Báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học " ACHIEVEMENTS AND LESSON LEARN FROM IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT " ppt

A project supported by AusAID’s Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development CARD program developed mechanisms under Community Forestry Management including participatory land use

ACHIEVEMENTS AND LESSON LEARN FROM IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Project title: Sustainable community-based forest development and management in some

high-poverty areas in Bac Kan province

Project code: CARD 017/06VIE

Authors: Tran Van Dien1, Tran Thi Thu Ha1and Khongsak Pinyopusarerk2

Project Implementing organisations:

1

Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam 2

CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

1 Introduction

Ethnic minority communities in the remote

mountainous northern provinces of Vietnam

are among the poorest in the country, with

limited access to agricultural land, health

facilities, markets and infrastructure Van

Minh and Lang San communes of Na Ri

district in Bac Kan province have poverty rates

of 63-68% [1] Forested land comprises 84%

and 90% respectively of the total land area and

is of paramount importance for community

livelihoods, including collection of firewood

and harvesting food and herbal medicinal

plants However, lack of access to utilise forest

land and unequal allocation of forest areas to

the poorer families have led to serious poverty

of many households Management of the forest

has also exacerbated the situation through

many problems: (i) low productivity due to

forest degradation after excessive use and little

investment; (ii) perceptions of forest as

common land with free access, with unclear

boundaries and poorly defined ownership

obligations; (iii) few incentives to reinvest in

the forest (no security) and reluctance to take

direct responsibility for the land; (iv) poor

awareness of user rights, forest laws and

regulations, and rights of participation in

official processes such as forest land

allocation; and (v) very limited support from

government agencies in approaches to

effectively use the forest land and earn income

[2]

The Land Law which came into effect on July

1, 2004 allows communities (villages) to receive land and forest land [3] However, there is no mechanism to realise this option A project supported by AusAID’s Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) program developed mechanisms under Community Forestry Management including participatory land use planning and land allocation to facilitate land distribution and address the sustainable management of the forest

The project Goal is

Sustainable improvement in livelihood security

of disadvantaged forest-dependent people in northern mountainous areas, through empowerment of access to forest and forest land, influence over forest land management, conservation of the natural resources and development of relevant skills.

2 Methodology

Four villages: Na Muc and Khuoi Lieng in Van Minh commune and To Dooc and Ban Sang in Lang San commune in Na Ri district, Bac Kan province which have community forest lands were selected to be the research site for the project The community forest lands were target area for project interventions which included land use planning, forest land allocation, forest enrichment, nursery, plantation and agro-forestry development The

quality of community forest was assessed

through forest survey to identify the

productivity as well as biodiversity The social

economic condition of local community and

the dependency of livelihood of local

community on the forest were identified by

socio-economic survey The data relating to

land use planning, forest land allocation, forest

enrichment, nursery, plantation and

agro-forestry models were also recorded in the field

based samples The processes of land

allocation, management of community forest

development fund, implementation of

community forest management plan were also

recorded The outcomes and impacts of

training activities were assessed at the phase

out period Cost benefit for each community

forest management models was analyzed to

evaluate the effectiveness of each activity

3 Results and discussions

3.1 Allocation of community forest lands

to communities

Allocation of communication forest lands to

communities was firstly implemented in Bac

Kan province The allocation process met many difficulties both paper work and field work The most difficult work was solving conflicts on the border of community forest

In the past, community forest was considered common property which was freely exploited

by local people from many villages Therefore

it was extremely difficult to allocate the community forest to only one particular village However, by participatory approach in solving the problems, consensus was achieved among neighboring villages The borders of community forest in the four pilot villages were clearly defined and field maps constructed The formal processes of community forest land allocation have been completed for the four project pilot villages with “Red Book” for long-term use rights (Table 1) This has given local communities the confidence to contribute and invest labor and other inputs to the protection and development of community forest lands for overall local benefits

Table 1: Results of community forest land allocation in four target villages

No Village Community forest land allocated (ha) % of Community forest land

allocated

Lessons learnt

- The boundaries of community forest must

be clearly defined and accepted by all

neighboring villages by participatory

approach before processing the paper work

- Strong cooperation between district and

commune authorities, especially between

Forest Protection Department and

Department of Natural Resources and

Environment in conducting the field work

as well as the paper work play a key role in

the success of the community forest land

allocation

- Adequate finance resources is needed to

conduct field work by the commune and

district staff

3.2 Establishment of community forest management (CFM) plan

After receiving the official rights of using the

CF lands, CFM plans have been established for each village The CFM within each village consists of two elements: (1) regulations which provide a legal framework for village members

to implement the CFM plan at the village level, and (2) a CFM plan which describes and lists the activities that would be undertaken Both the regulations and plans were a result of separate village meetings and discussion

Therefore while the general scope has been

maintained across the four villages, the

contents differ depending on the land use

preferences and enforcement level of each

village

General contents of CFM

regulations

- Rights and responsibilities of all

community members in forest protection

and development

- Rules to protect forests and mobilize human

resources to protect and develop forests

- Logging, buying and selling of timber and

non-timber products

- Animal grazing in the community forest

- Prevention of forest fire

- Checking and preventing outsiders from

shifting cultivation, illegal logging or

hunting, and illegal buying, selling and

transporting timber/non-timber/animals

within the village

- Cooperation among community members in

forest protection and development,

production services and sale of products

- Collaboration with other villages to protect

and effectively develop the forests

- Regulations on penalty for infringement of

the forest protection rules

- Regulations on sharing benefits among

community members

- The regulations should be presented to all

community members and submitted for

approval by Commune People's Committee

General contents of CMF Plan

- New plantation plan such as chice of

species, planting area, where and when to

plant labor cost, number of seedlings, and

sources of seedlings

- Nursery plan, seedling production

- Maintenance and protection

- Harvesting plans

- Human resource (labor input) plan

- Other activities such as agro-forestry

Lesson learnt from establishment of CFM plan

- It is necessary to modify the Guidelines of MARD on Community Forest Management (Figure 1) which was issued on November

27, 2006 (Decision 106/2006/BNN-PTNT) for more simple and practical in local conditions [4]

- Participatory approach to develop the CFM

is crucial factor for establishment of a feasible and practical CFM plan

- Staff of district Forest Protection Department and commune extension workers are main technical sources to provide support to community in developing the CFM plan

3.3 Implementation of CFM plans

3.3.1 Involvement of community members in CFM

Within each village, a CFM board of five persons has been elected by open votes to oversee overall implementation All four villages have placed a strong emphasis on plantation forest, protection of watershed areas and commercial wood production During meetings and discussions which were attended

by at least one member of every household, all household representatives expressed their commitment to contribute labor inputs in the implementation of the plan Another common agreement across all four villages was an attempt to reduce and stop shifting cultivation and free grazing in community forest areas Number of households involved in CFM is presented in Table 2

Table 2: Current involvement of community members participating CFM [5]

Village Total households

involved in CFM

Total males aged >15 involved in CFM

Total females aged >15 involved in CFM

3.3.2 Capacity building for local people

Based on the training needs of local

community, various trainings were conducted

as presented in Table 3 Most of the trainings

were conducted using Farmer Field School

(FFS) approach The trainings helped all local

community members to be aware of laws on

forest protection and development and be more

knowledgeable and skillful in technical issues

relating to forest management

Table 3: Training courses conducted in the project area [6]

beneficiaries

2 Planning and implementation of community forest management 25

In addition to the above, this CARD project

also organized study tours to other CFM

projects and community workshops for sharing

experience

3.3.3 Establishment of village-based

nurseries

One of the constraints in development of both

community forest lands and household

allocated lands is the lack of quality forest

seedlings Some projects had provided

seedlings to area but it was not successful

The survival rate was very low probably due to

the long distance in transport of seedlings to

the village sites Therefore, the establishment

of village nursery garden to produce the

seedling near plantation site is not only to

ensure the high survival rate of seedlings but

also create potential income generation for

local people The project facilitated the

establishment of village-based community

nurseries to raise quality tree seedlings for sale

or distribution to land owners The project has

paid special attention to using seed of good genetic quality Key inputs provided by the project included training in nursery management and provision of access to quality

genetic seed sources of Acacia mangium (keo)

(from CSIRO and Forest Science Institute of Vietnam) and Manglietia conifera (Mo) During three years of project implementation,

a large number of forest seedlings were produced for planting in both community forest lands and household allocated lands as presented in the Table 4

Table 4: Number of seedlings produced annually in four target villages

Village Manglietia conifera Acacia mangium Total

Table 5 reveals that a community requires at

least 5 million VND to establish a nursery and

more than 16.5 million VND per year for

operating expenses The production cost for

each seedling is only 309 VND, while the current market price is 700 - 1000 VND

Table 5: Costs for a village-based nursery producing 70,000 seedlings/year [7]

Construction of nursery garden (capital cost) 5,120,000

3.3.4 Agro-forestry models in community

forest lands

The design of the agro-forestry model takes

into account the need for income generation

for communities Expanding market

opportunities exist for planted trees of a

number of species reflecting the transition

from dependency on a natural forest to a

planted resource By selecting appropriate

species well adapted to the local environment,

which are fast growing and meet a market

need, communities can benefit financially from

tree planting projects either on community

land or other land surplus to agricultural

requirement Crops on the other hand will

provide opportunities for added food security

with surplus crops providing additional

income The areas for the agro-forestry model

trials are about one hectare each village

The selection of species was based on the key

species recommended in the land use planning

surveys which were considered to have

potential as either commercial species or for

use in alley cropping systems For timber

production, Acacia (Keo), Manglietia conifera

(Mo) and Melia azedarach (Xoan) were

preferred by villagers, and these were the tree species for this model In addition, one

fast-growing, multi purpose species, Cassia (cot

khi) has been included for planting on the contours for soil erosion control Agricultural crop planted between tree rows was chosen by villagers based on local experience Hybrid corn, improved soybean, taro and cassava have been selected for growing in agro-forestry models Table 6 shows the yields of the agriculture crops in the agro-forestry models in the target villages Table 7 shows height growth one year after planting in the four agro-forestry plots

Table 6: Agricultural crop yields in 2008 and 2009 in the four project villages

Unit: kg/ha

Years Crop Na Muc Khuoi Lieng To Dooc Ban Sang

-Table 7: Plant height of forest tree in agro-forestry models after two years of planting

Unit: m

Species Na Muc Khuoi Lieng To Dooc Bang Sang

-3.3.5 Community forest development funds

(CFDF)

Community Forest Development Fund has

been developed by the community through

initial seed money from CARD project The

main purpose of this fund is for forest

development activities in community forest

areas in the village Activities related to

community forest development can use this

fund following the community's regulations

This fund will be maintained and grown for

long-term purpose The fund is managed by

Community Forest Management Board

Financial issue is reported to village meetings

to ensure transparency

Sources for CFDF

a) Funding from CARD project:

- CARD project contributed 1,000 AUD

(13 million VND) as "seed money" to

establish the fund

- Households who receive seedlings from

the village nursery to plant on their own

land must contribute 50 VND per seedling

to the fund (following regulations of

nursery management)

b) Income from timber and non-timber forest

products from the community forest area:

- Contribute 20% of total income from

non-timber forest product harvest such as

mushroom, fruits, and medicinal plants to the fund

- Households within the village community are permitted to use timber from the community forest areas to build their houses; they have to contribute 20% of the total value to the fund

c) Interest from loan

- The fund can be used for loan for agricultural and forestry production with low interest of 0.6% per month based on demand of household members of the community forest

d) Penalty from illegal actions following CFM regulation

- All fines from illegal actions following the CFM regulations will be put into the fund

Management of CFDF

- CFM Board has a responsibility to manage the CFDF

- Use of the fund follows government's financial regulations (receipts and reports are required)

- Accountant and head of the Community Forest Management Board must report to Commune People’s Committee on financial issues

Status of community forest development funds after two years of implementation (Jan, 2008 -Jan, 2010) is presented in Table 8

Table 8 Status of community forest development funds in four villages after 2 years of operation

Unit: Thousands VND

The figure in Table 8 indicates that CFDF has

been well managed by local community The

fund size of all four villages has increased

significantly The poor households in the

community can access to CFDF as

microfinance sources for forest development

Lessons learnt from implementation of CFM

plan

- Capacity building for local people on the

rights to access to the community forest

lands, the rights to harvest and the

responsibility to protect the community

forest is considered the most important

activity for the success of the

implementation of CFM

- Control of free grazing in Bac Kan is a

crucial factor for the success of the

agro-forestry models and reforestation in

community forest lands

- Clear demarcation of the community

forest boundary can avoid the conflicts

between villages in harvesting forest

products in the community forest

3.4 The impacts/changes due to implementation CFM plan

Survey to identify the impacts and the changes due to implementation of CFM plan on the communities of four villages was conducted in March 2010 Results of the survey show that implementation of CFM plan has positive impacts on communities in term of livelihood improvement, environment protection and forest quality (Table 9) 57-100% members of communities agreed that implementation of CFM plan has decreased the number of illegal cases of forest exploitation or violation 59-100% members of communities responded that community forest was well protected so it has been enriched Therefore it creates a better environment such as having water throughout the year, less natural disasters in local areas

In addition, the implementation of CFM plan has created the equality and solidarity in the communities

Table 9 Impacts and changes due to application of CFM plan [5]

Na Muc Khuoi Lieng To Dooc Ban Sang

4 Conclusions

- The allocation of community forest lands

can only be implemented with the active

participation of local community and

local authorities in solving the border

conflicts, field mapping and paper work

- The implementation of Guidelines of

Management (Figure 1) which was issued on November 27, 2006 (Decision 106/2006/BNN-PTNT) should be flexible for more practical and adapted

to local socioeconomic and cultural

conditions

- Capacity building of local people on the

rights to access to the community forest

lands, the rights to harvest and the

responsibility to protect the community

forest is considered the most important

activity for the success of the

implementation of CFM

- Community Forest Development Fund

plays an important role in promoting the

participation of local communities to

community forest management

- The implementation of CFM plan has

positive impacts on communities in term

of livelihood improvement, environment

protection and forest quality: decreased

number of illegal cases of forest

exploitation, community forest is well

protected and enriched In addition, the

implementation of CFM plan creates the

equality and solidarity in the

communities

References

1 People's Committee of Van Minh and Lang San (2006); Annual report of socioeconomic

2 Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (2007) Report of forest survey in Van Minh and Lang San

-Na Ri district - Bac Kan

3 Vietnam Government (2004), Decision 181/2004/ND-CP;

4 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (2006) Decision 106/2006/QD-BNN

5 Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (2010) Report of final baseline survey in 4 CARD project villages

6 CARD 017-06VIE (2009) Milestone

11 report

7 CARD017-06VIE (2009) Benefit-cost analysis report