Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam

Vietnam is increasing local rights to its forests, but institutions implementing this decentralisation still rarely involve local people. Government strongly supports plantation and agricultural development and has forbidden the practice of traditional shifting cultivation.

In 2005, a project to improve the livelihoods of forest-dependent people and at the same time enhance sustainable management of forests was started in Central Vietnam, Thua Thien Hue Province, in collaboration with Tropenbos International Vietnam (TBI-V). This project applied three different tools; MLA, Future Scenarios and Payment for Environmental Services. This project is funded by A Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC)

CIFOR’s contribution was to (1) apply the MLA approach in the local socio-economic context, (2) provide methods and information to better take account of local perceptions in land use and conservation planning, (3) provide baseline data for biodiversity conservation and (4) discuss the opportunities and constraints for conservation institutions in the local context.

The focus of the study was Khe Tran village in Thua Thien Hue province, in the buffer zone of a planned conservation area. It has a strong presence of minority groups. The team assessed these people’s perceptions of the importance of biological resources as well as the role communities would like to play in forest management. This lead to recommendations on how to involve them in protected area management.

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Publication:

Boissière, M.; Basuki, I.; Koponen, P.; Wan, M.; Sheil, D. 2006.  Biodiversity and Local Perceptions on the Edge of a Conservation Area, Khe Tran Village, Vietnam. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia.