Project title: “Sustainable Community–based forest development and management in some high-poverty areas

in Bac Kan”• Project duration: 3 years (Mar 2007-Mar 2010) with 6 months extension

• Implementing organizations:

– Bac Kan Department of Forest Protection

– Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF)

– CSIRO - Australia

Project areas: Van Minh and Lang San communes, Na Ri District, Bac Kan

Pilot villages: Khuoi Lieng, Na Muc, Tudooc and Ban Sang

Technical partners:

Provincial level: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development,

Department of Forest Protection, Center of Agriculture and Forestry

Extension,

District level: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development,

Agriculture and Forestry Extension Station, Kim Hy Nature Reserve

Project goals and objectives

Project Objective: Strengthening capacity for ethnic minority

communities in Van Minh and Lang San communes in Kim

Hy nature reserve, Na Ri district of Bac Kan province to

forest land and forest management.

Project expected outputs:

Output 1. Community forest lands officially allocated to local

communities

Output 2. Developed the Community Forest Management

Plan at target villages

Output 3. Implementation of Community Forest

Management Plan

1. Ensuring equal access to common forest by forest-dependent

households

2. Building capacities of forest user groups to effectively represent

themselves

3. Strengthen extension services to enable them to be responsive to

the needs of the forest- dependent people

4. Providing skills to communities to enable them to develop and

manage their allocated forest resources

5. Raising awareness of forest policy issues and good forest

governance;

6. Promoting sustainable forest resources use to reduce food

shortages by strengthening agro-forestry, sustainable timber and

non-timber forest production;

7. Promoting active involvement of women

Implementing approaches

Output 1. Community forest lands have been allocated officially to local communities

#Villages

CF Lands allocated (ha)

% CF land allocated

1 Bản Sảng 154.3 100

2 To Dooc 45.1 100

3 Nà Mực 118.3 100

4 Khuổi Liềng 121.1 100

Output 2. Developed CFM Plan at target villages

Part 1: Regulations of CFM

1. Rights and responsibilities of members in community to CFM

2. Mobilizing resources for forest protection and development

3. Harvest and sale of forest products both timber and NTFP

4. Grazing in CF lands

5. Solutions to prevent the outsiders to cultivate, lodge, hunt, sell and transport timbers

6. Collaboration among members in community

7. Penalty and complement

8. Benefit sharing

Part 2: Operation Plan of CFM in 5 years• Plantation, Species, Area, Where, Finance,

Labor, Seedlings,• Nursery• Maintenance and protection• Harvest plan• Technical resources• Other agro-forestry activities

Output 2. Developed CFM Plan at target villages

Output 3: Implementation of CFM Plans

Involvement of community members in CFM Plan

implementation: 93.2% households Capacity building: 7 training courses for 484

participants, 3 study tours Village based nursery: 240,000 seedlings Develop agro-forestry models: 4 models: 12.5 ha Establishment and operation of community forest

development fund: 4 groups, principle fund: 52mill,

fund growth: 26.2 mill Plantation : 96 ha

Table 1. Impacts and changes due to the implementation of CFM

Indicators Rate of local people agreed (%)

Nà Mực Khuổi Liềng

To Dooc

Bản sảng

Decreased illegal lodging 100 94.1 81.8 86.4

Improved CF 81 100 90.9 89.4

Increased household income 19 32.4 27.3 18.2

Improved equality in community

33.3 44.1 45.5 31.8

Enhanced solidarity in community

76.2 61.8 54.5 39.4

Retained more water 57.1 73.5 36.4 48.5

Protected environment 85.7 97.1 90.9 68.2

Sustainability Community forests of 4 target villages are well conserved

and developed; Results of the project have been adopted by other

projects: IFAD Bac Kan (3PAD project), CEFM (CARE international) More than 400 people from other project visited project sites

Village nursery gardens have been replicated in 10 new villages in and outside target communes.

Project documents produced: 2 video clips, and 7 extension materials.

Lesson learnt and experiences sharing workshops were organized: 4 workshops for more than 300 participants from different districts and provinces

Lessons leant Conflicts of border of CF can be addressed through participatory

approach Need strong collaboration between villages, communes and district

technical agencies (FPD and DORNE) Need financial supports for field work Necessary to modify MARD CFM Guidelines in Decision

106/2006/QĐ-BNN dated 27/11/2006 for more feasible and practical to local conditions

District FPD and commune extension workers are main technical resources for CFM Plan development.

Capacity building for local people on rights to access CF lands is considered most important activity in CFM implementation

Controlling free grazing of buffaloes is crucial for the success of agro-forestry models and new plantations

Clearly defining the CF border can avoid conflicts between villages in exploitation of CF products

Common difficulties and challenges

1. Community is not recognized as a legal body to access to various

public services such as credit, extension, or trading forest products.

2. Lack of policy to regulate the benefits for community from CFM,

especially on timber harvest and trading forest products

3. Some government protocols on forest management is not aplicable

to ethnic minorities in CFM Planning.

4. CFM Plan is not officially accepted or recognized by local

authorities as forest protection enterprise of community

5. Local community who has CF lands is always located in remote

and disadvantage area. They need the supports on technology,

capital, and management capacity building.