MS4 ATTACHMENT 1 Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Collaboration for Agriciculture and Rural Development CARD Project 017/06 VIE - Sustainable community- based forest development and management in some high poverty areas in Bac Kan Province Community Forest Management Guidelines Prepared by Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry June 2007 (updated October 2007) 2 Table of Contents PART A: REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM 3 PART B: THE CONTENTS OF CARD PROJECT CFM GUIDELINES 6 I: Review of Land Allocation to Community 6 1. Basis and conditions for forest allocation to local communities 6 2. Size and time of forest allocation to local communities 6 3. Steps and procedures for forest allocation to local communities 6 II: Establishment of Community Forest Management Organisation 7 Expected results: 7 Implementation process: 7 III: Development of Community Forest Management Plan 8 1. Preparation 8 2. Assessment of forest resources 8 3. Need assessment of forest products 9 4. Develop annual and 5-year plan 9 5. Proposal for community forest management plan 2007-2012 10 IV: Development of Forest Management and Protection Regulations 10 1. Requirements 10 2. Main contents 11 3. Process of developing forest protection and development regulations 11 V: Establishment of Communtiy Forest Management Fund 11 1. Purpose of the community fund for forest protection and development 11 2. The fund’s financial sources 12 3. The fund’s operation mechanism 12 4. Organizational structure and fund management 12 VI: Monitoring and Evaluation 12 3 PART A: REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM Northern mountainous areas of Vietnam are among the poorest regions of the country. In these areas, local people live in remote areas with many disadvantages both natural and social. Therefore, capacity building for community in forest management is a top priority of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as well as the Government of Vietnam. Consequently, on November 27th 2006, MARD issued the Decision 106/2006/BNN- PTNT on the acceptance of Community Forest Management (CFM) Guidelines. The Guidelines consist of eight chapters and 35 articles. The process of the CFM can be summarized diagrammatically in Figure 1 which shows the relationship between five stages and 13 steps as follows: • Stage I: Determination of land use rights - Step 1: Conduct land use planning - Step 2: Carry out land allocation to community • Stage II: Development of 5 year CFM plans - Step 3: Assessment of forest resources - Step 4: Need assessment of forest products - Step 5: Develop 5-year CFM plans - Step 6: Identify forest management practices - Step 7: Approve 5-year CFM plans • Stage III: Development of forest management regulations - Step 8: To develop regulations and put into implementation • Stage IV: Implementation of CFM - Step 9: Establish management board - Step 10: Develop annual CFM plan - Step 11: Establish forest development fund - Step 12: Implement CFM plan • Stage V: Monitoring and Evaluation - Step 13: Monitoring and Evaluation of CFM 4 Figure 1: Process of government guidelines for community forest management AUTHORITY LEVEL: PROVINCE, DISTR ICT, COMMUNE I: Determination of land use rights Step 1: Forestry land use planning Step 2: Land allocation to community II: Develop 5-year CFM plans Step 3: Assessment of forest resources Step 4: Need assessment of forest products Step 5: Develop 5-year CFM plans Step 6: Identify forest management practices Step 7: Approve 5-year CFM plans IV: CFM plan implementation Step 11: Establish forest development fund Step 10: Develop annual CFM plan Step 9: Establish management board III: Develop forest management regulations Step 8: Develop regulations Step 12: Implement CFM plan V: Monitoring and Evaluation Step 13: Monitoring and Evaluation Adjustment Villagers Commune's forestry staff 5 Base on the contents of current government CFM guidelines approved under the Decision 106/BNN-PTNT as well as the on ground conditions of this CARD project areas in Na Ri district, it is necessary to develop a more simple but practical CFM guidelines which suit the local conditions. Thai Nguyen University group organized meetings with local people in the four pilot villages to discuss the contents and structure of appropriate CFM guidelines for CARD project purpose. A final decision was then jointly made to re- structure and omit some irrelevant parts of the government approved CFM guidelines. As a result, the revised CFM guidelines for CARD project 017/06VIE include 5 stages and 11 steps as follows: • Stage I: Determination of land use rights - Step 1: review and carry out land allocation to community - Step 2: establish CFM management board • Stage II: Development of 5-year CFM plans - Step 3: Assessment of forest resources - Step 4: Need assessment of timber and NTFPs products - Step 5: Develop 5-year CFM plans - Step 6: Approve 5-year CFM plans • Stage III: Development of forest management regulations and fund - Step 7: develop regulations and put into implementation - Step 8: develop forest development fund • Stage IV: Implementation of CFM - Step 9: develop annual CFM plan - Step 10: implement CFM plan • Stage V: Monitoring and Evaluation - Step 11: Monitoring and Evaluation of CFM Some changes have been made to make the CFM guideline more realistic and feasible as compared with the current CFM guidelines under the Decision 106/BNN- PTNT: • Omit step 1 of land use planning because all communes have already completed land use planning for forestry land. • Omit step 6 of identifying the management practices because this activity is included in 5-year plans. • Rearrange step 11 "develop forest development fund" in stage IV into stage III (step 8) for more logical reason. • Rearrange step 7 "approve 5-year CFM plans" in stage II (under the current guidelines of MARD, district will approve the plans but under the revised guidelines for this CARD project, commune has an authority to approve the plans). 6 PART B: THE CONTENTS OF CARD PROJECT CFM GUIDELINES This part provides description of a sequence of work that is covered within the agreed participatory CFM guidelines as discussed in previous sections. I: Review of Land Allocation to Community 1. Basis and conditions for forest allocation to local communities The basis is: • A land-use plan at commune level for forest development and protection plan which has been approved by the district committee; and • An application form for receiving land from the local community with the signature of village head or local community representative. The conditions are: • The local community should have the traditional customs, rules and close relations with the forest, and that they have forest management skills, demand and application of forest allocation; • Forest allocation to the local community must be in line with an approved scheme of forest development and protection as well as the forest area availability; and • The forest allocated to the local community is not in dispute status. 2. Size and time of forest allocation to local communities • The forest area allocated to every local community is decided by the district committee, based on local community’s management skills and the commune’s forest area; and • The duration of forest use is long term for forestry purposes. 3. Steps and procedures for forest allocation to local communities Step 1: Preparation 1. Establish a commune’s forest allocation team including: a group leader who is an agro-forestry staff member in the commune, a deputy leader who is a forestry staff member assigned by the district committee, and members of a team who are land administration staff, statistic staff and heads of hamlets. The forest allocation team will directly participate and support the village in carrying out relevant activities. 2. Inform all local people in every hamlet about the forest allocation process. 3. Prepare materials, relevant equipment and financial resources. Step 2: Information collection and commune’s forest assessment 1. Information collection, analysis and addition of relevant materials: natural conditions, socio-economic situation, and the actual state of forest use and management. Commune’s maps (if any) including a map of the actual state of forest resources, a map of land-use scheme and a map of administrative border. 2. Primary assessment of the actual state of forests is made prior to forest allocation. In case of the land-use plan and forest protection and development plan of community forest are available, then the team and representatives of villages and other communities will verify the forest status. Step 3: Preparation of documents for land allocation 1) The working team, head of each village and 3-5 household representatives to conduct field surveys to check the location of forests, boundaries, areas, types of forest, and record on map at sacle 1:10 000. 2) Working team and village head hold village meetings to obtain feedbacks on: • Location of forest area to be allocated to community (map). 7 • Area, boundary, forest type, forest state, forest stock. • Management objectives and land use plan after receiving forest land. • Community commitment for forest management. The working team obtain feedback to complete the land allocation documents. Step 4: Preparation of land allocation documents 1) Community’s application for forest allocation needs to be clearly stated: forest position, boundary, area, actual state of forest and use purpose (with signature of the village representatives). 2) Record minutes of community meeting about land use plans with signature of village representative 3) Summary of forest area and forest stock 4) Map of community forest area, 1:10 000 scale 5) Declaration of no conflict in the forest area to be allocated to community 6) Commune’s People Committee is responsible for checking and reviewing the documents, the documents will then be passed on to relevant government departments. Step 5. Approval and making decision of land allocation to community 1) Functional departments have the responsibility of verifying all documents, with field checking if necessary, and submit the documents to district’s people committee for approval. 2) District’s People Committee assesses all available information and then makes decisions on forest allocation to the community. These decisions will be communicated to commune level and functional departments. 3) The Commune’s People Committee will give the decision of forest allocation to the community. 4) Forest allocation activities will be carried out in the field. II: Establishment of Community Forest Management Organisation Expected results: To be able to identify the number of households participating in community forest management, rights and responsibilities of households, to select group leaders and develop working regulations for the group. Implementation process: 1) Hold village meeting to inform local people about land allocation to community policy, make it clear about rights and responsibilities of people involved in community forest management, and to discuss and answer all questions of villagers. This is followed by an identification of the number of people to participate in community forest management. After that, community members select CFM management board as follows: • Identify the duties and responsibilities of group leaders • Identify criteria for selecting group leaders • Nominate members for leader positions and vote for the positions 2) Develop working regulations After selecting group leaders, project staff request group leader to hold meeting to develop working regulations. The regulations must consist of the following contents: • Purpose of the group • Rights and responsibilities of members • Duties of leaders. • Group meeting timetable 8 • Establish fund • Commitments III: Development of Community Forest Management Plan 1. Preparation 1) Facilitators collect all relevant information and documents such as forest resource map, land allocation map, forest survey document (if any), papers and pens, tapes, etc. 2) Select participants: select 6-8 villagers including experienced people, both men and women to participate in development of the plan. 2. Assessment of forest resources 1) Based on the land allocation documents and use of maps, facilitators work with villagers to review, classify natural forests (natural forest with high timber volume, low timber, bamboo forest, and bare land). For plantation the classification will be based on age: 1-5 years, 6-10 years and more than 10 years. All these forest types will be classified and marked in the map 1/10 000, then made calculations for each of those parcels. The results is put into Table 1: Table 1. Community forest resource No. Forest type/state Area (ha) Note 2) Forest survey: To identify the number of plot for forest survey: The minimum survey plot area is 1% of the parcel area. Table 2 gives some indicative suggestions about the number of survey plot and parcel area. Table 2. Number of survey plots per parcel area Conduct survey of tree DBH (D1.3) and height in all plots using rolling tapes, pole and eye observation. The results are entered into the following table. Table 3. Survey of upper level trees No. Tree species H VN D 1.3 Notes For survey of regenerated trees, establish 5 small plots of 20 m 2 each within the standard survey plot, then list all regenerated trees which are taller than 1 m and identify their growth quality. The results are put into the following table: Parcel area No. of plots (10m x 30m) < 4 ha At least 2 4 - 10 ha At least 5 10 - 30 ha At least 7 30 - 70 ha At least 15 70 - 120 ha At least 25 120 - 200 ha At least 40 > 200 ha At least 70 9 Table 4 Survey of regenerated trees Growth quality No. Tree species Height Good Medium Bad Notes For parcels with bamboo forest, classification is made using forest cover criteria, the coverage of more than 70 % and less than 70%. Calculation of forest stock using two factor volume table: From the results of field survey, forest stock is calculated, plant composition and potential regenerated tree species are identified. The results are put into the following tables: Table 5.Summary of forest stock No. Plot Area Stock/ha Total Table 6. Summary of regenerated tree stock % No. Forest type No. of trees/ha Good Medium Poor Notes 3. Need assessment of forest products Need assessment of forest products is the basis for making long-term plan for use and management of forest products. Methods: within a community, select 3 households representative of 3 household groups (poor, average, and rich) to interview about the need for forest products (for house construction, fuel wood, and furniture), then calculate the average amount of wood needed for a household per year and finally calculate the total amount of wood needed for all households participated in community forest management. The results are put into the following table: Table 7. Need assessment of forest products Need (m 3) Types of need Unit Volume Household forest Community forest House building Propagation facilities Furniture Fuel wood Fence making 4. Develop annual and 5-year plan. Facilitators work with 6 to 10 key informants to analyze the state of forest of each parcel, natural conditions, investment and production ability of community. Then, identify 10 management purpose, objective of each parcel, discuss and answer the following questions: What to do? How much? When? How to do? Budget? Who responsible? The results are summarized in the following tables: Table 8. Description of activities Forest type Objectives Activities Expected results Assessment criteria Table 9. Implementation plan No. Activity 2008 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Table 10: Estimated fund for activities Activities Volume Cost Annual allocation Responsibility 2008 2009 The results of developing plan process must be reported to community for feedbacks and approval. 5. Proposal for community forest management plan 2007-2012 1. Justification 2. Natural conditions and community characteristics 2.1 Natural conditions 2.2 Community characteristics 3. Purpose of making 5 year plan and objective of forest land use 3.1 Purpose of making plan 3.2 Objective of forest land use 4. Logical framework 5. Implementation plan 6. Budget 7. Impacts 7.1 Social impacts 7.2 Environmental impacts 7.3 Economic impacts IV: Development of Forest Management and Protection Regulations 1. Requirements • The regulation must be in accordance with current state law. Also, it is suitable for local traditions and customs. • It discourages bad habits, wrong doings and imposes fines for illegal activities • The content is clear, simple and easy to implement. [...]...2 Main contents • Rights and responsibilities of community members in forest management • Regulations in forest protection and the mobilisation of community resources for community forest management • Exploitation, buying and selling, and transporting the forest products • Forest animal protection • Cattle grazing in the forest • Forest fire management • Prevention of illegal forest product... for forest protection and development is established by the community • The community fund of forest protection and development is mainly used for the community s forestry development activities such as forest protection, afforestation, forest tending, forest regeneration, forest enrichment, exploitation of forest products, forest management 11 2 The fund’s financial sources • Financial support comes... Monitoring and Evaluation The duties of the community forest management board • Facilitate the development of community forest management plan • Allocate the implementation to households • Mobilizing capital and human resource to implement the plan of forest management 12 • • • Monitoring the implementation process of the forest management plan; forest exploitation and non-wood forest product and interests... villages • Mutual support among villagers in forest management, production and selling products • Inter-village cooperation in forest management • Fine regulations for forest law violation • Benefit sharing within community members 3 Process of developing forest protection and development regulations Step 1: Preparation Forest protection staff may suggest and discuss with heads of villages, village... fund management board • Making a plan of income, expenditure, income-expenditure balance, and arranging for approval in a village meeting • To implement the working plan • Building the relationship with credit and other relevant services • Reporting the fund’s income and expenditure activities to the community monthly, quarterly and annually, ensuring clear and transparent activities of the fund income... expenditure and income • The financial plan must be presented and approved in public by the community During the process of plan implementation • It is essential to keep accounting records of all expenditure and income The community fund for forest protection and development is under the inspection of inspector team, head of villages and commune people’s committee • Frequent reports of income and expenditure... illegal activities and development inside community which comes under the regulations, then the community must solve the matter based on reconciliation principles in the community In cases where illegal acts are stipulated in State law and the breach is enforced by administrative punishment or criminal responsibility, then head of the village is responsible for making a report and sending it to commune’s... activities of the fund income and expenditure • The fund’s income and expenditure is under the inspection of community, local authority Develop fund use and management regulations • The regulation contents include the determination of income sources, valid expenditures, community responsibilities and interests for financial contribution and the fund use, responsibility of the fund management board, operation... expenditure are reported to community (monthly, quarterly and annually) 4 Organizational structure and fund management Organizational structure • The fund management board is also the community s forest management board which is established by local people in the village Responsibilities of the fund management board • Mobilizing and developing the fund’s finance • Income and expenditure activities are... committee and forest protection staff 4) Decisions of the village meeting on solving illegal acts or disputes will be carried out only if those decisions receive a vote of more than 50 percent of members, and it must not disagree with State law V: Establishment of Communtiy Forest Management Fund 1 Purpose of the community fund for forest protection and development • The community fund for forest protection . - Sustainable community- based forest development and management in some high poverty areas in Bac Kan Province Community Forest Management Guidelines Prepared by. Regulations in forest protection and the mobilisation of community resources for community forest management. • Exploitation, buying and selling, and transporting the forest products. • Forest. the forest management plan; forest exploitation and non-wood forest product and interests distribution from community forests • Reporting the results of implementing the plan of community forest