After much discussion, the offer from the timber company was turned down and the villagers decided to work together in a co-operative to manage the forest themselves. With the CFO, they worked out a detailed plan to make the most of their resources. Some parts of the plan they could do on their own and some of it needed funds or training from outside.

• keep some parts of their forest as conservation areas
• carefully control any clearing of the forest for farming and replant some areas already cleared
• make sure that they never gathered more plant material than the forest could easily replace naturally
• get a road built
• market their produce themselves directly to the towns
• start making furniture and other goods for sale from the raw materials they gathered
• get proper training, especially for the young people
• fell some trees for timber strictly following Forestry Department guidelines (never felling more timber than the forest could easily replace naturally)
• seek FSC certification for the timber