Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Forestry expertsare optimistic about the future in Vietnam, largely thanks to community-basedforest management.

The model is developing extensively in the country,and experts have lauded its ability to increase forest recover, limitdeforestation and create income from forests for local people.

Nguyen Viet Dung from PanNature, a Vietnamese not-for-profit organisation thatworks to protect nature, said at recent seminar in Hanoi: “People’sparticipation in forest conservation and management is very important.”

“Of course, allocating forests to people must be associated with giving them away to earn their living from the forest. But it isn’t deforestation for timberor hunting rare animals.”

Quang Van Dong, chief of Hoc village, a Thai ethnic minority village in Quy Chaudistrict of Nghe An province, said local people mainly earned money from bees,pepper, bamboo shoots and wood in the 500ha community-based managed forest.

“Hoc village’s forest protection rules have been obeyed strictly by villagers.They ban wildlife hunting and all household must participate in patrolling andsupervising the forest.”

The Forestry Law of 2017 that recognised the practice of entrusting localcommunities, especially ethnic minority groups that rely on forest for income,was a key step in State forest management and protection.

Community-based forest management was considered appropriate because itpromotes sustainable management and use of forest resources and improvescitizens’ livelihoods.

Prof. Dang Hung Vo, former deputy minister of Natural Resources andEnvironment, said the model has grown across the world and in Vietnam, it wasspreading and receiving support.  

According to the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, theacreage of forest under the management of community in South America, Africaand Asia accounts for 11 percent of total global forest acreage.  

Expert Vuong Xuan Tinh from Institute of Anthropology said spiritual issue wasa factor motivating Vietnamese people to take part in forest management.

“Thai ethnic minority people living in mountainous area understand the role offorest with their life and crops, as well as people’s responsibility to protectforests. The forest provides bamboo shoots, vegetables, mushrooms, herbalmedicine and wood to build houses when they live or coffins when they die”.

“Community-based management is the best form of forest management and popularamong ethnic minority groups,” he said.

“The difficulty is limited community capacity and empowering forest managementfor local people in multi-ethnic minority living areas is more difficult thanin the area dominated by one ethnic group.”

The 2016-19 project ‘Water Resource Management’ supported by PanNature andGreenViet Biodiversity Conservation Centre selected Dak Rong commune in K’Bang district,Gia Lai province to implement community-based forest management.

The commune’s 34,093ha natural forest, mainly production forest, faced manythreats from deforestation to grow industrial crops, illegal encroachment offorest land and wildlife hunting.  

Five among seven villages in the commune signed forest protection contractswith the forest management board, worth 200,000 VND per hectare per year foreach household. Forest patrol teams were set up in three villages. The projectassisted local villagers in growing fruit trees and raising pigs.

On the other side, some localities in the Central Highlands refused to allocateforests to local communities for management, instead giving the responsibilityto State enterprises and forest management boards.

Dr. Cao Thi Ly from Tay Nguyen University said in many places, ethnicminorities eventually still encroached on forests for farming due to economichardships.

In addition, land disputes still occur in many localities in the CentralHighlands between local ethnic minorities and migrants, and local people withforest owners.

“Coercive recovery of encroached forestry land, especially in ethnic minorityareas, isn’t a good solution. In many areas, this solution is more and morecontradictory,” Ly said.

According to Dao Cong Khanh, from the ResearchInstitute for Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification, the thinking of managementagencies that to “allocate forest to people is deforestation” wasn’t accurate.

“It is necessary to manage and educate people to understand regulations of theState.”

By the end of 2018, Vietnam had 1.1 million hectares of community-based managedforest land, including natural and planted forest, accounting for 8 percent oftotal forest acreage nationwide.-VNS/VNA