Action
Year
2015 – 2016
The EU REDD Facility has supported a project to demonstrate how a collective action approach to forest protection could overcome challenges associated with Forest Allocation in upland regions in Vietnam.
The pilot project in Thai Nguyen Province has supported upland communities to form self-governing groups and cooperatives to manage the forests that underpin their livelihoods and traditions. Planning and management processes appropriate to communal tenure empower communities to manage natural forests.
Corn plantation in the Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam
Vietnam has made strides in reversing rapid forest loss through afforestation and regeneration efforts in recent years. Over the last two decades, the Government of Vietnam, through a policy of Forest Land Allocation and Forest Allocation, has transferred forest management to households and local communities in order to improve sustainable forest management and alleviate poverty. The policy is based on the theory that improving access to forest land and giving local people the right to make productive use of forest will motivate them to use and manage the land more carefully and sustainably.
Unfortunately, the implementation of Forest Allocation has been less successful than anticipated in the remote uplands of Vietnam, which are the most forested regions. The country’s last remaining intact natural forests in the upland areas bordering Cambodia, Laos and China are under threat from illegal logging and illegal timber trade. These areas are home to local communities, including marginalized ethnic groups, who have few incentives to manage forests sustainably.
The Centre of Research and Development in Upland Areas (CERDA), with the support of the EU REDD Facility, conducted a pilot intervention to demonstrate how a collective action approach to forest protection could overcome some of the challenges associated with Forest Allocation in upland regions in Vietnam. The intervention was conducted in Thai Nguyen Province, in the northern uplands of Vietnam. The pilot intervention expands on CERDA’s previous work in the Binh Long commune, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, to four neighbouring communes in the Vo Nhai District: Phu Thuong, Dan Tien, Trang Xa and Phuong Giao. The Tay and Nunug ethnic groups each make up about 20% of the communes, the Dao 15% and Cao Lan, Sun Diu, San Chi, H’Mong, Thai, Kinh and Muong the rest. Poverty affects around a third of the people in these communes.
The approach involved:
Collective action in Thai Nguyen Province
Community-led forest governance can achieve reliable, cost-effective and participative forest protection measures, although significant capacity building and external support is required to ensure the sustainability of cooperative governance structures.
Collective action in Thai Nguyen Province