Evaluating policy effectiveness on coastal mangrove management case study in dai hop and bang la communes hai phong city

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY STUDENT THESIS Title EVALUATING POLICY EFFECTIVENESS ON COASTAL MANGROVE MANAGEMENT: CASE STUDY IN

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY

STUDENT THESIS

Title EVALUATING POLICY EFFECTIVENESS ON COASTAL MANGROVE MANAGEMENT: CASE STUDY IN DAI HOP

AND BANG LA COMMUNES, HAI PHONG CITY

Major: Natural Resources Management

Code: D850101

Faculty: Forest Resources and Environmental Management

Student: Nguyen Nguyet Anh Student ID: 1253090003 Class: K57 Natural Resources Management Course: 2012 - 2016

Advanced Education Program

Developed in collaboration with Colorado State University, USA

Supervisor: Dr Hai-Hoa Nguyen

Hanoi, 2016

Abstract

Vietnam suffers from seven to twelve tropical storms every year Hence, not only lives but also properties are lost in coastal areas Besides, in recent decades, climate change has become an urgent issue for human being Mangroves have been recognized as one of the most optimal solutions to deal with those issues in coastal regions of Vietnam Therefore, mangrove management and protection have created a pressing need for forest managers to figure out the best way to assess the effectiveness of management policies for planning

This study aims to (1) investigate relevant policies in study site from 1990 to 2016 (2) assess the effectiveness of policies on coastal mangrove management using three major indicators and (3) to propose feasible solutions to enhance the policies in this area Three remarkable policy-periods have been investigated and assessed by using a set of three significant indicators, including ecological, economic and social indicators From 1900 –

1997, mangrove rehabilitation and restoration projects had been implemented, but they were not effective From 1997 – 2005, the implementation of many policies and projects had improved the quantity and quality of mangroves Hence, the increase of mangrove extent considerably contributed to local incomes and livelihoods improvement The period from

2005 to 2016 has been known as mangrove development and protection stage This study also suggests that the communes should adopt community – based management (CBM) to enhance the mangrove quantity and quality in the long term

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I was extremely fortunate to be supervised and supported by Dr Hai-Hoa Nguyen He has inspired me very much on my way to achieving my goals during the time as his student Besides, he provided me with insight into how mangrove management plays an indispensable role in coastal zones, adding a novel dimension to my thesis I would also like to thank Dr Lee Macdonald who suggested valuable comments about my thesis proposal in the preparation time I sincerely thank teachers in Faculty of Forest Resources and Environmental Management for the encouragements and suggestions and for helping me to improve the quality of my thesis

In addition, thank you to Doan Thi Minh Thuy and Vu Duc Huy for helping me to collect data in Hai Phong during our initial research project, which I based on to develop and build up ideas for this thesis I also would like to express my deep appreciation to the staffs and local people in Dai Hop (Kien Thuy) and Bang La (Do Son) communes for the enthusiastic help during our work Due to the limited knowledge, time and experience, this thesis is still need to be improved I am looking forward to receiving feedbacks from teachers and friends to enhance it

Hanoi, 2016

Dedication

To my family.

Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Acknowledgements 3

List of acronyms abbreviations 7

List of figures 8

List of tables 9

Chapter 1 Introduction 10

Chapter 2 Study Goals and Objectives 14

2.1 Study goal and objectives 14

2.1.1 Goal 14

2.1.2 Specific objectives 14

2.2 Research question and hypothesis 14

2.2.1 Research question 14

2.2.2 Hypothesis 15

Chapter 3 Study Site and Research Methodology 16

3.1 Study site 16

3.1.1 Geographical location and topography 16

3.1.2 Climate 17

3.1.3 Natural resources 17

3.1.4 Population 17

3.1.5 Economy 18

3.2 Research methodology 18

Rationale: 18

3.2.1 Literature review and secondary data 19

3.2.2.Landsat Images classification and processing 20

3.2.3.Structured interview and Semi-structure interview 24

3.2.4 Data analysis 25

Chapter 4: Results 26

4.1 Policies and projects on coastal mangrove management 26

4.1.1 Policies related to coastal mangrove management from 1990 to 1997 27

4.1.2 Policies related to coastal mangrove management from 1997 to 2005 28

4.1.3 Policies-related to coastal mangrove management from 2005 – 2016 31

4.2 Effectiveness of mangrove management policies 32

4.2.1 Ecological indicator: Coastal mangrove extents before and after policies 32

4.2.3 Social indicator: 42

4.3 Solutions for better management of mangroves 45

4.3.1 Model of sustainable management and development of mangroves 45

4.3.2 Other solutions for sustainable development of mangroves 48

Chapter 5 Discussion 50

5.1 Effectiveness of coastal mangrove management in study area based on three significant indicators 50

5.1.1 Period from 1990 to 1997 : A beginning of mangrove management polices 51

5.1.2 Period from 1997 to 2005: Recovery and transition period of mangrove management polices 52

5.1.3.Period from 2005 to 2016: Development and prescription period of mangrove management policies 53

5.2 Limitation and further study 55

Chapter 6 Conclusion 56

Chapter 7 References 58

Chapter 8 Appendices 62

List of acronyms abbreviations

GIS Geographic Information System

NGO Non - Government Organization

MONRE Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

MARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

SMM Sustainable Mangrove Management

NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

PAM Programme Alimentaire Mondial (French) (WFP) World Food Program

JRC Japanese Red Cross

GPS Global Positioning System

List of figures

Figure 3.1.: Study Site 16

Figure 3.2: Flowchart of Landsat images classification and processing 23

Figure 4.1: Era of Natural Resources policy in Vietnam 26

Figure 4.2: Provincial institutional structure for coastal mangrove management in Dai Hop and Bang La communes 27

Figure 4.3: Thematic maps of coastal mangrove extents in Dai Hop and Bang La communes in different years using Landsat images 33

Figure 4.4: Mangroves extent in 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016 34

Figure 4.5: Changes in coastal mangroves in Dai Hop and Bang La communes from 1990 to 2014 37

Figure 4.7: Production of fishery during three periods 39

Figure 4.8: Local satisfaction about mangrove management policies 43

Figure 4.9: Power versus interest grid (adapted from Eden & Ackermann, 1998) 47

List of tables

Table 3.1: Landsat data used in the study 20

Table 3.2 Data layers to construct dynamic maps of mangroves 22

Table 4.1: Major features of mangrove management policies before 1997 28

Table 4.2: Projects in the period of 1997 - 2005 in study site (MARD, 2006) 29

Table 4.3: Implementation process of management policies in Dai Hop and Bang La 30

Table 4.4: Major features of mangrove management in Dai Hop and Bang La 32

from 2005 to 2016 32

Table 4.5: Mangroves extent in 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016 34

Table 4.6: Dynamics of mangrove extent in three different periods 34

Table 4.7: Accuracy assessment of unsupervised classification method in 1990 35

Table 4.8: Accuracy assessment of unsupervised classification method in 1997 35

Table 4.9: Accuracy assessment of unsupervised classification method in 2005 35

Table 4.10: Accuracy assessment of unsupervised classification method in 2016 36

Table 4.11: Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes in study site during three periods 38

Table 4.12: Sources of incomes in Dai Hop and Bang La 39

Table 4.13: Average income from seafood products of mangroves 42

Table 4.14: Social satisfaction of local people about mangrove management policies 43

Table 4.15: Households‘ participation in mangrove management policies 44

Table 4.16: Social participation in mangrove management projects 45

Table 5.1: Policies effectiveness assessment based on three significant indicators 50

Chapter 1: Introduction

Mangrove forest ecosystems occupy a narrow ecotone between marine and terrestrial environments, but a broad latitudinal range between 25oN and 30oS (Lugo and Snedaker, 1974) Across Southeast Asia, human activities have caused rapid mangrove system degradation and loss In Vietnam, a country undergoing economic transition, mangrove systems are vital to the livelihoods of coastal rural communities (Orchard, Stringer and Quinn, 2016) It provides an important ecosystem service of safeguarding human societies from natural disasters along tropical coastal zones (Sanford, 2009) Mangroves serve as a buffer between land and sea and hence are protection against erosion and even reduce the hazards of tsunamis and cyclones They harbor a variety of life forms like fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and are good source of timber, fuel, fodder, tannins, honey, etc Despite their importance, mangroves are constantly under threat worldwide They are being sacrificed for civic facilities like house building, roads and hotels and are often additionally subjected to pollution and disruption of their sensitive water and salt balance (Faridah-Hanum et al., 2014)

Management of mangroves in a sustainable ecological as well as economic way is a difficult proposition and needs multi-disciplinary intervention (Datta, Guha and Chattopadhyay, 2010) The concept of sustainable mangrove management has therefore become imperative to develop and establish broad guidelines which will help to achieve multiple objectives of management and utilization of forest products without any undesirable effect on the physical and social environment

In Vietnam, policies on mangrove management in Vietnam still need to be revised

in which better coordination of coastal mangrove management and development at the different levels should be strengthened The process of developing a broadly integrated management effort will need to incorporate a richer set of performance measures

all play a central role (Bowen and Riley, 2003) An integrated wetland research framework suggests that a combination of economic valuation, integrated modeling, stakeholder analysis, and multi-criteria evaluation can provide complementary insights into sustainable and welfare-optimizing wetland management and policy (Turner et al., 2000) Although the importance of assessing policies and their effectiveness on sustainable mangrove management is well recognized, accurate and reliable assessment process is unanswered, including Hai Phong in general and Dai Hop and Bang La communes in particular

Hai Phong is a coastal city with a total of 125 km of seacoast Coastal mangroves not only reduce consequences from natural disaster but also bring huge economic benefit for local people Mangroves conservation and management has been implemented in the city However, the assessment of policies effectiveness is still rare in Vietnam also in Hai Phong City

Hai Phong is located on the North coast of Vietnam, where the mangroves are classified as zone I and II among four mangrove zones in Vietnam This city lies within the tropical monsoons belt of Asia (Dat and Yoshino, 2013) With a sea coast length of

125 km this city is vulnerable to rising sea level and storms associated with climate change Mangroves play an important role in support for coastal dykes and reduce consequence from natural disasters Mangroves in Hai Phong are distributed in seven districts: Thuy Nguyen, Kien Thuy, Tien Lang, Cat Hai, Do Son, Duong Kinh, and Hai

An

Since 1992, there have been some mangrove plantation programs supported by both international funding agencies and the government of Vietnam For instance, PAM 5325,

327 Program are national afforestation programs related to mangrove plantation Projects

in study site were funded by the Japanese Red Cross (JRC) and associate with Hai Phong

non-government organizations, city and local people, as well as by efficiently using the funds, these programs had some successes

The livelihood of local people are gradually improving Not only could the damage from natural disaster be reduced but also their income have increased through the foraging of product from the mangroves Raising in local people awareness about importance of mangrove is crucial for coastal environmental management toward sustainability

Policy effectiveness evaluation helps to raise important question about environmental policies: Are they working? Are they cost – effective? If not, how can they

be improved? (European Environment Agency, Policy effectiveness evaluation) Effectiveness evaluation also provides an important feedback mechanism in the policy cycle which would be the useful guideline for policy – makers However, there is limited information available on how to assess the effectiveness of mangroves management policies in developing countries, especially in coastal regions of Vietnam In recent years, there has been a significant increase in scientific and volunteer surveys (Adeel and Pomeroy, 2002) Yet, this information usually focus separately on ecological, social or livelihood aspects and the application of criteria or set of indicators to assess policies effectiveness is rare Meanwhile, a management policy meet ecological, social and economic aspects which can considered as an effective policy in a sustainable way (Datta et al., 2010) highlights the importance of criteria and indicators to evaluate the status of performance of communities in managing their mangroves sustainably The importance of the information available on the status and threats to mangroves in developing country using geographic information system (GIS) had been focused by (Adeel and Pomeroy, 2002)

There have been a lot of studies about mangroves conducted in coastal districts of

Thai Binh River valley in Tien Lang district, Hai Phong of Nguyen Huy Thang (1996); Effectiveness of shrimp farm expansion to mangrove in Giao Thuy, Nam Dinh during the period 1986 – 2001 of Martin Boojand, Ferdinamd Bonn and Pham Van Cu, especially is comparing mangrove forest management in Hai Phong City, Vietnam towards sustainable aquaculture (Dat and Yoshino, 2013)

The scientific assessment of sustainability in natural resource management is an interdisciplinary task and it is generally agreed that sustainability assessments require environmental, economic and social criteria (Glaser and Diele, 2004) Some recent proposals for the assessment of marine fisheries also integrate ecological, economic and social assessment criteria, but few integrated, indicator-based assessments of the sustainability of coastal fisheries have been implemented to date

For those reasons, I come up with my research of evaluating policy effectiveness

on coastal mangrove management: case study in Kien Thuy and Do Son districts, Hai Phong city in order to initially build up a set of indicators for policies effectiveness assessment to apply on coastal mangrove management in Vietnam

Chapter 2: Study Goals and Objectives

2.1 Study goal and objectives

2.1.1 Goal

This research aims to assess the effectiveness of policies on coastal mangrove management using three main indicators in study area and propose possible solutions to enhance the mangrove management in study site

● Ecological indicator: dynamics of coastal mangroves during three significant

period of policies applied;

● Economic indicator: improvements of local livelihoods before and after

policies applied in study areas;

● Social indicator: social satisfaction and local participation

Objective 3: To propose the solutions to enhance management of coastal mangroves

2.2 Research questions and hypothesis

2.2.2 Hypothesis

Policies in study site have been implemented effectively to enhance management of coastal mangroves over last 26 years

Chapter 3: Study Site and Research Methodology 3.1 Study site

Study site belongs to two districts, including Kien Thuy and Do Son Specifically, it only belongs inside frontier of two communes They are Dai Hop (Kien Thuy) and Bang La (Do Son) Fig 3.1 shows the location of study site

Fig 3.1: Study Site: (a) Vietnam (b) Hai Phong city (c) Kien Thuy and Do Son districts

and the distribution of mangroves in study site

3.1.1 Geographical location and topography

a) Geographical location

Bang La commune (20°42‘42‘‘N, 106°44‘43‘‘E) has 966.73 hectares of natural area

Contiguous zones includeEast: Ngoc Xuyen and Van Huong communes; West: Kien Thuy

district; South: Gulf of Tonkin; North: Minh Duc commune and Kien Thuy district

Dai Hop commune (20°41′45″N, 106°42′51″E) has 1097.79 hectares of natural area with 4.2

km in length of coastline Contiguous zones include:

East: Bang La commune; West: Doan Xa commune; South: Van Uc seaport; North: Tu Son

in summer is approximately 32.5°C, in winter is approximately 20.3°C Annual average temperature is greater than 23.9°C Average precipitation is about 1600-1800 mm Dai Hop and Bang La are threatened by one to two storms per year, offered from June to September

3.1.4 Population

According to statistical data, population in Dai Hop (Kien Thuy) is 9491, 2675 households Average population density was greater than 865 people/km2 Number of households who are farmers, fishermen account for 69.5% and 8.1% respectively Number of people in working age account for 46%, population size Dai Hop is one of communes in Kien

Thuy Population in Bang La commune is 8765, average population density was 1339 people/km2

3.1.5 Economy

In Dai Hop, economic components mainly focus on aquaculture and aquatic products exploitation In 2008, aquatic product exploitation was 43.5%, aquaculture accounted for 30.5% and small scale industry and services was 26% Dai Hop is in process of developing economy towards promoting potential advantages for catching fish

In Bang La, local administration determines to develop economy towards interdisciplinary and focused on aquatic products exploitation In particular, the adjustment of economic structure narrowed the traditional salt-making area for low-income and moved toward higher proportion of animal husbandry, horticulture and business services Many welfare projects such as roads, lighting, schools, clinics, markets, irrigation system have been repaired, new construction next to hundreds of multi-storied villas of people has grown up

3.2 Research methodology

Rationale:

Policy effectiveness:

In this study, policy effectiveness is evaluated using three main indicators Therefore,

a policy is considered as the effectiveness as it could meet these indicators

Policy effectiveness indicators:

Ecological indicator

Ecological indicator in this study is considered as the extent of mangroves in three

different periods of time from 1990 to 2016 (Seto and Fragkias, 2007) presented satellite imagery as a powerful tool to assess land cover conditions before and after designation of Ramsar Convention in Vietnam Mangroves extent is used to be one of three indicators to assess policies effectiveness This method is also adapted from (Harty and Cheng, 2003)

Economic indicator

Economic indicator in this study is considered as the improvement of local livelihood

A livelihood is a means of making a living It encompasses people‘s capabilities, assets, income and activities required to secure the necessities of life (Aheto et al., 2016) A livelihood is sustainable when it enables people to cope with and recover from shocks and stresses, such as natural disasters and economic or social upheavals, and enhance their well-being and that of future generations without undermining the natural environment or resource base (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies)

Social indicator

Social indicator in this study includes two main aspects:

 Local empowerment: Local communities being supported to do things for themselves –

community empowerment (Aminu Liman and Ibrahim Ngah, 2015) People have their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services – community engagement and participation

 Local satisfaction: local communities has their own point of views about how were

policies and projects well implemented and this assessment is one of the most important step to improve management policies in natural resources management (Brosius, Tsing and Zerner, 1998)

3.2.1 Literature review and secondary data

Literature review is an indispensable part to deal with definitions and rationale as well

as collect the secondary data All the documents which related to policies in study site (Since, 1990), published documents, papers of previous researches, and case studies all over the world focusing on mangroves and study areas were reviewed This method helps study has an overview of the research topic The information collected from this method including but not limited to:

● Socio- economic conditions of study sites;

● Geographic Information System layers and Land Use Land Cover maps

● Technical steps of processing Landsat image;

● Data related to the dynamics of coastal mangroves;

● Relevant policies on coastal mangrove management in Dai Hop (Kien Thuy) and Bang

La (Do Son) communes

● Social – economic reports from communes

3.2.2 Landsat Images classification and processing

The multi-temporal Landsat images are used in this study to assess the dynamics of

the coastal mangrove area before and after the introduced policies (Table 3) The visual interpretation and unsupervised classification methods are used to map the coastal mangroves extent since 1990 In the combination with data collected in the field, the accuracy can be assessed using ground truth method

Table 3.1: Landsat data used in the study

Source: (a) http://glovis.usgs.com (b) Hai Phong Institute of Oceanography

The visual interpretation and unsupervised classification methods are used to map the coastal mangroves extent in 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016

Constructing a map of coastal mangrove extents in particular year:

Step 1: Processing Landsat images

Step 2: Constructing maps of the current state of mangroves in particular years and dynamic

maps of mangroves

Constructing thematic maps of mangroves

This study used unsupervised classification approach This approach was used to classify satellite images The result of this method was the division of Landsat images into many groups, each group includes a set of points which have similar spectral characters Hence, group of mangroves as well as other groups (populated areas; water; agricultural, industrial classes) were separated from other classes After that, ―reclass‖ command was used

to reclass the object into two main categories: mangroves and others

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) used as supporting tool in this report

to reclass layers NDVI values could be calculated for Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 image as the following equation:

Landsat 5/7:

(BandNir – BandRed)/(BandNir + BandRed) Or (Band 4 – Band 3)/(Band 4 + Band 3)

Images from google earth and maps of mangrove status obtained from Hai Phong institute of oceanography were also significant documents for this research to work out final thematic map of mangroves as well as accuracy assessment

Constructing dynamic maps of mangroves

After using unsupervised classification, maps of the current state of mangroves in particular years (1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016) were formed Then, two map layers were overlaid to get dynamic maps over periods Following table shows the basic information of two layers

Table 3.2 Data layers to construct dynamic maps of mangroves

1990

Forest Coverage in

1990

Id - 0= Non-Forested, 1=Forested

Count - Counter Variable

From Landsat Images

1997

Forest Coverage in

1997

Id - 0= Non-Forested, 1=Forested

Count - Counter Variable

From Landsat Images

2005

Forest Coverage in

2005

Id - 0= Non-Forested, 1=Forested

Count - Counter Variable

From Landsat Images

2016

Forest Coverage in

2016

Id - 0= Non-Forested, 1=Forested

Count - Counter Variable

From Landsat Images

Two layers were added together in ArcGIS (Arc Map) The final result is the dynamics map of coastal mangrove in three periods: 1990 – 1997; 1997 – 2005 and 2005 - 2016 with four main categories: No Forest; Forest Loss, Forest Gain, Stable Forest

Accuracy assessment

In this study, the accuracy is measured to which the ground cover classes produced in

a classified image are actually found in situ

To assess the accuracy of unsupervised classification method, research uses the same set of ground control points which have been chosen during the process of image classification This data set is classified as mangrove and non-mangroves categories Then each point is checked and compared with the actual ground control point in the field, identified by GPS device in 2016 For three other significant years 1990, 1997 and 2005, research uses the image from Google earth, maps from Hai Phong institute Oceanography, information from interviewing local people and NDVI method to support the assessment

process Totally, there are 80 points were chosen in 1990, 1997, 2005 and 132 ground control

points were marked with GPS devices in the field

Fig.3.1: Flowchart of Landsat images classification and processing

Maps of the current state of mangroves

3.2.3 Structured interview and Semi-structure interview

Primary data in this study was mainly obtained from structured interview method and the semi-structured interview is used as a support for certain types of information Total samples are 55 households in diverse groups of age, jobs, genders and social well-being (rich, middle and poor families)

● The level of participation which local people have been involved in management activities as well as projects

● The responsibilities and rights of local people in mangroves management

● Living condition in term of well-being and social conditions

b) Semi – structured interview

Semi – structured interview is an interview in which the interviewer uses a list of questions and topics that need to be covered during the conversation, usually in a particular order To collect the data, transect walk was applied in the field to interview some key people: hamlet leader, head of commune, private secretary, and also some local people: seller, experienced farmers, etc

In this case, we verified information which were potential to use for social indicator assessment such as social empowerment and social satisfaction and to contribute to figure out

3.2.4 Data analysis

Data collected from interviewing local people were analyzed by Microsoft Excel Descriptive statistics were used for social and economic indicators assessment Besides, raw data after processing with Microsoft Excel, were used to draw graph to illustrate the trends and changes of different variables in this study

Chapter 4: Results 4.1 Policies and projects on coastal mangrove management

Natural resources policies in Vietnam were influenced by many factors, such as historical development; political system – historical context; land use property system; etc (Fig.4.1) At the beginning eras of policies in Vietnam, coastal mangroves management had not been focused However, government still included these issues in important legal frameworks (Appendix 3) In study site, application of policies on coastal mangroves management started in 1990s They could be divided into three significant periods: 1990 to 1997; 1997 to 2005; and 2005 to 2016

Following are figures which show eras of Natural Resources policy in Vietnam and the institutional framework of mangrove management in study site

Fig 4.1: Era of Natural Resources policy in Vietnam

In study site, the policies on coastal mangroves management started in 1990s

Fig 4.2: Provincial institutional structure for coastal mangrove management in Dai

Hop and Bang La communes (adapted from Cuc et al., 2008)

4.1.1 Policies related to coastal mangrove management from 1990 to 1997

In Northern Vietnam, coastal area of the Red River Delta has served previously as a large mangrove ecosystem In this stage, socioeconomic conditions of Vietnam got much change The awareness of people about the values of mangroves was limited Policies about management and development of mangroves were relatively poor, weak and only at primitive level

Especially in Dai Hop and Bang La, reforestation and plantation projects had been applied However these projects did not achieve the expected results Most of new plants could not grow in the study area before 1997 Table 4.1 shows the main characteristics of policies in this period:

Provincial Dept of Agriculture and Rural development

Dai Hop and Bang La Red Cross Kien Thuy and Do Son district Red Cross

Commune people‘

committee

Hai Phong city Red Cross

Commune Mangroves Protection Station

Small mangroves protection

group

Other organizations

Table 4.1: Major features of mangrove management policies before 1997

1960s ● Vietnam‘s economy enters the recovery period after

1990s ● Economic liberalization associated with shrimp

farming expansion and mangrove reduction

Le (2008)

1992 ● Projects to restore and protect coastal mangroves had

1993 – 1998 ● Program 327 (implemented from 1993 to 1998 by

decision 327): Regenerate mangroves in Dai Hop and Bang La;

● Without the achievement

MARD, 2006

4.1.2 Policies related to coastal mangrove management from 1997 to 2005

In general, policies and projects systems were improved well in this period Hai Phong became one of the eight coastal provinces (from Quang Ninh to Ha Tinh) implemented the plantation mangroves project by central of Vietnam Red Cross with support of Japanese Red Cross

Policies and projects systems that focus on mangroves plantation and protection in study site can be evaluated as following:

Table 4.2: Projects in the period of 1997 - 2005 in study site (MARD, 2006)

● Improve the coverage of forest in Vietnam to 43% in 2010;

● Three stages: 2000; 2001-2005 and 2006-2010;

1998-● Total investment:

31,650 billion VND

● Phase 1: the country planted 1,424,135 ha;

● Contributed to forest cover in Vietnam to 36.7% (up 3.5%

compared with 1999);

● Vietnam became one

of the 10 countries with the largest plantation area in the world

● Irregularities

of funding allocation;

● Waste of investment;

● Planted areas did not meet the target

● Support of Japanese Red Cross and Danish Red Cross;

● Started in Bang La and Dai Hop in

1998

● Local people take part in the planting activities

● Supervised and assessed activities was focused by Staffs of Red Cross;

● Survival rate reach 62.5%;

● Seven kilometers of Sea dyke protected

Management policies

Policy is the guideline for the conservation and sustainable development of forest system in general and mangroves in particular ( Demurger, Hou Yuanzhao and Yang Weiyong 2009; Bowen and Riley 2003; Adeel and Pomeroy 2002) Since the 1990s of the 20th century, countries in the region and the world have acutely awared the importance of the promulgation of policies relating to coastal mangroves The policies system of government, which was performed in the area of coastal provinces in Northern Vietnam, were born in 1990s

In study site, coastal mangrove management policies has been applied more detail since 1998 Bang La and Dai Hop are two adjacent communes Research area located in both communes For this reason, that strip of coastal mangroves outside of more than seven kilometers of sea dyke, which influenced by two management policy systems as well as two specialized teams of two communes

Hai Phong Red Cross managed directly mangrove area in two communes Basically, two policy systems were relatively identical Structure of specialized teams were essentially the same However, the implementation process of certain policy has the distinction:

Table 4.3: Implementation process of management policies in Dai Hop and Bang La

The first stage

● Exploitation is allowed and free;

● Model of protection group (responsible for mangroves);

● Protection force divided into small teams;

into many plots;

● Group of 4 people responsible for each plot;

● Protection groups are equipped and have right to discipline

● Propaganda activities is rare;

● Local people get the information about mangroves by themselves;

● Local authorities inform through local broadcast system;

● Period assessment is irregular

● Propaganda activities is

regular;

● Training for people about

mangroves through the media and movies;

● Primary pupils have been

participating in the class of protected mangroves

4.1.3 Policies-related to coastal mangrove management from 2005 – 2016

After 2005, mangroves area in Hai Phong city increased dramatically: from 297 ha (1990) to more than 4.700 ha until now (according to Mr Le Van Van, 2014) Projects and

policies of the previous times focus on planting activities (dominant species is Kandelia

obovata)

Both Dai Hop and Bang La maintain the ranger departments annually However, there are differences about changing the awareness of local people These differences result in the difference between mangroves quality in two communes After 2005, local administrator and Red Cross of HaiPhong city continue to implement the last period of some projects

Table 4.4 shows the major features of mangrove management policies in study area from 2005 to 2016

Table 4.4: Major features of mangrove management in Dai Hop and Bang La

from 2005 to 2016

2005 ● Forest management model based on the

community (by Mr Ngac – Vietnam Institute of Forestry);

● After 3 years, because of out of funding, assessment and monitoring became weak, lead

to ineffectiveness

Interviewee: Mr Nguyen Van Hien (leader of Mangrove protection group – Bang La Ward)

2006 – 2008 ● The final phase of project 661;

● Investment of Japanese guiding for conservation and planning

Interviewee:

Mr.Vu Chi Hieu

2009 - 2014 ● Sea Dyke had been improved for three years;

● Caring activities in the present is implemented

by ranger department

Interviewee:

Mrs.Nguyen Thi Lien

In conclusion, related – policies and projects on coastal mangrove management in study site had been influenced by common features of eras of natural resources policies in Vietnam Policies have positive changes Starting point at the primitive period (1990 - 1997); Recovery & transition period (1997 – 2005) ; and continuously sustainable development period (2005 - 2016)

4.2 Effectiveness of mangrove management policies

4.2.1 Ecological indicator: Coastal mangrove extents before and after application of policies

Mangroves extent is one of the most important indicators to assess the effectiveness of management policies (Mumby et al., 1999) as the total area of mangroves in study site increases or decreases during each period of policies implementation Although there are general statistics available on the global status of mangrove forests, the exact extent of the remaining forest and exact rate of their loss are not known (Adeel and Pomeroy, 2002)

extent Thematic maps of four key years 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016 were constructed based

on unsupervised classification method which show the status of mangrove (Figure 4.3)

Fig 4.3: Thematic maps of coastal mangrove extents in Dai Hop and Bang La

communes in different years using Landsat images

Note: Mangroves area changed differently due to three periods (1990 – 1997, 1997 – 2005

and 2005 – 2016) In general, mangroves area in Dai Hop and Bang La communes has relatively large fluctuation from 1990 until 2016

The total area of mangrove and non-mangrove in study site for each year was calculated using raster calculation tool in ArcGIS Final results are showed as the following tables and charts:

Table 4.5: Mangroves extent in 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016 (ha)

Fig 4.4: Mangroves extent in 1990, 1997, 2005 and 2016

The dynamics of mangroves area can be drawn from the area of mangrove calculated above Dynamics and the percentage of changes of mangroves extent are illustrated as the following table:

Table 4.6: Dynamics of mangrove extent in three different periods

concerning the inventory and mapping of tropical coastal resources do not include an assessment of accuracy (Green et al., 1996) However, accuracy assessment is an essential part of using the results of image classification to make management decisions If remote sensing is to be used for determining change in the area of resources, the accuracy of the techniques must be clearly understood In this study, the final results were evaluated in the following matrix tables:

Table 4.7: Accuracy assessment of unsupervised classification method in 1990 GPS

Table 4.10: Accuracy assessment of unsupervised classification method in 2016 GPS

After constructing thematics maps of mangroves in four major years, the dynamic map

of mangrove area through three remarkable period was created as in the Fig 4.5

Fig 4.5: Changes in coastal mangroves in Dai Hop and Bang La communes from 1990 to 2016

Table 4.11: Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes in study site during three periods

Dynamics of mangroves are shown in the following chart:

Fig 4.6: Changes of mangroves loss in Dai Hop and Bang La communes

(from 1990 to 2016)

4.2.2 Economic indicator: Changes in local livelihood after applying policies

According to the interview with local people in study area, the sources of household income are illustrated as the following:

Table 4.12: Sources of incomes in Dai Hop and Bang La Households Aquaculture Agriculture activities Services Others

Dai Hop and

Aquaculture is the biggest source of income for local people in study site Hence, the economic assessment will base on the data of fisheries productivities and the information provided by interviewing local communities

The results of interviewing 55 local households in Dai Hop and Bang La communes and local administrations shown that there were the significant changes in relation to local livelihood Main findings are analyzed as below:

Fig 4.7: Production of fishery during three periods

(Adapted from General Statistics Office of Viet Nam) Source: http://www.gso.gov.vn

a)Period from 1990 to 1997

Policy and projects aspect: This was considered as the beginning period of policy and

projects in study area

Policy: Policies about management and development of mangroves are relatively poor,

weak and only at primitive level

1990 1996 1997 2003 2004 2005 2011 2012 2016 Productivity 15 16.2 15.002 28.953 31.721 35.279 46.323 47.853 49.932

0 10 20 30 40 50 60