With support from Social Forestry Support Program (SFSP), we are applying Participatory Technology Development (PTD) in community based resource management. PTD is based on entirely new way of looking at knowledge, whereby local knowledge of villagers is understood to be just as important as any scientifically generated knowledge for the management of resources. However, the two types of knowledge are very different. The challenge in PTD is therefore to arrange for creative interaction between the knowledge, the experiences and the information of villagers with those of scientifically trained researchers. The systemic but often unreflected knowledge, and the complex underlying situation of villagers is to be combined with scientific analytical skills of scientists. The emphasis then is to conduct practical trials together with the villagers.

Villagers constantly try out combinations and see how that work. The strike in PTD is to arrange for an environment, which supports this natural process. The interaction between villagers and scientists often needs facilitation, which is best done by experienced advisors as they have the required communication skills.

The approach can best be depicted in a triangular model with farmers, researchers, and advisors all co-operating in order to develop new things that really work in farmer conditions, whereby the role of the advisor is mainly the facilitation of the process of PTD.

Specific steps and process of PTD include:

* The author works at Social forestry Training Center (SFTC) in Forestry University of Viet Nam