Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development
(CARD)
Program
228
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 c
ode
:
CARD
0
17/06
VIE
Authors:
Tran Van Dien
1
, Tran Thi Thu Ha
1
and K
hongsak Pinyopusarerk
2
Project Implementing organi
s
ations:
1
Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam
2
CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
1.
Introduction
E
thnic m
inority 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 B
ac 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
pl
ants. 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 pr
oductivity 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
gover
nment 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 opti
on. 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
an
d 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, influ
ence 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 pr
ovince 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,
pla
ntation and agro
-
forestry development. The
CARD 017/06
–
Community based forest management
229
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
com
munity 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 communit
y
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 i
n 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 free
ly 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 vi
llages. 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
1
Ban Sang
154.3
100
2
To Dooc
45.1
100
3
Na Muc
118.3
100
4
Khuoi Lieng
121.1
100
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 discu
ssion.
Tran
Van Dien, Tran Thi Thu Ha & Khongsak Pinyopusarerk
230
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 o
f 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 d
evelopment,
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 m
embers
-
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, num
ber 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 fac
tor 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. Anot
her 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 memb
ers participating CFM [5]
Village
Total households
involved in CFM
Total males aged >15
involved in CFM
Total females aged >15
involved in CFM
Quantity
%
Quantity
%
Quantity
%
Na Muc
23
100
54
100
52
100
Khuoi Lieng
35
100
81
100
72
100
To Dooc
19
73
30
46.7
32
46.3
Ban Sang
69
100
157
100
145
100
CARD 017/06
–
Community based forest management
231
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 con
ducted in the project area [6]
No.
Training topics
Number of direct
beneficiaries
1
Land
-
use planning and land allocation
26
2
Planning and implementation of community forest management
25
3
Village nursery propagation
125
4
Plantation forest developm
ent
82
5
Law on forest protection and development
80
6
Agro
-
forestry model for income generation
64
7
Sustainable harvest of non
-
timber forest products
82
In addition to the above, this CARD project
also organized study tours to other CFM
projects an
d 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 pro
vided
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 plantat
ion 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 dis
tribution 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
(ke
o)
(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 a
s
presented in the Table 4.
Tran
Van Dien, Tran Thi Thu Ha & Khongsak Pinyopusarerk
232
Table 4:
Number of seedlings produced annually in four target villages
Village
Manglietia conifera
Acacia mangium
Total
Na Muc
30,000
40,000
70,000
Khuoi Lieng
20,000
30,000
50,000
To Dooc
20,000
30,000
50,000
Ban Sang
30,000
40,000
70,000
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]
Cost item
Cost (VND)
Construction of nursery garden (capital cost)
5,120,000
Operating cost
16,498,000
Total cost
21,618,000
Cost per seedling
309
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 reflecti
ng 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 proje
cts 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 abo
ut 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
productio
n,
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 y
ields 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
.