversing and coping with the environmental problems they are facing. The Programme focuses on the close links between the natural resources forests and trees on the one hand and the people who use and benefit from them on the other hand. The first phase of FTPP consisted of developing approaches, methods and tools for implementing community forestry and to improve the institutional basis for community forestry in participating countries, by conducting training and workshops. Since the project approach of the first phase was not effective, in the second phase (July 1995 - December 1998) FTPP started working through existing institutions, identified as partners in the Programme. Presently, FTPP is in the third phase (January 1999 - December 2001) and continues with the networking approach through existing institutions. FTPP supports a participatory bottom-up approach, which includes all stakeholders with respect to locally based natural resource management. The development of methods and tools on specific topics as well as information dissemination and exchange are the major activities of the Programme. FTPP publishes its own Newsletter, which is distributed among more than 10,000 members in 125 countries (FAO, 1997) Email : \n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it > This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .