A serious but informal atmosphere prevailed in the meeting with 12 comparative study participants from Myanmar; they were attentively listening to the presentation from Koperasi Wana Lestari Menoreh (KWLM) of Kulon Progo, Yogjakarta. The delegate comprised the staff of the Myanmar's Ministry of Conservation, Environment and Forestry (MCEF); and members/representatives of forest farmer's groups from Kachin State, and the regions of Indawgyi & Mohnyin, of timber business association, and of supporting NGOs.

The comparative study on community's forest management in Myanmar and Indonesia (particularly in Java) involved a 2-day field visit on 25-26 November 2014. It is part of the Samdhana-FFI Myanmar capacity building in the framework of REDD preparedness and engagement project, with financial support from NORAD & FAO-EU regional FLEGT support programme.

The study started with a short visit to the Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry in Jakarta, in which the participants were welcomed by the Ministry's Director of Social Forestry Mr. Ir. Wiratno. The meeting was used to share insights concerning various social forestry issues, both within and outside forest area, which are often overlooked. It also featured a presentation on SVLK (timber legality verification system) with all its progress/achievements and issues by Kemitraan (Fazrin Rhamadani, S.Hut), which was enthusiastically followed by the Myanmar's delegate. Myanmar has recently embarked on its SVLK development. The half-day meeting ran well with the help of simultaneous translators working hard to translate from and to Indonesian, English and Burmese as not all the participants, especially community's representatives, understand English; the meeting facilitator from FFI Myanmar (Mr. Ngwe Lwin) contributed greatly to the success of the process.The field trip to Yogyakarta covered a presentation from KWLM on how it was created and developed, how to obtain sustainable forest certificates, how to develop timber business, how to build cooperation with local furniture makers and businesses, and how to build cooperation with Credit Union. Other speakers included Ruwindrijarto and Hendaru of the Samdhana Institute, and Mr. Windratmo, Herni, Heru Susanto, Subagyo, Agung and some members of KWLM.In one hectic week the delegate visited KWLM's community-managed forest to gain first-hand knowledge of how the community manage the forest. The participants seemed impressed observing the managed lands, sawmill and log storage, seeing how the community utilized narrow lands in a highly efficient and integrated way, and seeing how the community utilize logs efficiently - logs of various types and size are used and are not disposed of or burned as commonly done in Myanmar.

At the end of the study, the 12-membered delegate visited Borobudur Temple, which has a particular significance for the Burmese, who are mostly Budhist. From the Temple, they flew back home to Myanmar with a transfer at Changi Airport.