It can be said that the 2019 year is a remarkable year of the project “Strengthening the role of communities and civil society organizations in conservation in Central Truong Son” (referred as the SIDA project) implementing in Thua Thien Hue province with the study site of the buffer zone of Bach Ma National Park.
The project is coordinated by the Vietnam Association for Nature Protection (WWF) with the co-implementation of the Center for Rural Development in Central Vietnam (CRD), University of Agriculture and Forestry, Hue University and the Forest Owners Sustainable Development Association of Thua Thien Hue province (FOSDA-TTH), and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
The outstanding results that the CRD has contributed to strengthening the role of communities and civil society organizations in conservation in Thua Thien Hue province last year are: organizing 09 training courses on rattan care; 11 training course on forest patrolling tasks; 05 forest patrols with timely detection of violations; 02 maintenance periods of rattan care; 02 first aids training courses and 01 training course on using smartphones to support forest patrols in Thuong Lo commune (Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province).
MSc. Phan Van Hung (CRD) said that the outstanding contributions of the CRD and the project in 2019 were the implementation of the study on “Assessing the development status and the implementation of the Community-Based Forest Management Agreement in Thua Thien Hue province”.
The study has achieved the following objectives, e.g. understanding the current state of community-based forest management, evaluating development and implementation results of the Community-Based Forest Management Agreement; identifying disadavantages and gaps of the Agreement affecting the results of community-based forest management. Accordingly, the group has received many positive feedbacks from the authorities and experts in this field. These are the important base for the FOSDA-TTH to advocate for the provincial People’s Committee to issue Decision No. 62/2019/QD-UBND dated October 7, 2019 regarding the Regulation on community-based forest management in Thua Thien Hue province. In particular, the Regulation has 9 chapters with 24 articles strictly regulating measures for the management, protection and development of community forests assigned by the State to groups of households and communities for management and use in the localities to link the provisions of the State Law on Forestry with the Forest Protection Agreement of village and communities. From that, it is clearly defined the responsibilites of the communities, the local authorities at all levels and the relevant stakeholders in guiding, inspecting, supervising and coordinating with the communities to well perform the forest protection and development.
On December 26, 2019, at the SIDA project summarizing and planning workshop in Lang Co town (Phu Loc district), the delegates discussed the project achieved results and pointed out the difficulties and recommendations. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Phuoc, SIDA project manager in Vietnam said that based on the priority project objectives of the project in 2020, the CRD along with co-implementing partners will deploy to build and expand the sustainable forest management options for forest management communities in Thuong Lo commune, Nam Dong district under the Decision No. 62/2019/QD-UBND of Thua Thien Hue province; at the same time, support the communities and groups of households managing the plantation of 30 ha of non-timber forest products (rattan and ginger) to improve the local people’s livelihoods. In addition, the CRD will continue to promote the community to the implementation of forest patrols and apply pre-trained smartphone software to ensure the community patrols to be more effectively monitored and implemented.
Project Workshop on Reviewing the Year 2019 and Planning for the 2020 in Lang Co town (Phu Loc district)
Bao Hoa