MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SUMMARY of THE PhD THESIS
Major: Rural Development
Code: 9620116
DANG THI THANH QUYNH
ASSESSING THE VALUE OF FOREST ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN THE MOUNTAINS OF AN GIANG PROVINCE
Can Tho, 2021
THIS STUDY WAS ACHIEVED AT CAN THO UNIVERSITY
Scientific Supervisor:
Dr. Dang Kieu Nhan
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duy Can
This dissertation was defended at the University Examination Council
At: ........................................................................
At…..hour….., on date…...month.......year……..
Reviewer 1:.................................
Reviewer 2:.................................
The dissertation is available at:
Learning Resource Center of Can Tho University
National Library of Viet Nam
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
1. Dang Thi Thanh Quynh, Tran Van Hieu, Dang Kieu Nhan, 2020. Characteristics of household livelihood by agro-ecological region in two mountain districts in An Giang province. Journal of Vietnam Agricultural Science and Technology, 7(116)/2020: 166-173.
2. Dang Thi Thanh Quynh, Tran Van Hieu, Dang Kieu Nhan, 2019. Analysis of integrated agro-forestry farming systems in the mountainous area in An Giang province. Can Tho University Journal of Science. Special issue on Environment and Climate Change, (2019) (1): 79-87.
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The forest ecosystem provides people with many important ecosystem services (ES) such as food, pharmaceuticals, wood, climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, water regulation, soil stability, carbon absorption, and recreation (MEA, 2005). Forest ES are also a source of livelihood, health and poverty reduction for many stakeholders who have reply on ecosystem services (De Groot et al., 2012). However, the exploitation of resources to meet short-term needs has put pressure on forest ES and affected the quality of human life (De Clercke, 2014). This is a challenge for managers who have decision-making in exchange for forest resource conservation and socio-economic development. Therefore, the concern is how to effectively exploit forest ES, improve the value of ES without harming the environment.
Most studies of forest ES value aim to provide sustainable management of forest ES on the basis of reducing trade-offs. In fact, the service provided by forest ES is related to household livelihoods, which is an important source of livelihood for those with limited income. Therefore, research on sustainable management of forest ES needs to base on livelihoods through the reasonable use of ES.
The mountainous forest ecosystem of An Giang province belongs downstream of the Mekong river where is a hill protection forest characterized by a humid tropical monsoon climate, so it contains high biodiversity, with the potential to exploit valuable ES for livelihoods. However, people's lives are still difficult, poor households account for a high poverty rate which Le Tri commune is 29.7%, Nui To commune is 31.1% (An Giang Department of Statistics, 2019). In addition, agricultural intensive farming and unreasonable exploitation of forest resources are threatening the deterioration of ES function. The study relies on access to ES and a sustainable livelihood framework to explore the relationship between forest ES and local livelihoods. The results of the project contribute to the successful local implementation of national target programs on poverty reduction, agricultural restructuring, and sustainable development in response to climate change adaptation.
1.2 Research objectives
Focusing on the following three specific objectives: (1) Identify the types of forest ES and the value of forest ES that local households benefit from in research communes in Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts; (2) Identify the relationship between forest ES that households benefit from and livelihoods of households living; and (3) Recognize the motivations and obstacles, and propose solutions to enhance the value of forest ES, improve access to forest ES to develop livelihoods of different groups.
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1.3 Hypotheses and research questions
The research hypothesis is that the forest ES in An Giang province is closely related to the local livelihoods who are living in the ecosystem. There are two research questions: (1) How is the value of forest ES in An Giang province related to the local livelihoods; (2) What opportunities and solutions can help promote the value of ES and allocate reasonable benefits of such resources to enhance the local livelihoods?
1.4 Research contents
There are three research contents: (1) Description of characteristics of types of ES and determination of the value of ES to which household livelihoods benefit in four research communes; (2) Analyzing the relationship between forest ES and livelihoods that households benefit from in four communes for study; and (3) Analyzing obstacle, supporting factors and proposing improved socio-economic solutions to enhance the value of forest ES and improve local livelihoods.
1.5 Limitations of the dissertation
Regarding the subjects, there are two main subjects: (1) forest ES and the value of forest ES that the local livelihoods have benefit, and (2) households livelihoods have benefits from forest ES. In terms of content, focus only on studying the relationship between forest ES and local livelihoods. For forest ES, the study only measures the value of forest ES for which household livelihoods directly benefit, it is a valuable market price, other types of ES that are not of interest in this study. In terms of space, the study selected four communes representing the mountainous forest of An Giang province: Nui To commune, Le Tri commune, Luong Phi commune, and An Hao commune. In terms of time, the dissertation collects data in 2019.
1.6 New points of the dissertation
Most of the studies base on the approach to ES to quantities of forest ES in order to achieve sustainable management of the forest ecosystem. In this study, measuring the value of ES puts the human factor at the center, for the purpose of improving household livelihoods and as well as sustainable management of forest ES. This is a new approach in rural development research.
The study uses a canonical correlation analysis method as a comprehensive and objective assessment of the relationship between livelihoods and the value of forest ES. This is a method of linearly multiple variables, each group of variables consists of many variables, so it is possible to fully exploit all the data in socio-economic research, the results of the analysis are highly reliable and avoid the waste of data.
Besides, the results of the study have found that, in the mountains of An Giang province, the better off households who have a lot of agricultural lands benefit from forest ES more than poor households with less land. This is the new point discovered in the study
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for forest ES. Previous results have suggested that the poor are heavily dependent on forest ES and pose a threat to the forest ecosystem.
Chapter 2: LITERARURE REVIEW
2.1 Forest ecosystem service concept
Ecosystem services is a new concept that has recently appeared when humans over- exploit natural ecosystem for different purposes. ES are products and services from nature, benefiting people (MEA,2005). Those benefits are categorised into four functional groups or four types of services: (1) services provided are products from the ecosystem; (2) regulating services are the benefits of ecosystem process; (3) cultural services are non- material resources that human beings have; (4) Support services are those necessary for the all other ES.
2.2 Forest ecosystem service value
In fact, the value of ES that humans benefit from the ecosystem is only a fraction of the benefits that ES bring to humans, it depends on the context, manner and duration of human use (Fisher et al., 2009; Bateman et al., 2011). According to Munang et al. (2011), depending on the different levels, the prices from ES are different.
In the Mekong delta, the amount of value of forest ES or each type of forest ES has been determined by many studies but is mainly associated with public benefits. In U Minh Ha National Park in Ca Mau province, the total value of forest ES is estimated by the use of GIS and household investigations, the results of which show that forest ES provided to humans including fisheries, timber, carbon absorption, and typhoon prevention, are worth a total of about USD 600 million per year for 187,533 hectares of forest area (Vo Quoc Tuan et al., 2015). In the forest ecosystem in Cu Lao Dung district, Soc Trang province, tourism services brought to the whole society are valued based on the method of travel costs, the estimated value is about VND 327 billion VND, of which tourism companies benefit 291 billion VND (Mai Van Nam and Nguyen Van Hoa, 2020). In Tram Chim national park, the value of tourism services is increasing, there were more than 150,000 visitors to visit study in 2018, to research and entertain which have increase of 20 times compared to 2010 (Dao Van Thang et al., 2019).
In general, the value studies of forest ES provided for household livelihoods are still very limited in the Mekong Delta, rice cultivation is considered the most important supply servicefor people's livelihoods (Berg et al., 2016). On the other hand, rice-vegetable integrated farming helps farmers increase profits but also helps create jobs for local workers compared to the rice specialized model. In addition, aquaculture activities are also an important service for the livelihoods of the people of Mekong Delta (Nguyen Thi Kim Quyen and Yakupitiyage, 2016).
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2.3 Approach methods and value of ecosystem services
Approaches commonly used to determine ES value are divided into three types of methods: (1) market value determination, (2) interest disclosure, and (3) interest statement (Chenery et al. , 2013). Accordingly, for each different type of value people use different approaches to the amount of ES value. The market price value method is a market-based assessment consisting of three approaches: (1) market price valuve, (2) production function, and (3) avoidable replacement or damage costs. This method is often used to determine the value of services provided that have been traded in the market such as food, water supply, firewood, wood, honey, medicinal herbs, and wildlife (Kumar, 2010).
The choice of price method depends on the types of ES (Emerton, 2013). For market- priced ES such as yields and productivity, livestock, honey, firewood, and freshwater, it will be quantified by using production functions to estimate production surpluses from the extraction, production, and cultivation of products from the ecosystem (Kumar, 2010). In this study, the forest ES provided for household livelihoods is mainly the source of income from agricultural cultivation, forest products, and tourism services business, this study uses the market price method to measure the value of forest ES that livelihoods benefit.
2.4 The relationships between livelihoods and ecosystem services
As a result, some studies show that household livelihoods depend on the service provided by the forest ecosystem, especially the poor with limited income sources (Persson et al., 2010; Kumar et al., 2013). In South Asian countries, rural poor households have livelihoods dependent on food, fuel, and freshwater (Kumar, 2010). In U Minh Thuong forest ES, Ca Mau province, the income of buffer zone households depends on agricultural cultivation, accounting for 20% to 80% of the total household income (Tran Van Kiet et al., 2020). Thereby, the income of households along the forest ES depends on the exploitation of forest resources with a lower livelihood contribution compared to the agricultural ecosystem due to the favorable irrigation water. Therefore, the concern that affects mountain the forest ecosystem is an opportunity to improve the value of ES.
Besides, livelihoods also affect forest ES. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment program, researchers concluded that more than 60% of ES declined at a faster rate than the self-recovery rate (MEA, 2005). More than one-fifth of the world's population has a shortage of clean water to drink and half of the population lacks water for sanitation needs. Constract, if forests are protected, the benefits of erosion can be up to 80 USD/ha/year (Vu Tan Phuong, 2007). In the Mekong delta, the long-term use of pesticides and agricultural intensive care has affected human health and impacted ES. Rice intensive cultivation over the past 15 years has helped to increase rice production but has reduced other ES such as water quality, aquatic plants and animals, habitat and natural enemies (Berg et al., 2016). From the above reasons, ecological imbalances, are the causes of reducing ES and reducing the value that ES brings to humans.
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Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Theoretical basis or rationale
This study applied an approach to ES and sustainable livelihoods to explore the relationship between forest ES and local livelihoods through the value of forest ES. Based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework diagram shows that the link between ES and human life (MEA, 2005), an overview of the value of ecosystem and biodiversity to human life (Sukhdev et al., 2010) and sustainable livelihoods framework (DFID, 1999), show that there is a link between forest ES and local livelihoods through the value of ES that households benefit from, and are governed by natural and socio-economic factors on the basis of human management. The theoretical framework is described in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1: Relationship between forest ecosystem service and livelihood
3.2 Study site selection
In order to determine the relationship between the mountainous forest ES of An Giang province and the local livelihoods, the communes selected as research site are mountainous communes of Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts, with forestry land for mountainous protection forests accounting for a large proportion and communes with typical socio-economic characteristics of mountainous communes.
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Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts have the three most concentrated mountainous areas: Cam mountain, Dai nountain and Co To mountain, the total area of mountainous land of areas is about 6,523 hectares, accounting for 57% of the total hilly land area of the two districts (An Giang Forest Department, 2018). In particular, the roads along the foothills of Dai, Cam and Co To mountain, with the area of hilly forestry land occupying a large proportion (Figure 3.2).
Núi Dài
Núi Cô Tô
Figure 3.2: Map of the location of research communes
Regarding socio-economic characteristics, Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts have 29 communes, which can be divided into five groups of communes with similar socio- economic characteristics into the method of analyzing clusters of 10-year data series (2009 - 2018) of indicators in the statistical year (Figure 3.3).
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Figure 3.3: Diagram of subgroup in Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts
The results showed that there are three groups of communes that are group 2, group 3 and group 4, characterized by mountainous communes, are mountainous forestry land area accounting for a greater proportion than the other two groups, and between these three groups are statistically significant because of factors of poor household ratio, Khmer ethnic density, forestry land area, agricultural land area, rice cultivation area, vegetable cultivation, fruit growing and cattle breeding. Therefore, the study selected four research communes which are An Hao commune of Cam mountain, Le Tri and Luong Phi communes of Dai nountain, and Nui To commune of Co To mountain.
3.3 Methods of collecting data
Based on two main subjects of research: forest ES and livelihoods, the process of collecting data is divided into four main stages: (1) interviewing KIP people, research subjects from officials at the provincial and district-level, (2) in-depth interviews with commune-level officials, (3) interviewing household groups, and (4) interviewing households using interview by questionnaire (Figure 3.4).
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Figure 3.4: A summary of the collecting data process
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3.3.1 In-depth interviews with provincial and district level
At the provincial and district levels, the invited subjects to participate in the interview are managers representing ecosystem management agencies at the provincial and district levels, including: Forest protection Service, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of An Giang Province; forest protection service and Agriculture Department in Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts; The People's Committee and the Farmers' Association in four research communes. The interview content is primarily the benefits that ES bring to the community based on the protection functions of forest ecosystem; identify groups of beneficiaries related to ES; assess the implementation of relevant policies, institutions and development orientations in the locality; and provide opportunities and solutions to enhance the value of ES and effectively exploit forest ES.
3.3.2 In-depth interviews with commune level
At the commune level, interview householders to categoric the results of residents' livelihoods, determine the proportion of groups of households and groups of beneficiaries of forest ES based on the main livelihood activities of households in the commune. The hamlet was selected as 07 representative hamlets, the number of interviewees in each hamlet was three, the selected person was the head of the hamlet or the deputy with knowledge of the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the hamlet. The content mainly interviews directly with a group of three household livelihood managers in 07 hamlet to interview about residents' livelihoods. Based on the list of households of 07 hamlets provided by the locality, the interview content is the classification of local residents' livelihoods, classification of rich and poor, determination of direct and indirect beneficiaries of ES based on the main livelihood activities of households.
3.3.3 Group interviews
Invited to interview the group are ES beneficiaries who are involved in agricultural production, agricultural leasing and participating in tourism, they exploit the benefits of ecosystem such as: growing fruit trees, rice, vegetables, cattle cows, hiring agriculture, exploiting medicinal herbs, forest vegetables, wood and commercial services for tourism. The number of groups invited for interview is four groups, each of which chooses a representative hamlet to interview a group, each group of 08 – 12 people, including women, ethnicities and the elderly. The method of selecting households is based on the results of household classification and the proportion of households benefiting from the main livelihood activities in the four research communes that have been collected from interviewing hamlet officials. The tools used are historical flow analysis, transet walk ecological drawing, and analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.
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3.3.2.1 Historical analysis
Historical flow analysis aims to identify the change and decline of forest ES in recent years, the dominant factors (challenges and opportunities) mainly from outside that change ES at the community level. From there, identify the types of ES that the beneficiary household, the group of beneficiaries and the reaction of residents.
The information collected is primarily events related to the timing of the ES change. That change is mainly the change of forest resources, the form of cultivation and the agricultural crop, the change in cultivation techniques, corresponding to the group of beneficiaries involved in forest ES. Besides, identifying natural, socio-economic and physical factors, policies, limiting as well as promoting the development of ES over time. In addition, for understanding how important the factors that govern the change in ES, the priority ranking tool is also implemented.
3.3.2.2 Description transet walk of ecological
The objective of this tool is to characterize the benefits that ES provide to the community; the distribution of benefits and beneficiary groups in different sub-ecosystem; thereby identifying the dominant factors by spatial, external challenges and opportunities that change ES at the community level.
Based on the available land use map of An Hao commune of Cam mountain and Le Tri commune of Dai mountain, the study chooses the most passing slices through the details of Cam mountain and Dai mountain, going in the direction from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain and the foot of the mountain to identify the relevant information and draw a diagram describing the ecological slice of the forest ES.
The information collected includes the altitude, slopes, water sources, soil types, forest resources, seedlings under agricultural cultivation and boundaries of sub ecosystem. At the sametime, identify ES benefits, natural, socio-economic and physical factors, policies, limiting and promoting the development of ES in each sub-ecosystem; potential opportunities, challenges and ES that can be improved in the future.
3.3.2.3 Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges
In order to provide appropriate and community-involved solutions, this tool is implemented to synthesize all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges to come up with solutions to enhance the value of forest ES. The solution is determined on the basis of taking advantage of opportunities, promoting strengths, overcoming weaknesses and overcoming challenges. Thereby contributing to improving the value of ES and appropriately allotment of benefits from ES, thereby offering solutions at the farmer's level that contribute to improving people's livelihoods, reducing poverty and solutions at the management level to improve ecosystem ability to provide services.
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3.3.4 Household interviews
The aim of this interview is to describe the benefits of ES, its value that households can use, and livelihood resources. The method of selecting households was be carried out in a randomly strat tiered way based on the main livelihood activities of the three types of households in the research communes. The total number of households interviewed in the four study communes was 223 households.
The information collected includes four main groups: (1) characteristics of households including household type, ethnicity, human resources (labor, qualifications, occupation), social participation, land, means of livelihood, financial capital; (2) family livelihood results include income sources, net income of each livelihood activity, rich and poor status and changes in livelihood results in a year; (3) benefits from aestry farming are mainly information on the cost, revenue and profit of each agricultural farming system of households in a year; (4) other benefits related to ES such as business activities for tourism, benefits from exploitation of natural products, and impact difficulties that reduce the economic efficiency of farming models, reduce business efficiency and related services and household reactions.
3.4 Method of data analysis
The quantities data, corresponding to each content, the study uses financial efficiency accounting analysis to calculate the value of forest ES, other data use statistical analysis methods to analyze the connection and correlation between variables in the study.
3.4.1 Method of calculating the value of forest ecosystem services
The value from agricultural cultivation, such as fruit, rice, and vegetable cultivation, is the household economic profit obtained from the agricultural farming system calculated on the unit of cultivated land. This the value is the difference between the total revenue from the sale of the product and the total investment cost for that product. The relevant indicators used are total cost, total revenue, profitability and capital efficiency.
Profit (P) is the economic benefit that ES bring to livelihoods. Is the amount that farmers earn when revenue exceeds costs. Profitability is calculated based on the following formula: P = TR – TC (Dinh Phi Ho, 2003). In particular, total revenue/ income (TR) is the entire amount collected in the production, service and consumption of goods, calculated according to the formula: TR = output * selling price (Dinh Phi Ho, 2003). Total cost (TC) includes fixed investment costs in the survey year and variable costs are depreciated by the straight-line method, the average depreciation of a year (Pham Thi My Dung, 1996).
The efficiency of capital or profitability is determined in agricultural cultivation. Benefit cost ratio (BCR) aims to assess the effectiveness of the profitability of investment costs in agricultural production. This ratio means that a co-production cost how much to
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earn the corresponding profit. It is determined by the percentage of profit against the cost of production, based on the following formula: BCR (%) = P/TC x 100.
3.4.2 Statistical analysis
3.4.2.1 Cross-table analysis
Crosstab analysis is used to determine the existence of a link between two variables in the whole based on Chi-square inspection at a meaningful level of 5% (Hoang Trong and Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc, 2008). In this study, crosstable analysis was used to examine the differences in the proportion of households benefiting from ES in research communes and the proportion of households changing the livelihood results of three groups of households.
3.4.2.2 Analysis of ANOVA
Anova analysis is used to compare the differences between the average values of groups using Tukey test at a meaningful 5% (Hoang Trong and Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc, 2008). In the study, the analysis of aerances was used to describe and compare differences in the average value of livelihood resources of three household groups. Household livelihood resource variables are listed in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Explaining the variables of livelihood resources
Explanation No. Variable name
Units Measure Person/HH Person/HH Labour 1 Total people 2 Male
Female Person/HH 3
Person/HH 4 Agri production
services Person/HH labor 5 Agri labor
Education level
Person/HH 6 Non-farm labor Person/HH 1 Un-learned
Person/HH 2 Level 1
Person/HH 3 Level 2
Person/HH 4 Level 3
Intermediate Person/HH 5
Person/HH 6 University
Land area The total number of people living in the household The number of employees who generate income is male in the household The number of employees who generate income is female in the household Number of employees participating in agriculture in households Number of employees participating in agricultural services in households Number of non-agricultural workers in households Number of employees of households who have not yet attended school Number of employees of households with education up to level 1 Number of employees of households with education up to level 2 Number of employees of households with education up to level 3 Number of employees of households with intermediate college degrees Number of employees of households with university degree or higher
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Social Participate Ha/HH Ha/HH Ha/HH Person/HH in social 1 On the hill 2 Upland field 3 Lowland field
Million VND /year/HH Income 1 Agricultural products Forest products Million VND 2 /year/HH Serving tourism Million VND Land area of households in hilly sub-ES, Land area of households in the upper field ES Land area of households in sub-ES of lower fields Number of employees participating activities Net income of HHs directly benefiting from agri- farming Net income of beneficiaries of exploitation of forest products Net income for food and travel beneficiaries 3
income of households benefiting from 4 Agricultural leasing /year/HH Million VND /year/HH
5 Other income Million VND /year/HH Net agricultural leasing Income for the year of households benefiting from other sources
3.4.2.3 Canonical correlation analysis
To see the relationship between forest ES and livelihoods, the study uses formal correlation analysis. This is a method of finding the relationship between two variables, set Y and variable X. The results of the analysis will show a strong or not close relationship between the two groups of variable Y and variable X thanks to the correlation factor (Thorndike, 2000). In addition, the relationship between variables in each variable group and between different groups of variables is also seen based on the correlation between the same or opposite dimensions (Malacarne, 2014). On that basis, the study identified two set variables including the household income variable set as the Y variable group and the set of livelihood attribute variables as variable group X. The meaning of variables in the model is detailed in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2: Explain Y variable groups and X variable groups in analysis
No. Variable name Explanation Units of measurement
Variable group Y 1 Agri and forests income Million VND/year/HH
2 Hired income from agricultural income benefiting
3 Tourism and non-agri income in the district Million VND/ year/HH Million VND/ year/HH
4 Non-agri other district
Variable group X 1 Un-schooled labor Million VND/ year/HH Person/HH Net income in the year of households directly benefiting from agricultural cultivation and exploitation of forest products Net employment Net income for the year of households directly benefiting from tourism and non-agri activities in the district Net income for the year of households benefiting from non-agri activities in other district The number of agricultural workers directly
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2 First-level labor Person/HH
3 Second-level labor Person/HH
4 High school labor Person/HH
5 Person/HH Intermediate + vocational college labor
Person/HH 6 Workers studying at university or higher
7 Agri labor Person/HH
8 Agri-service labor Person/HH
9 Non-agri labor Person/HH
10 Income-generated labor Person/HH
Ha/HH benefiting from forest HST services Number of employees doing NN services from indirect benefit from forest HST service Number of workers benefiting from other sources of income Total number of employees who generate income of households Number of employees of households who have not yet attended school Number of employees of households with education up to level 1 Number of employees of households with education up to level 2 Number of employees of households with education up to high school Number of employees of households with intermediate college degrees Number of employees of households with university degree or higher Land area of households in the hills 11 Land area in the mountains
12 Land area on 13 Lower land area 14 Plowing/ploughing Ha/HH Ha/HH Amount/HH Land area of households in the upper field Land area of households in lower fields plows/slot machines
Amount/HH Amount/HH Amount/HH Amount/HH Source/HH machine 15 Motorcycles 16 Connected computers 17 Phones 18 Connected phones 19 Revenues from agricultural
20 Revenues from agri- Source/HH services
Source/HH Number of motorbikes of households internet-connected computers Phones that are not connected to the network Networked phones Number of sources of income from direct benefit services Number of sources of income from indirect benefit services Number of sources of income from other sources
21 Non-agricultural revenues 22 Loans for agri 23 Loans for services and %/HH %/HH Loan ratio for agricultural production in 2018 Loan ratio for services or business 2018 business
Person/HH %/HH 24 Loans for education 25 Loans for other purposes %/HH 26 Members of social organizations Loan ratio for education 2018 Loan ratio for other purposes Number of household members participating in social organizations
The method of selecting independent variables or dependent variables of the key correlation analysis is also based on a survey of the correlation between the corresponding variables, the method of step-by-step analysis, and the result of the value that determines the meaning of the model (P value).
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Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Ecosystem services and forest ecosystem service value
4.1.1 Change and formation of forest ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are formed when people settle, exploit and benefit from ES. The natural forest ecosystem changes from natural forests to plantations, switching from plantations to fruit trees, and when trees are canopy, ES turn to intensive agriculture. There are many factors affecting the impact of the decline of forest ES (Table 4.1).
Table 4.1: The change and decline of forest ecosystem services
Time State and changes Pressures Impact and response of households
Decision 327-CT Planting forests and fruit trees 1992- - 1996 Planting forests and fruit trees
Still growing vegetables Growing vegetables, intensive cultivation 02 crops
1997- - 1999 Planting forests and fruit trees The area of plantations and fruit trees begins to increase
vegetables intensive Implementing Decision on 661/QD-TTg planting 05 million hectares of forest Growing reduced Growing vegetables, rice cultivation two crops
Value of fruit is low down forests, 2000- - 2009 Planting more fruit trees in the hill land area Three-crop rice low- Cutting efficiency fruit trees to change higher value fruit trees area was Vegetables reduced Vacant, migrating other districts in other provinces
2010- Fruits value is high Forests and fruit trees have full grown Now Intensive fruit trees of high value such as mangoes two or three crops a year fields culture Prolonged heat, lack of irrigation water Lowland crops Tourism to develop Intensive rice cultivation two or three crops Weather better than Tourism to develop
4.1.2 Beneficiary from forest ecosystem services
Forest ES bring benefit residents which are determined based on resource characteristics and agricultural cultivation. Forest resources and agricultural cultivation are diverse and unevenly distributed, so forest ecosystem is divided into three different sub- ecosystem for comparison. This division is based on indicators such as terrain, water sources, land, forest resources, crops and livestock, described in detail in Figure 4.1.
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Lowland field Terrain Upland field Altitude 08 -30 m Altitude 04 – 08m
Water Hill - Altitude 400 m and above, slope below 250 - Altitude 30 m – 400 m, slope above 250 - Water - Water
Land - Sandy soil, many rocks - Individual owner - Mixing sand - Individual owner Water supply system - Mising - Individual owner
Forest trees, vegetables and forest animal - Fruit trees: mango, banana, orange, None - Vegetables, None - Rice Forest trees Livestock crops rice tangerine, grapefruit, durian, avocado and coconut.
Benefits - Cows, pigs, chickens - Products: - Rice
- Natural products: firewood, wood, spring water, honey, forest vegetables, medicinal herbs and forest animals. - Agricultural products: fruit trees and less vegetables, rice, beef, pork, chicken vegetables - Serving tourism along the foot of Cam mountain Opportunity - Suitable for - Suitable for growing valuable fruit trees - Growing vegetables/medicinal herbs under organic farming The need for organic food the forest canopy - Raising cows
Challenges - Rice - Lack of water due to drought intensive - Increased travel demand - Mango intensive - Over-exploitation of natural medicinal herbs - Lack of water in the dry season - Risk of crop - Use of pesticides
Figure 4.1: Ecosystem diagram in the mountains of An Giang province
On the basis of consulting local authorities on beneficiaries of forest ES, the study has synthesized the types of forest ES that households benefit from in different sub-ecosystem, the results of which are presented in Table 4.2.
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Table 4.2: Ecosystem services according to sub-ecosystems and beneficiaries
Groups
Sub-ecosystem* (3) (2)
(1)
Com- munity
House- holds
1. Provide services - Agricultural products - Forest products
x x x x
x
x x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
Fruit Vegetables Rice Cows Wood Firewood Fresh water Honey Forest vegetables Wildlife Weather better than
x
x
x
x x x
x x
x
2. T-control services - Sub-climate conditioning - Limit soil erosion 3. Support services - Protect gene sources 4. Cultural services - Develop tourist
Soil covered Habitat of plants and animals Scenery, monuments and pagodas * Sub-ecosystem: (1) = hill; (2) = upland field; and (3) = lowland field The sign (x) appears the ecosystem service corresponding to each sub-ecosystem and each beneficiary
Ecosystem services Beneficiaries
4.1.2.1 Value of agricultural cultivation services
This results show that there are 43.4% of households have livelihoods depending on the benefits of agricultural farming services, the remain of households have livelihoods depending on other sources of revenue. Among agricultural farmers, 50% of households grow intensive rice, 31% of households grow fruit trees, 15% of households grow rice- vegetables and 13% of households grow vegetable crops. The results of the study also showed that ES from farming benefited in sub-ecosystem and in different research communes of statistical significance (Chi-Square < 0.05) (Table 4.3).
The value obtained from agricultural cultivation is mainly the profit that agricultural systems bring to households based on the unit of land area. Through the results of the analysis, the value obtained from fruit planting interspersed with forest trees in the hills and cassavas in the upland fields are the forms of cultivation that bring high economic benefits to livelihoods (Table 4.4). In particular, cassavas is a farming system that is less harmful to the environment due to the lack of use of pesticide feces, the remaining systems need to study the harmful effects of pesticides to sufficient basis for assessing the harmful effects of agricultural cultivation on the environment.
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Table 4.3 Percentage of households directly benefiting from agricultural cultivation services according to sub-ecosystems in research communes
Household rate (%) Total (n=97) Benefits
of Nui To (n=28) 2,1 0,0 3,1 5,2 3,1 2,1 3,1 0,0 Luong Phi (n=20) 1,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 1,0 1,0 1,0 2,1 An Hao (n=11) 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 3,1 1,0 8,3 4,1 14,4 5,2 4,1 4,1 13,4 5,2 LeTri (n=38) 5,2 4,1 11,3 0,0 0,0 1,0 6,2 2,1
Hill 1) Forest + one mango 2) Forest +two mango 3) Forests+other trees 4) Bamboo Upland field 1) Range 2) Mango one case 3) One-case color 4) Two-crops vegetables 5) Rice – vegetable 6) Two rice – one 0,0 2,1 12,4 0,0 0,0 0,0 12,4 2,1 0,0 0,0
Note: Chi -square value<0.05
vegetable 7) Rice one crop 8) Two-crop rice 9) Three-crop rice Lowland field 1) Two-vegetable 2) Two-crop rice 3) Three-crop rice Total 0,0 10,3 1,0 1,0 5,2 6,2 28,9 0,0 0,0 3,1 0,0 0,0 0,0 20,6 0,0 10,3 1,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 11,3 1,0 20,6 5,1 5,1 17,6 6,2 100,0 1,0 0,0 0,0 4,1 12,4 0,0 39,2
Table 4.4: Value of agricultural cultivation services by sub-ecosystems
Value (million VND/ha/year) No. Cultivation Profit Total cost
Total revenue
54.5c 103.7a 82.2b
31.2c 75.4a 57.5b 23,3 28,3 24,7
Hills and mountains Forest + mango Forests + citrus trees Forests + other trees Upland field One-vegetable
8,2 48,6 38,0
112,9 51,5 77,9
1 2 3 4 Casavas Potatoes 5 Taro 6 Rice – vegetable 7 Rice - chili 8 Rice - corn 9 Rice - peanuts 10 Two-crop rice 60,0 126,4 67,5 175,1 94,2 170,5 26,7 51,8 77,8 29,5 62,1 42,7 92,6 2,4 Capital efficiency 1.8c 3.5a 2.6b 6,3 1,6 0,8 0,6 0,8 1,2 0,1 24,3 Autumn summer
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7,6 23,9 31,5
Winter spring Lowland field 11 Two-crop rice Autumn summer
Winter spring 12 Three-crop rice
Autumn summer Autumn-Winter East Spring 21,8 28,6 25,1 26,0 32,1 -1,9 4,5 1,1 1,9 8,2
0,3 -0,1 23,8 0,2 24,1 0,0 24,1 0,1 24,2 0,3 24,0 Note: On the same row, the average value that follows different characters (a, b, c) is different makes sense at 5% through the Turkey test.
Cassavas crops have the highest capital efficiency thanks to the low investment cost (8 million VND per ha per year) and especially low cost of pesticides (only 01 million VND per ha per year), much lower than the other farming systems. Specifically, the cost of pesticide fertilizer of fruit trees, the vegetable of one crop (except cassavas) ranges from 10 - 15 million VND per ha per year, the cost of rice - vegetable and rice two crops - three crops range from 24 - 58 million VND per ha per year.
4.1.2.2 Value of services from exploitation of forest products
Forest ecosystems provide residents with many benefits from forest products such as: forest trees, firewood, wood, water, bile, forest vegetables, medicinal herbs and forest animals. However, these benefits have decreased much compared to the past, now the benefits that local residents benefit mainly firewood, water and forest vegetables, natural medicinal herbs, the group of beneficiaries mainly from elsewhere to exploit for charity.
The analysis results show that there are 47% of local households exploit forest products belonging to the forest ecosystem in An Giang province. The benefits that residents benefit from the exploitation of these benefits account for a lower rate than the benefits that forest ecosystems according to residents' human resolution, with 29% of households exploiting hill ecosystem urine to irrigate crops However, compared to the perception of the benefits that forest ecosystems bring to humans, only 20% of households commented on the benefits of water supply services, as analyzed above. This proves that some households are still not aware of the benefits of water supply for forest ecosystems.
Table 4.5: Percentage of households exploiting natural products in communes
Percentage of households exploiting (%) No. Products Average
Note: Chi -square value<0.05
1 Firewood 2 Fresh water 3 Forest vegetables 4 Medicinal herbs Total Nui To 0,9 18,8 0,0 0,0 18,8 Le Tri Luong Phi 4,5 5,4 6,7 1,3 13,9 0,9 2,7 1,8 0,0 4,0 An Hao 0,9 1,8 8,5 1,8 10,3 7,2 28,7 17,0 3,1 47,1
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In forest products, firewood and vegetables there are only two products that bring economic value, contributing to the income of households. Higher than other communes because people live near the foot of the mountain, so it is more convenient to exploit products. For forest vegetables, there are 17.0% of households exploiting forest vegetables. However, if the average output of forest vegetables is exploited from nature and based on the average selling price of 15,000 VND per kg, the most revenue from forest vegetables is in An Hao about 1.6 million VND per year per household (Table 4.6).
No. Exploit Units Average (n = 223)
Table 4.6: Economic value from exploitation of forest products by communes An Hao (n = 39)
Luong Phi (n= 56) Nui To (n = 55) Le Tri (n = 73) 1
Firewood Household % 0,9 0,9 4,5 0,9 7,2
rate Quantity Value 3,0 0,5 33,3 5,7 84,9 14,4 45,0 7,7 61,5 10,5
m3 million VND /year/household
2 Household Forest vegetables % 0,0 1,8 6,7 8,5 17,0
rate Quantity Value 0,0 0,0 0,9 0,0 39,3 0,6 105,3 1,6 27,5 0,4
Kg million VND /year/household
In addition, medicinal herbs also have certain values, but the benefits from these products have not yet measured its value in research. This is because people exploit many different species, in small quantities, and for household use, do not trade in the market. On the other hand, there are many medicinal miners who are local residents elsewhere, within the framework of this study has not identified the beneficiaries so it is impossible to quancise the value that these products provide to residents.
4.1.2.3 Value of tourism services
Ecosystem forests of An Giang province provide eco-tourism, spiritual and cultural tourism services to many groups of people from many different places. Household livelihood to the beneficiary is mainly the business of dining and motorbike travel services to serve touristsin An Hao commune and Luong Phi commune. An Hao commune at the Cam mountain where has a Lam Vien park tourist area serving tourists all year round, but there are two times when there are many tourists visiting related to two festival events that: Ba Chua Xu festival and Lunar New Year. Luong Phi commune has Soai So lake and historical sites that welcome guests all year round. However, compared to the previous year, the number of tourists visiting Cam mountain tourism decreased by about 30%. The cause
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was near the tourist area where the 2013 landslide occurred. This is the reason that affects household livelihoods and reduces household income.
The results of the analysis showed that the number of households serving tourism is mainly food and beverage business in An Hao commune, of which the medium household group accounts for 73% and therest is a better off household group. The number of households serving motorbikes in An Hao accounted for 66.7% and the rest was in Nui To commune, the medium household group also accounted for 66.7%, the rest were poor households and better off households also participated in this activity. These are households without land, livelihoods depend entirely on income from tourism activities. The average income of households from motorbike services averages from 120 - 150 thousand VND per day, the average income of food and beverage households is 451,000 VND per day. However, the time of serving tourism in the year is about 145 days per year, the rest of the time has no income, so the population in An Hao commune has some seasonal migrant households (Table 4.7).
Table 4.7: Value of tourism ecosystem services by communes
Tourism ES Units
Household rate Value Nui To (n=9) 7,5 16,3 Le Tri (n=18) 18,3 0,53 Luong Phi (n=36) 36,6 0,00 An Hao (n=30) 25,8 56,4
% million VND /year/household
4.2 Relationships between livelihood and forest ecosystem services
4.2.1 Livelihood characteristics of beneficiaries
The classification of 2,299 households showed that there were 19.7% of poor households, 40.4% of the medium household and 39.9% of better off households. Thereby, the research communes had a poverty rate 02 times higher than the average of tri ton and Tinh Bien districts of 9.7%, higher than three times the overall average of An Giang province of 6.7% (An Giang provincial of statistics, 2019). In other words, the research communes located at the Dai Mountain, Cam mountain and Nui To have a higher proportion of poor households than other localities in An Giang province.
In order to determine the group of households benefiting from forest ES, the study relied on the main livelihood activities of residents living in the locality. The results showed that the group of people directly involved in forest ES can be divided into four benefit groups: (1) the group that directly benefits from the service provided, (2) the group that directly benefits from cultural services, (3) the indirect beneficiary group, and (4) the other group (Table 4.8).
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Table 4.8: Characteristics of identifying groups of households benefiting from forest ES
No.
Beneficiary groups 1 Direct Main livelihood activities - Cultivation and exploitation of forests
2 Direct 3 Indirect - Catering and travel at the tourist attraction - Agricultural leasing
4 Other Recognized characteristics Benefits of ES - Agricultural and forest products - Hired income - Tourism and non-agri income in the district - Non-agri other district - Other non-agri (sub-owners of industry, trade, services, officials and other)
The results of the classification of the main livelihood activities of residents showed that about 43.7% of households participated in agriculture, 12.3% participated in agricultural services, and 43.8% of households participated in non-agriculturala ctivities. In addition, livelihood activities in three groups of households are related to each other (P <0.05). In the group of fairly rice-growing households accounting for a higher proportion than the average household group and poor households in agricultural production, in contrast, the group of poor households participating in agricultural services accounts for a high proportion, mainly for rent such as: fertilizing spray, weeding, plowing and transporting agricultural products. There are 2,299 households were surveyed, 67.2% had an unchanged living rate compared to 05 years ago, 29.6% had an increase and 3.2% had a decrease. Besides, the trend of changing living rates in different households and having relationships with each other (P <0.05).
To sum up, forest ES benefit groups are heavily dependent on livelihood activities because they are related to employment and income of residents. Households with a lot of agricultural land tend to change living prices in an increasing direction compared to the medium household group and poor households, and poor households in Le Tri commune are also tending to increase living rates.
4.2.2 Livelihood resources
The labor force in the family, education level and area of agricultural cultivation land in household groups have statistically significant differences. Labor, poor households are more involved in agricultural services than better off households. In terms of education level, poor households are more ill literacy than medium and better off households, and the education level is not yet intermediate. On the contrary, households have a higher level of education in high school and university education than poor households. Regarding agricultural land, 62.3% of the surveyed households had agricultural land, most of them were individually owned land, leased land accounted for only 0.4%. The results of the analysis showed that households with the most agricultural land and statistically significant differences were 5% compared to the other two groups of households (Table 4.9).
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Table 4.9: Resources in household groups
Tt Sig value. Resources
1 2 3 4
Labor (person/household) Total people Agri production labor Agri services labor Non-farm labor Education (person/household)
1 2 3 4 5 6 Un-learned Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Intermediate University or higher
Agricultural land (ha/household)
On the hill Upland field Lowland field 1 2 3 Poor (n= 46) 3,90,3ab 0.50.1b 0,40,1a 1,10,1 0.70.1a 0,70,1 0,40,6 0,10,1b 0,00,0 0,00,0b 0,00,0b 0,10,0b 0,20,1b
Income (million VND/year/household) Agricultural products Forest products Serving tourism Agricultural leasing Other income Better off (n= 57) 4,30,2a 1,40,1a 0,10,1b 1,10,2 0,20,1b 0,80,1 0,60,8 0,50,1a 0,10,1 0,30,1a 0,30,2a 0.70.2a 1,20,3a 68.2a 0.7b 31.7a 10.6a 20.9a Mean value1 Medium (n= 120) 3,80,1b 1,10,1a 0,20,1ab 1,00,1 0,30,1b 0,90,1 0,60,8 0,30,1ab 0,10,0 0,10,0b 0,10,0ab 0,20,0b 0.50.1b 24.8b 0.6b 10.4b 6.4a 17.5a 3.4b 3.6a 1.2b 11.5a 27.8a 1 2 3 4 5
0,042 0,000 0,040 0,689 0,014 0,788 0,293 0,006 0,232 0,005 0,038 0,001 0,002 0,002 0,037 0,000 0,571 0,595 1 Mean Standard error mean; mean value of the same variable between groups of households with different letters is different at 5%
Financially, the analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences between the three groups of households in terms of the value of household income sources (P <0.05). Specifically, better off households benefit from agricultural cultivation and tourism services with the highest income, agricultural cultivation of 68.2 million VND per year, and tourism services of 31.7 million VND per year per household, and poor households on the contrary, income from low forest ES; in which, exploiting the highest forest products, but the low value is about 3.6 million VND per year per household.
4.2.3 Relationship between livelihoods and ecosystem services
Analyzing the relationship between the exploitation and use of ES and household livelihoods, the results showed that the exploitation and use of ES in different household groups was statistically significant in all types of ES benefited by three groups of households (P < 0.05). In particular, poor households benefit from firewood, the medium and household group benefits from water and forest vegetables, better off households benefit from water. In addition, the group of participants exploiting the food and beverage
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business and travel services is mainly the average household group accounting for a high proportion.
Analyzing the relationship between household livelihoods and forest ES values, the results showed that household livelihood factors and income from the benefits obtained from forest ES were related to four pairs of meaningful correlations of the results of the canonical correlation analysis (Table 4.10). In particular, correlations 1, 2 and 3 show that there are the relationships between the value of ES and household livelihoods. Correlation weights with the same sign are correlated positively and negative, and the greater the absolute weight, the greater the contribution to the correlation.
Table 4.10: Correlation of variables corresponding to four correlation pairs with have significant1
No. Variables Correlation 1 Correlation 2 Correlation 3 Correlation 4
Variable group Y
1 Income from agriculture and forests 2 Income from hire agricultural 3 Tourism and non-agri income in the -0.67 -0.75 0,31 -0.74 0,64 -0,05 0,04 0,17 0,93 -0,06 0,00 0,17 district
4 Non- agricultural other district
Aeration (%) Variable group X
1 Un-schooled labor 2 First-level labor 3 Second-level labor 4 High school labor 5 Intermediate college labor 6 Workers studying at university 7 Agricultural labor 8 Agricultural service labor 9 Non-agricultural labor 10 Income-generated labor 11 Land area in the mountains 12 Land area on 13 Lower land area 14 Plowing/ploughing machine 15 Motorcycles 16 Internet-connected computers 17 Phone 18 Internet-connected phones 19 Revenues from agricultural 0,17 28 0,06 0,03 -0,06 -0,26 0,01 -0,09 -0,19 -0,45 0,32 -0,02 -0,39 -0,60 -0,41 -0,45 -0,41 -0,17 -0,24 -0,18 -0,40 0,07 24 0,41 -0,01 0,01 -0,01 -0,10 -0,22 -0,25 0,54 0,03 0,01 -0,22 -0,19 -0,20 0,10 -0,24 -0,41 -0,26 -0,21 -0,45 0,07 23 -0,21 0,16 0,18 0,17 0,02 -0,05 -0.46 -0,02 0,62 0,18 0,01 0,09 -0,06 0,09 0,42 0,15 0,39 0,52 -0,41 -0.98 25 -0,15 0,01 -0,19 -0,18 -0,36 0,10 -0,15 0,04 -0,32 -0,36 -0,04 -0,13 -0,04 -0,03 0,12 0,05 0,23 0,36 -0,11 production
20 Revenues from agricultural services 21 Non-agricultural revenues -0,56 0,32 0,63 0,14 0,01 0,60 0,17 -0,31
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No. Variables
22 Loans for agricultural production 23 Loans for services and business 24 Loans for education 25 Loans for other purposes 26 Members of social organizations
1 The greater the absolute value of the weight, the more meaningful the contribution to the correlation. Bold value ( 0.4) is interested to explain in this result.
Aeration (%) Correlation 1 -0,24 -0,16 0,01 -0,33 -0,24 17 Correlation 2 -0,17 0,08 -0,05 -0,28 -0,10 16 Correlation 3 -0,05 0,09 -0,04 0,07 0,23 16 Correlation 4 0,03 0,08 0,06 -0,07 -0,56 13
Correlation 1 shows the relationship between livelihoods and the value of services provided by households directly and indirectly benefiting from forest ES. In particular, the high income from the value of services provided is that the household has many agricultural service workers (such as trading agricultural supplies, leasing plows and irrigation pump services), large cultivated areas (land in the mountains, upper fields and lower fields), plows/plows and motorcycles, the revenue from agricultural production and services is more diverse (negative weight) and positive weight. Figure 4.2 shows that better off households are kinh in Luong Phi and Le Tri communes have high service provision value.
Figure 4.2: The weighted mean distribution of the dependent variable group (Y) and the independent (X) of correlation 1 by household group (a), ethnicity (b) and commune (c). The variable that explains the meaning of Y and X is the same between the three shapes.
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Correlation 2 helps to distinguish direct beneficiaries and households that indirectly benefit from the supply services of forest ecosystem. The results showed that there are cases where households have low income from agricultural cultivation benefits and forest products but high agricultural service income and vice versa (Table 4.10). Households with low incomes for agricultural production and forest products and incomes from high agricultural services are households with many un-entered labor, agricultural service labor and many revenues from agricultural services and vice versa. Figure 4.3 shows that the Khmer household groups in Nui To and Le Tri communes have high agricultural production incomes and forest products and low agricultural service income. In contrast, the economic poor households in An Hao commune have income mainly from agricultural services. The average household in Luong Phi commune has both agricultural production and service income.
Figure 4.3: Correlation 2 by household group (d), ethnicity (e) and commune (f)
Correlation 3 explains the relationship between livelihoods and cultural service values. The results showed that the group of high-income households is households with incomes from tourism and non-agricultural activities in the place. This is a group of households with few labor and few sources of agricultural production, many non-agricultural workers, many motorbikes and telephones connected to the network. In contrast, poor and middle-class Khmer households in the remaining communes often have lower incomes from tourism and non-agricultural services (Figure 4.4).
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Figure 4.4: Correlation 3 by household group (g), ethnicity (h) and commune (i)
Thereby, the livelihoods and values of cultural services, and provided services are in close relationship with each other. In particular, better off of Kinh or Khmer households benefit from cultural services and provided services higher than poor households. In addition, the value of services provided directly and indirectly from the provision services of forest ES has a opposite correlation, households have quite high income from agriculture and forest products, on the contrary, poor households have higher incomes from hire agricultural.
4.3 Dominant factors and solutions to enhance the value of ecosystem services
4.3.1 The dominant motivation for ecosystem services value
Strength and opportunity are the dominant motivations that can be leveraged and promoted. As analyzed above, the strength identified is that the households have high income from the services provided by forest ecosystem are households which have a lot of agricultural service workers, with a large land area, with many vehicles, diverse sources of income; high-income households from tourism services are better off households a lot of non-agricultural labor, many vehicles and network connections. In addition, the experience of clean agriculture cultivation with little use of pesticides is also considered as the strength of households, such as casavas and one rice crop in upland.
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Opportunities that can be leveraged to promote the value of ES are dominant factors from outside the impact. In terms of time, the value of output products with high economic value, increased medicinal demand and tourism demand are opportunities that residents can take advantage. In terms of space, planting medicinal herbs under forest trees or fruit trees is considered an opportunity to help households increase income. Many studies have proven that the value of the output product is one of the factors that affect the efficiency of agricultural cultivation (Brown et al., 2018). Besides, the opportunity of an An Giang mountain is that there is a lot of potential to develop medicinal resources. Besides, households also have experience in growing medicinal herbs and treatment with medicinal herbs. Specifically, ginger in Cho Moi district, turmeric, nails, beams in An Cu, Tinh Bien. On the other side, An Giang province also has a strong and experienced network of traditional medicine associations.
4.3.2 The dominant obstacle to the value of ecosystem services
Weaknesses and challenges are the dominant forces that need to be overcome and limited to reduce the impact on the value of forest ES. The weakness that affects the exploitation of forest ES is low economic efficiency agricultural cultivation and potentially harmful to the environment due to the use of many pesticides. The results of the above analysis showed that the system of one-crop cassavas cultivation has high economic efficiency but the proportion of farming households accounts for a low percentage (less than 13%); in contrast, rice crops and three crops have low economic efficiency but have a high proportion of farming households (50%). Many studies have proven that intensive cultivation and the use of many pesticides are a risk to the environment, thus causing a deterioration of forest ES. On the other hand, the results of the analysis also showed that local residents were limited in education level, and the chances of accessing forest ES were also low. Poor households have no or little land, have low level of protection, mainly work in agriculture, indirectly benefit from the services provided by forest ecosystem.
The challenges of impacting forest ES is mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions, output-dependent agricultural farming, supported forest protection and development policies and has not facilitated forest retention and income creation. Water for irrigation crops in the dry season is a big challenge for cultivate agriculture. According to The forest and plan protection services department of An Giang province (2019), there are more than 30% of perennial trees in the mountains of An Giang province withered or died from water shortages in the dry season. Besides, unstable product output prices are a challenge for livelihoods.
On the other hand, the current policy of receiving forest land protection contracts is limited, discourages people from keeping forests with a support fee of 50,000 VND per ha per year and must ensure the density of 60% of forest trees and 40% of fruit trees. In fact, forest keeping offers many benefits to many groups of households that directly and
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indirectly benefit in different sub-ecosystem and elsewhere, and these benefits are being used for free. Since then, the inappropriate distribution of ES benefits.
4.3.3 Solutions to enhance service value
In fact, the value from ES is low and the distribution is not reasonable among of household groups, the better off households that benefit from ES more than poor households. Each different group of households depends on the livelihood resources of the household. Currently, there are many solutions that can help improve the value of ES and appropriately allocate the benefits from ecosystem to help sustainable development. The basis for the solution is to take advantage of opportunities, promote strengths, overcome weaknesses and limit risks and rely on factors that govern the value of forest ES as analyzed above (Table 4.11).
Challenges
Table 4.11: Analysis of dominant factors and solutions to enhance service value Weaknesses Dominant factors 1) Low
cultivation fruits, intensive cultivation, use of many pesticides 2) Not fully aware of forest 1) Climate change 2) Market-dependent agricultural products prices ecosystem benefits
3) Poor households with low education and hired jobs 3) Policies to support increased forest ES and household access Solutions Strengths 1) Better off households with lots of labor
(1) ES value enhancing solution - Choose the appropriate farming system in the sub- ecosystem, which is both economically effective and does not harm the environment.
(2) Promoting the potential value of ES - Capacity raising helps to raise awareness of ES benefits and increase access to ES
- The State increases investment in supporting the improvement of medicinal value and community tourism, creating opportunities for medium and poor households to access services 2) Large land area 3) Networked computers 4) Diversified revenue sources 5) Seasonal rice cultivation and medicinal planting experience 6) Diseases with medicinal herbs Opportunitys 1) High value fruit trees 2) High demand for pharmaceuticals 3) High travel demand
