Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development
(CARD)
Program
228
ACHIEVEMENTS AND LESSON LEARN FROM IMPLEMENTATION
OF
COMMUNITY
-
BASED FOREST DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Project
title:
Sustainable community
-
based forest development and management in some
high
-
poverty areas in Bac Kan province
Project c
ode
:
CARD
0
17/06
VIE
Authors:
Tran Van Dien
1
, Tran Thi Thu Ha
1
and K
hongsak Pinyopusarerk

land and unequal allocation of forest areas to
the poorer families have led to serious poverty
of many households. Management of the forest
has also exacerbated the situation through
many problems: (i) low pr
oductivity due to
forest degradation after excessive use and little
investment; (ii) perceptions of forest as
common land with free access, with unclear
boundaries and poorly defined ownership
obligations; (iii) few incentives to reinvest in
the forest (no
security) and reluctance to take
direct responsibility for the land; (iv) poor
awareness of user rights, forest laws and
regulations, and rights of participation in
official processes such as forest land
allocation; and (v) very limited support from
gover
nment agencies in approaches to
effectively use the forest land and earn income
[2].
The Land Law which came into effect on July
1, 2004 allows communities (villages) to
receive land and forest land [3]. However,
there is no mechanism to realise this opti
on. A
project supported by AusAID’s Collaboration
for Agriculture and Rural Development
(CARD) program developed mechanisms

ntation and agro
-
forestry development. The
CARD 017/06
–
Community based forest management
229
quality of community forest was assessed
through forest survey to identify the
productivity as well as biodiversity. The social
economic condition of local community and
the dependency of livelihood of local
com
munity on the forest were identified by
socio
-
economic survey. The data relating to
land use planning, forest land allocation, forest
enrichment, nursery, plantation and agro
-
forestry models were also recorded in the field
based samples. The processes of
land
allocation, management of community forest
development fund, implementation of
community forest management plan were also
recorded. The outcomes and impacts of
training activities were assessed at the phase
out period. Cost benefit for each communit
y

-
term use rights
(Table 1). This has given local communities
the confidence to contribute and invest labor
and other inputs to the protection and
development of community forest lands for
overall local benefits.
Table 1:
Results of community forest land
allocation in four target villages
No.
Village
Community forest land allocated (ha)
% of Community forest land
allocated
1
Ban Sang
154.3
100
2
To Dooc
45.1
100
3
Na Muc
118.3
100
4
Khuoi Lieng
121.1

consists of two elements: (1) regulations which
provide
a legal framework for village members
to implement the CFM plan at the village level,
and (2) a CFM plan which describes and lists
the activities that would be undertaken. Both
the regulations and plans were a result of
separate village meetings and discu
ssion.
Tran
Van Dien, Tran Thi Thu Ha & Khongsak Pinyopusarerk
230
Therefore while the general scope has been
maintained across the four villages, the
contents differ depending on the land use
preferences and enforcement level of each
village.
General contents of CFM
regulations
-
Rights and responsibilities of all
community members in forest protection
and development
-
Rules to protect forests and mobilize human
resources to protect and develop forests
-
Logging, buying and selling of timber and
non
-

The regulations should be presented to all
community members and submitted for
approval by Commune People's Committee.
General contents of CMF Plan
-
New plantation plan such as chice of
species, planting area, where and when to
plant labor cost, num
ber of seedlings, and
sources of seedlings
-
Nursery plan, seedling production
-
Maintenance and protection
-
Harvesting plans
-
Human resource (labor input) plan
-
Other activities such as agro
-
forestry
Lesson learnt from establishment of CFM
plan
-
It is necessary
to modify the Guidelines of
MARD on Community Forest Management
(Figure 1) which was issued on November
27, 2006 (Decision 106/2006/BNN

meetings and discussions which were attended
by at least one member of every household, all
household representatives expressed their
commitment to contribute labor inputs in the
implementation of the plan. Anot
her common
agreement across all four villages was an
attempt to reduce and stop shifting cultivation
and free grazing in community forest areas.
Number of households involved in CFM is
presented in Table 2.
Table 2:
Current involvement of community memb
ers participating CFM [5]
Village
Total households
involved in CFM
Total males aged >15
involved in CFM
Total females aged >15
involved in CFM
Quantity
%
Quantity
%
Quantity
%
Na Muc
23
100

3.
2
Capacity building for local people
Based on the training needs of local
community, various trainings were conducted
as presented in Table 3. Most of the trainings
were conducted using Farmer Field
School
(FFS) approach. The trainings helped all local
community members to be aware of laws on
forest protection and development and be more
knowledgeable and skillful in technical issues
relating to forest management.
Table 3:
Training courses con
ducted in the project area [6]
No.
Training topics
Number of direct
beneficiaries
1
Land
-
use planning and land allocation
26
2
Planning and implementation of community forest management
25
3
Village nursery propagation

community forest lands and household
allocated lands is the lack of quality forest
seedlings. Some projects had pro
vided
seedlings to area but it was not successful.
The survival rate was very low probably due to
the long distance in transport of seedlings to
the village sites. Therefore, the establishment
of village nursery garden to produce the
seedling near plantat
ion site is not only to
ensure the high survival rate of seedlings but
also create potential income generation for
local people. The project facilitated the
establishment of village
-
based community
nurseries to raise quality tree seedlings for sale
or dis
tribution to land owners. The project has
paid special attention to using seed of good
genetic quality. Key inputs provided by the
project included training in nursery
management and provision of access to quality
genetic seed sources of
Acacia
mangium
(ke
o)
(from CSIRO and Forest Science Institute of

Ban Sang
30,000
40,000
70,000
Table 5 reveals that a community requires at
least 5 million VND to establish a nursery and
more than 16.5 million VND per year for
operating expenses. The production cost for
each seedling is only 309 VND, while the
current market
price is 700
-
1000 VND.
Table 5:
Costs for a village
-
based nursery producing 70,000 seedlings/year [7]
Cost item
Cost (VND)
Construction of nursery garden (capital cost)
5,120,000
Operating cost
16,498,000
Total cost
21,618,000
Cost per seedling
309
3.
3.4
Agro

potential as either commercial species or for
use in alley cropping systems. For timber
productio
n,
Acacia
(Keo),
Manglietia conifera
(Mo) and
Melia azedarach
(Xoan) were
preferred by villagers, and these were the tree
species for this model. In addition, one fast
-
growing, multi purpose species,
Cassia
(cot
khi) has been included for planting on the
contours for soil erosion control. Agricultural
crop planted between tree rows was chosen by
villagers based on local experience. Hybrid
corn, improved soybean, taro and cassava have
been selected for growing in agro
-
forestry
models. Table 6 shows the y
ields of the
agriculture crops in the agro
-
forestry models in
the target villages. Table 7 shows height

-
5,000
-
-
2009
Maize
4,500
2,000
2,200
2,000
Soybean
1,400
-
-
-
Table 7:
Plant height of forest tree in agro
-
forestry models
after two years of planting
Unit: m
Species
Na Muc
Khuoi Lieng
To Dooc
Bang Sang
Manglietia conifera
2.0
-
2.5

-
3.3.
5
Community forest development
funds
(CFDF)
Community Forest Development Fund has
been developed by the community through
initial seed money from CARD project. The
main purpose of this fund is for forest
development activities in community forest
areas in the village. Activities relate
d to
community forest development can use this
fund following the community's regulations.
This fund will be maintained and grown for
long
-
term purpose. The fund is managed by
Community Forest Management Board.
Financial issue is reported to village meetin
gs
to ensure transparency.
Sources for CFDF
a) Funding from CARD project:
-
CARD project contributed 1,000 AUD
(13 million VND) as "seed money" to
establish the fund.
-

community forest.
d) Penalty from illegal actions following CFM
regulation
-
All fines from illegal acti
ons following
the CFM regulations will be put into the
fund.
Management of CFDF
-
CFM Board has a responsibility to
manage the CFDF.
-
Use of the fund follows government's
financial regulations (receipts and reports
are required).
-
Accountant and head of the
Community
Forest Management Board must report to
Commune People’s Committee on
financial issues
Status of community forest development funds
after two years of implementation (Jan, 2008
-
Jan, 2010) is presented in Table 8.
Tran
Van Dien, Tran Thi Thu Ha & Khongsak Pinyopusarerk
234
Table 8.

7,784
2,735
9,968
The figure in Table 8 indicates that CFDF has
been well managed by local community. The
fund size of all four villages has increased
significantly. The poor households
in the
community can access to CFDF as
microfinance sources for forest development.
Lessons learnt from implementation of CFM
plan
-
Capacity building for local people on the
rights to access to the community forest
lands, the rights to harvest and the
res
ponsibility to protect the community
forest is considered the most important
activity for the success of the
implementation of CFM.
-
Control of free grazing in Bac Kan is a
crucial factor for the success of the agro
-
forestry models and reforestation in
comm
unity forest lands
-
Clear demarcation of the community

has created the equality and solidarity in the
communities.
Table 9.
Impacts and changes due to application of CFM plan [5]
Indicator
Percentage of local people agreed (%)
Na Muc
Khuoi Lieng
To Dooc
Ban Sang
Decreased illegal forest exploitation
100
94.1
81.8
86.4
Enriched forest
81
100
90.9
89
.4
Increased income
19
32.4
27.3
18.2
Equality of the community
33.3
44.1
45.5

issued on November 27, 2006 (Decision
106/2006/BNN
-
PTNT) should be
flexible for more practical and adapted
CARD 017/06
–
Community based forest management
235
to local socioeconomic and cultural
conditions
-
Capacity building of local people on the
rights to access to the community forest
lands, the righ
ts to harvest and the
responsibility to protect the community
forest is considered the most important
activity for the success of the
implementation of CFM.
-
Community Forest Development Fund
plays an important role in promoting the
participation of local c
ommunities to
community forest management.
-
The implementation of CFM plan has
positive impacts on communities in term
of livelihood improvement, environment

106/2006/QD
-
BNN
5.
Thai Nguyen
University of Agriculture
and Forestry (2010) Report of final
baseline survey in 4 CARD project
villages.
6.
CARD 017
-
06VIE (2009) Milestone
11 report
7.
CARD017
-
06VIE (2009) Benefit
-
cost
analysis report