1 Achievements and lesson learnt from implementation of the project "Sustainable community-based forest development and management in some high-poverty areas in Bac Kan Province" Khongsak Pinyopusarerk, Tran Van Dien Implementing Agencies: CSIRO - Australia; Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry 1. INTRODUCTION Ethnic minority communities in the remote mountainous northern provinces of Vietnam are among the poorest in the country, with limited access to agricultural land, health facilities, markets and infrastructure. Van Minh and Lang San communes of Na Ri district in Bac Kan province have poverty rates of 63-68% [1]. Forested land comprises 84% and 90% respectively of the total land area and is of paramount importance for community livelihoods, including collection of firewood, harvesting food and herbal medicinal plants. However, lack of access to utilise forest land and unequal allocation of forest areas to the poorer families have led to serious poverty. Management of the forest has also exacerbated the situation through many problems: (i) low productivity due to forest degradation after excessive use and little investment; (ii) perceptions of forests as common lands with free access, with unclear boundaries and poorly defined ownership obligations; (iii) few incentives to reinvest in the forest (no security) and reluctance to take direct responsibility for the land; (iv) poor awareness of user rights, forest laws and regulations, and rights of participation in official processes such as forest land allocation; and (v) very limited support from government agencies in approaches to effectively use the forest land and earn income [2]. The Land Law which came into effect on 1 st July 2004 allows communities (villages) to receive land and forest land [3]. However, there is no mechanism to realise this option. This project will therefore develop mechanisms under Community Forestry Management including participatory land use planning and land allocation to facilitate land distribution and address the sustainable management of the forest. The project Goal is Sustainable improvement in livelihood security of disadvantaged forest-dependent people in northern mountainous areas, through empowerment of access to forest and forest land, influence over forest land management, conservation of the natural resources and development of relevant skills. 2 2. METHODOLOGY Four villages: Na Muc and Khuoi Lieng in Van Minh commune and To Dooc and Ban Sang in Lang San commune in Na Ri district - Bac Kan province which have community forest lands were selected to be the research site for the project. The community forest lands are target area for project interventions, that includes land use planning, forest land allocation, forest enrichment, nursery, plantation and agro-forestry development. The quality of community forest was assessed through forest survey to identify the productivity as well as biodiversity. The social economic condition of local community and the dependency of livelihood of local community on the forest were identified by socio-economic survey. The data relating to land use planning, forest land allocation, forest enrichment, nursery, plantation and agro-forestry models were also recorded in the field based the samples. The processes of land allocation, management of community forest development fund, implementation of community forest management plan were also recorded. The outcomes and impacts of training activities were assessed at the phase out period. Cost benefit for each community forest management models was analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of each activity. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1. Allocation of community forest lands to communities Allocation of communication forest lands to communities was firstly implemented in Bac Kan province. The allocation process met many difficulties both paper works as well as field works. The most difficult work is solving conflicts on the border of community forest. Before community forest was considered as common property which was exploited and used by local people from many villages. So it is extremely difficult to allocate the community forest to only 01 village. However, by participatory approach in solving the problems, the consensus have been made among neighbor villages. Therefore, the borders of community forest in four villages were defined and the field maps were also constructed. The formal processes of community forest land allocation have been completed for four project villages with “Red Book” for long-term use rights (Table 1). Table 1: Results of community forest land allocation in four target villages # Villages 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 3 This would give local communities the confidence to contribute and invest labor and other inputs to the protection and development of community forest lands for overall local benefit; Lessons learnt: - The border of community forest have to clear defined by participatory approach before processing the paper works - Strong cooperation between district and commune authorities, especially between Forest Protection Department and Department of Natural Resources and Environment in conducting the filed works as well as the paper work play a key role for the success of the community forest land allocation. - Certain budget is needed for field work of the commune and district cadastral staff. 3.2. Establishment community forest management (CFM) plan After receiving the official rights of using the CF lands, the CFM plan have been established in 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 will be undertaken. Both the regulations and plans are a result of separate village meetings and discussion. Therefore while the general scope is 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, buy and sell, timber and non-timber transport - Grazing animals in the community forest - Prevention of forest fire - Checking and preventing outsiders from shifting cultivation, illegal logging or hunting, and illegal buying, selling and transporting timber/non-timber/animals within the village. - Cooperation among community members in forest protection/development, production services and sale of products. - Collaboration with other villages to protect and effectively develop the forests - Regulations on penalty for infringement of the forest protection rules - Regulations on sharing benefits among community members - The regulations should be presented to all community members and submit for approval by Commune People's Committee. 4 General contents of CMF Plan - New plantation plan such as what kinds of species? how large the area?, where? when? how much of labor costs? how many seedlings? 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 in establishment of CFM plan: - It is necessary to modify the Guidelines of MARD on Community Forest Management (Figure 1) which issued on November 27th 2006 (Decision 106/2006/BNN-PTNT) for more simple and practical in local condition [4]. - Participatory approach to develop the CFM is crucial factor for establishment an feasible and practical CFM plan. - Staff of district Forest Protection Department and commune extension workers are main technical sources to provide supports for community in developing the CFM plan. 3.3. Implementation of CFM plan 3.3.1. The involvement of community members in CFM Within each village, a CFM board of 5 persons has been elected by open votes to oversee overall implementation. All four villages have places a strong emphasis on plantation forest for protection of watershed areas and for commercial wood production. During meetings and discussion which were attended by at least one member of every household, all household representatives have expressed their commitment to contribute labor inputs in the implementation of the plan. Another common agreement across all four villages is an attempt to reduce and stop shifting cultivation and free grazing in community forest areas. Number of households involved in CFM is presented in Table 2. Table 2: Current involvement of community members participating CFM [5] Villages Total village households involved with 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 5 3.3.2. Capacity building for local people Based on the training needs of local community, various trainings were conducted as presented in the Table 3. Most of the trainings were conducted as Farmer Field School (FFS) approach. The trainings help all local community members to be aware of laws on forest protection and development and be more knowledgeable and skillful in technical issues relating to forest management. Table 3: Training courses conducted in the project area [6] # 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 development 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 3.3.2. Establishment of village-based nurseries The radical constraint of forest development in both community forest lands and household allocated lands is lacking of forest seedlings. Some projects have provided the seedlings to area, but it wasn't successful. The survival rate was very low due to the long distant transportation. Therefore, the establishment of village nursery garden to produce the seedling at plantation site is not only to ensure the high survival rate of seedlings, but also create a more income generation for local people. The project facilitated the establishment of village- based community nurseries for raising quality tree seedlings for sale or distribution to land owners. Key inputs provided by the project included training in nursery management and methods and provision of access to quality genetic seed sources of Acacia mangium (from CSIRO and RCFTI) and Manglietia . During three years of project implementation, a huge number of forest seedlings have been produced for replantation of both community forest lands and household allocated lands as presented in the Table 4. 6 Table 4: Number of seedlings produced annually in four target villages Villages Manglietia conifera Acacia hybrid 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 a year for operating expenses. The cost for a seedling is only 309 VND, while the market price is 700 - 1000 VND. Table 5: Costs for a village-based nursery producing 70,000 seedlings/year [7] Cost items 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 3.3.3. Agro-forestry models in community forest lands The design of the agro-forestry model takes into account the need for income generation for communities. Expanding market opportunities exist for planted trees of a number of species reflecting the transition from dependency on a natural forest to a planted resource. By selecting appropriate species well adapted to the local environment, which are fast growing and meet a market need, communities can benefit financially from tree planting projects either on community land or other land surplus to agricultural requirement. Crops on the other hand will provide opportunities for added food security with surplus crops providing additional income. The areas for the agro-forestry model trials are about one hectare each village. The selection of species is based on the key species recommended in the land use planning surveys which are considered to have potential as either commercial species or for use in alley cropping systems. For timber production, Acacia hybrid (Keo lai), Manglietia conifera (Mo) and Melia azedarach (Xoan) are preferred by villagers, and these are the tree species for this model. In addition, one fast-growing, multi purpose species, Cassia (cot khi) has been selected for planting on the contours for soil erosion control. Agricultural crops planted between tree rows was chosen by villagers based on local experience. Hybrid corn, improved 7 soybean, taro and cassava have been selected for growing in agro-forestry models. Table 6 shows the yields of the agriculture crops in the agro-forestry models in the target villages. Table 6: Agricultural crop yields in 2008 and 2009 in the four project villages Unit: kg/ha Years Crops Na Muc Khuoi Lieng To Dooc Ban Sang 2008 Soybean 400 630 650 700 Taro - 300 - - Cassava - 5000 - - 2009 Maize 4500 2000 2200 2000 Soybean 1400 - - - Table 7: Plant height of forest tree in agro-forestry models after two years of planting Unit: m Species Na Muc Khuoi Lieng To Dooc Bang Sang Manglietia conifera 2.0-2.5 2.0-2.5 1.5-2.0 1.5-2.0 Acacia hybrid 2.5-3.0 2.5-3.0 2.0-2.5 2.0-2.5 Melia azedarach 2.0-2.5 2.0-2.5 - - 3.3.4. Community forest development funds (CFDF) Community Forest Development Fund is developed by the community through initial seed money of CARD project. The main purpose of this fund is for forest development activities in community forest areas in the village. Activities related to community forest development can use this fund following the community's regulations. This fund will be maintained and grown for long-term purpose. The fund is managed by Community Forest Board. Financial issue should be reported to village meetings to ensure transparency. Sources for CFDF a) Funding from CARD project: - CARD project contributes 1,000 AUD (13 million VND) as "seed money" to establish the fund. - Household who receive seedlings from the village nursery to plant on their own land must contribute 50 VND per seedling to the fund (following regulations of nursery management). 8 b) Income from timber and non-timber forest products from the community forest area: - Contribute 20% of total income from non-timber forest product harvest such as mushroom, fruits, and medicinal plants to the fund. - Households within the village community are permitted to use timber from the community forest areas to build their houses; they have to contribute 20% of the total value to the fund. c) Interest from loan - The fund can be used for loan for agricultural and forestry production with low interest of 0.6% per month based on demand of household members of the community forest. d) Penalty from illegal actions following CFM regulation - All penalty from illegal actions following the CFM regulations will put into the fund. Management of CFDF - CFM Board have a responsibility to manage the CFDF. - Use of the fund to follow government's financial regulations (receipts, reports are required). - Accountant and head of the Community Forest Management Board has to report to Commune People’s Committee on financial issues Status of community forest development funds after two years of implementation (Jan, 2008 - Jan, 2010) is presented in Table 8. Table 8. Status of community forest development funds in four villages Unit: Thousands. VND Indicators Khuoi Lieng Na Muc To Dooc Ban Sang Principal funds 13,000 13,000 13,000 13,000 Fund growth 6,160 7,068 10,000 3,188 Loans 14,650 10,300 21,000 7,500 Expenditure for CFM 1,465 127 850 594 Outstanding balance 3,195 7,784 2,735 9,968 The figure in Table 8 indicates that CFDF is well managed by local community. The fund size of all four villages have been increased significantly. The poor households in the community can access to CFDF as microfinance sources for forest development. 9 Lessons learnt from implementation of CFM plan - Capacity building for local people on the rights to access to the community forest lands, the rights to harvest and the responsibility to protect the community forest is considered as the most important activity for the success of the implementation of CFM. - Control free grazing in Bac Kan is a crucial factor for the success of the agro-forestry models and replantation in community forest lands - Clear demarcation of the community forest can avoid the conflicts between villages in harvesting the forest products in the community forest. 3.4. The impacts/changes of due to implementation CFM plan The survey to identify the impacts and the changes due to implementation of CFM plan on the communities of four villages was conducted in March 2010. Results of the survey shows that implementation of CFM plan has positive impacts on communities in term of livelihood improvement, environment protection and forest quality (Table 9). 57-100% members of communities agreed that implementation of CFM plan decreased number of illegal cases of forest exploitation or violence. 59-100% members of communities responded that community forest is well protected so it has been enriched. Therefore it creates a better environment such as having water through a year, less natural disasters happen in local areas. In addition, the implementation of CFM plan creates the equality and solidarity in the communities. Table 09. Impacts and changes due to application of CFM plan [5] Percentage of local people agreed (%) Indicators Na Muc Khuoi Lieng To Dooc Ban Sang Decreased illegal forest exploitation 100 94.1 81.8 86.4 Enriched forest 81 100 90.9 89.4 Increased income 19 32.4 27.3 18.2 Equality of the community 33.3 44.1 45.5 31.8 Solidarity in community 76.2 61.8 54.5 39.4 Keep water 57.1 73.5 36.4 48.5 Protected environment 85.7 97.1 90.9 68.2 4. Conclusions: - The allocation of community forest lands can only be implemented with the active participation of local community and local authorities in solving the border conflicts, field mapping and paper works 10 - The implementation of Guidelines of MARD on Community Forest Management (Figure 1) which issued on November 27th 2006 (Decision 106/2006/BNN-PTNT) should be flexible for more practical and adapted with in local socioeconomic and culture conditions - Capacity building for local people on the rights to access to the community forest lands, the rights to harvest and the responsibility to protect the community forest is considered as the most important activity for the success of the implementation of CFM. - Community Forest Development Fund play an important role to promote the participation of local communities to community forest management. - The implementation of CFM plan has positive impacts on communities in term of livelihood improvement, environment protection and forest quality: decreased number of illegal cases of forest exploitation, community forest is well protected and enriched. In addition, the implementation of CFM plan creates the equality and solidarity in the communities. REFFERENCES 1- People's Committee of Van Minh and Lang San (2006); Annual report of socioeconomic 2- Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (2007) Report of forest survey in Van Minh and Lang San - Na Ri district - Bac Kan. 3- Vietnam Government (2004), Decision 181/2004/ND-CP; 4- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (2006) Decision 106/2006/QD-BNN 5- Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (2010) Report of final baseline survey in 4 CARD project villages. 6- CARD 017-06VIE (2009) Milestone 11 report 7-CARD017-06VIE (2009) Benefit-cost analysis report . 1 Achievements and lesson learnt from implementation of the project "Sustainable community-based forest development and management in some high-poverty areas in Bac Kan Province". Training courses conducted in the project area [6] # Training topics Number of direct beneficiaries 1 Land-use planning and land allocation 26 2 Planning and implementation of community forest. northern mountainous areas, through empowerment of access to forest and forest land, influence over forest land management, conservation of the natural resources and development of relevant skills.