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This toolkit is designed to help anyone who wants to develop, design or conduct community engagement processes, or to be part of them. It has a particular focus on engaging communities in natural resource management issues in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, but much of the material is applicable to almost any kind of community engagement, anywhere.The toolkit has been written for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, but we hope it will help a range of stakeholders – in fact all those people who have an interest in a more sustainable future. It is particularly relevant to you if you are responsible for making decisions about community engagement processes.You could be a staff member or volunteer from a government, nongovernment, industry or private sector organisation.You could be a member of a catchment management organisation or other regional group involved in natural resource management.

Intermediaries are seen as important actors in facilitating payments for environmental services (PES). However, few data exist on the adequacy of the services provided by intermediaries and the impacts of their interventions. Using four PES case studies in Vietnam, this paper analyses the roles of government agencies, non-government organizations, international agencies, local organizations and professional consulting firms as PES intermediaries. The findings indicate that these intermediaries are essential in supporting PES establishment. Their roles are as service and information providers, mediators, arbitrators, equalizers, representatives, watchdogs, developers of standards and bridge builders. Concerns have been raised about the quality of intermediaries' participatory work, political influence on intermediaries' activities and the neutral status of intermediaries. Although local organizations are strongly driven by the government, they are important channels for the poor to express their opinions. However, to act as environmental services (ES) sellers, local organizations need to overcome numerous challenges, particularly related to capacity for monitoring ES and enforcement of contracts. Relationships amongst intermediaries are complex and should be carefully examined by PES stakeholders to avoid negative impact on the poor. Each of the intermediaries may operate at a different level and can have different functions but a multi-sector approach is required for an effective PES implementation