VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY FOREST RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FACULTY STUDENT’S THESIS SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT BY LOCAL PEOPLE IN THE BUFFER ZONE OF BA VI NATIONAL PARK Major: Natural Resources Management (AC) Code: D850101 Faculty: Forest Resources and Environmental Management Student: Luong Ngoc Minh Class: K59B-Natural resources management Student ID: 1453092229 Course: 2014-2018 Advanced Education Program Supervisor: Associate Professor Dr Tran Thi Thu Ha Research location: Ba Vi National Park – Ha Noi Hanoi, October 2018 CONTENTS I Introduction II Goals, Objectives and Research Subjects Goal Objectives Research subjects III Methods 3.1 Study area 3.2 Data collection 3.2.1 Document Inheritance 3.2.2 Interviewing local people in Yen Bai and Ba Vi commune 3.2.3 Interviewing officials of Ba Vi national park 3.2.4 Interviewing officials, forest rangers of Yen Bai and Ba Vi commune 3.2.5 Using PRA tools 3.3 Data analysis 3.3.1 Data accessing 3.3.2 SWOT analysis 10 IV Results 10 4.1 The description of the respondent 10 4.2 Impacts of local people on forest resources 11 4.2.1 Using forest land for agriculture 15 4.2.2 Forest products exploitation 16 4.2.3 Causes of the impacts 18 4.3 Sustainable forest management by local people 19 4.3.1 The awareness of local community about sustainable forest management 19 4.3.1.1 The awareness of local community about sustainable forest management based on gender 20 4.3.1.2 The awareness of local community about sustainable forest management based on occupation 21 4.3.2 The situation of sustainable forest management in Ba Vi National Park 22 4.3.2.1 Forms of managing forest sustainability in research areas 23 4.3.3 Factors affecting to the participation of local people in sustainable forest management 24 4.3.4 Reasons for not participating in forest managing 25 4.3.5 Reasons for participating in forest managing 28 4.3.6 Causes of factors affecting to the participation of local people in sustainable forest management 29 4.3.6.1 Limited awareness 29 4.3.6.2 Lack of efficient polices and environmental projects 30 4.3.7 Assessing the status of sustainable forest management by strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats 30 4.3.8 Raising awareness of people 32 V Conclusions and recommendations 33 5.1 Conclusions 33 5.2 Recommendations 34 References 36 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Map of Ba Vi National Park and its location Figure 4.1: Ratio of land use for agriculture at Ba Vi National Park 16 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1.Descriptions of respondents 11 Table 4.2.Knowledge level about sustainable forest management according to gender 12 Table 4.3.Knowledge level about sustainable forest management according to age group 13 Table 4.4.Knowledge level about sustainable forest management according to occupation14 Table 4.5 Participation levels in exploiting forest products according to age group 17 Table 4.6 Forest exploitation products 18 Table 4.7 Assessing important level of sustainable forest management according to gender20 Table 4.8 Assessing important level of sustainable forest management according to occupation 21 Table 4.9 Types of forest in Yen Bai and Ba Vi commune 22 Table 4.10 Forest areas classification according to objects management in Yen Bai and Ba Vi commune in 2017 23 Table 4.11 Source of information for local people about sustainable forest management 25 Table 4.12 Reasons why local people don’t take part in sustainable forest management (law enforcement agency's opinions) 26 Table 4.13 Reasons why local people don’t take part in sustainable forest management (local people's opinions) 27 Table 4.14 Reasons why local people take part in sustainable forest management (law enforcement agency's opinions) 28 Table 4.15 Reasons why local people take part in sustainable forest management (local people's opinions) 29 Table 4.16 SWOT analysis 30 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to send my sincere thanks and deep gratitude to the teachers of Viet Nam National University of Forestry, especially Associate Professor Dr Tran Thi Thu Ha for guiding me complete this graduation thesis With the knowledge acquired during the learning process is not only the foundation for the research process but also the precious jewelry to enter the life firmly and confidently I sincerely thank the Board of Directors of Ba Vi National Park, People's Committee of Yen Bai and Ba Vi Commune has allowed and created favorable conditions for me to finish the graduation thesis here In the end, I wish you all the best in your career, your health and your success Student Luong Ngoc Minh ABSTRACTS An overview of sustainable forest management, the relationship between local people and law enforcement in protecting and enhancing the value of forest resources in Ba Vi National Park Learning about livelihood of local communities and how they affect to the forest’s reserve, listing and analyzing the management activities and their impact on local communities Moreover, improving the soft skills of researchers like: communication, observation, document inheritance, creating questionnaire table, interviewing local people & law enforcers and giving recommendations to raise awareness of local people in Ba Vi National Park I INTRODUCTION Forests are one of the most valuable resources that bring a number of benefits to people, especially those who live inside it The forest ecosystem is highly complex, and influenced by numerous external factors Similarly, different forest types in different regions of the world require different sustainable management strategies However, uncontrolled activities of local community have been considered as the main reason of forest degradation and forest lost Supports for the local people to live and work are so limited and tends to make changes to local people’s livelihood due to the changes in accommodation, cultivation habit and to the change in forest products can normally harvest With the development of science, technology and socio-economic development, forest management has shifted from managing timber business to multi-faceted business management of forest resources, sustainable forest management is based on strict, comprehensive criteria and criteria in economic, social and environmental fields Sustainable forest management requires forest managers to make detailed forest management plans, the main objective of sustainable forest management is to "manage the sustainable forest stands to achieve the set management objectives, ensure continuous production of forest products and services., but not significantly reduce the future value and productivity of the forest and does not cause undesirable effects on the natural and social environment To find helpful solution to deal with those issues, sustainable forest management always the best choice because it requires the participation of local communities and law enforcement offices Sustainable forest management means the environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of forests for present and future generations [1] Forest ecosystems are complex and influenced by many external factors so, different forest types in different regions of the world require different sustainability management strategies Most of the previous researches show the same results that the poor in many communes and villages living in remote areas and near the forest are running out of forest resources and the nature is seriously harmed More than 1.6 billion people around the world depend on forest resources for their livelihoods – not just for food but also for fuel , for livestock grazing areas and for medicine (Arthur E and Pol D.G.,2000) [2] 1.2 billion people use trees on farms to generate food and cash moreover, many countries in the developing world draw on fuel wood to meet as much as 90% of energy requirements (FAO, 2015) [3] , so local communities play important part in sustainable forest management in the world Viet Nam has been involved in sustainable forest management since 1998, some case studies such as Dao Cong Khanh (2014) [4] and Nguyen Ngoc Lung, Ngo Dinh Tho [5] show that the forest area have FM certification and the product chain certificated is not much; However, with the support from the Government, Ministry of agriculture and rural development and other line ministries, local authorities, the voluntary enthusiasm of the forest owners, the process of sustainable forest management has been improved Significant progress has been made, especially in the areas where timber is grown and harvested and exported It is believed that the higher populations living in buffer zone, the greater impact they have on natural forest resources because they are adjacent in boundary and directly benefit from forest In spite of the numerous functions of forest management strategies, forest ecosystems in general and forest resources particular are gradually degrading in quality under threat as a result of the growing population and expanding consumption of forest resources (FAO, 2007) [6] Ba Vi National Park was established in 1991 under the Decision No 17-CT of January 16, 1991 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Vietnam with a total area of 108.15 km² This park is distributed in districts including Ba Vi , Thach That , Quoc Oai (belong to Ha Noi City) and Ky Son , Luong Son (belong to Hoa Binh Province) It’s about 60 km far from Hanoi center following the national road No 21A and 87A It has high biodiversity value with large number of plant and wild animal species, provide forest services such as ecotourism and recreation, sites for scientific and educational purposes: 1,200 plant species, of which 21 species were listed in Viet Nam’s Red Data book (2007) [7] The buffer zone of this national park includes 16 communes, in which of them are mountainous communes: Minh Quang , Khanh Thuong, Tan Linh , Ba Trai, Ba Vi , Yen Bai and Van Hoa communes (belong to Ba Vi district), with the total area of 14,144 and the population of 46,547 people However, natural forest and resources within national park area is facing many threats because living standard of ethnic people here is still low, they mostly rely on forest resources such as fuel wood, NTFPs, hunting wild animals for food, etc Moreover, the awareness of forest resources management is quite low and the participation of local people in management programs have met many difficulties because of scattered settlements Therefore, the protection and maintenance of the rehabilitation and development of Ba Vi National Park, but still ensuring the harmony with local economic and development activities, is being considered as a challenge with conservation activities here It is therefore necessary to have assessments to identify socio-economic development issues that have a positive impact on the natural resources as well as to address gaps in conservation management, recognizing the importance of ecosystems, the urgency of forest management - - and habit - Easier to share specific information Not good for long term projects about growing, taking care of plants about forest protection because men and increasing the fertilizer in forest is the main labor in protecting forest land - Lack of experience labors Provide examples of sustainable - Lack of combination between staffs, forest managers close to local people local authorities and local people - so that they have the opportunity to Local people don’t want to spend access sustainable forest time protecting forest if the reward management is low (Source: Results calculated by author based on data surveyed, 2018) Strength- Opportunities: According to the SWOT analysis, the advantage of local communities in Ba Vi National Park is having experience about growing forest tree and protecting landscape, so it doesn’t take long time to train them into a professional forest manager The trend to follow other people in local communities is also an advantage to educate people about sustainable forest management by giving clear examples inside the community for them to learn how to protect the forest sustainability Weakness- Threats: The biggest weakness is men – who is the main labor in protecting and managing forest - has less knowledge about sustainable forest management than woman, this is not good for protecting forest projects because it requires the experiences, the skill of man to deal and defend with dangers from illegal exploiters, this is the key factor to decide the effectiveness in sustainable forest management in a large national park like Ba Vi national park The second weakness is there are still conflicts between ethnic group and law enforcers here about land use purpose, if there is no understanding between local community and managers, the forest projects will never be possible or effective, solving the conflicts is the first thing to solve or sustainable forest management could be failed 31 4.3.8 Raising awareness of people Human is the main factor to solve every problem So we need to have the solution to use human resources effectively for sustainable forest management, the training and raising awareness are considered as key factors for improving the quality of forest protecting, improve the efficiency of management Raising awareness on issues related to forest management activities such as: understanding the value of forest trees, understanding the characteristics of forest soil in order not to grow the tree that harms to the soil Besides also have some training courses about planting techniques, training local people as forest rangers, forest manager, skills to deal with illegal exploiters… not only has the effect of encouraging the participation of local communities in forest management that bring social benefits but also solving the problems of illegal logging in the buffer zone or social crimes in the commune due to the lack of jobs Raising public awareness about the awareness of protecting the forest through educational programs is very necessary Combining traditional education with the addition of knowledge needed to protect the forest in the school - Raising awareness of subjects related to the value of the natural forest, forest characteristics, local species and preserve the unique landscapes - Educating forest protection skills like fire prevention, protected endangered wildlife and plants - Education for ethnic groups about environmental friendly activities: no cutting tree for timber, exploiting too much plants for traditional medicines, etc 32 V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Conclusions The research results show that: Local people in buffer zone of Ba Vi National park still depend on forest resources including main ways: using forest land for agriculture, exploiting forest products  46.15% of total investigated households use forest land for agriculture purposes Total land used area is 32,460 m2 Land is mainly used grow cassava, corn , tobacco, medical plants and fruit tree  76.9% of total investigated household usually go to the forest and get forest products for daily life, products including firewood, timber, vegetation and honeybee  People’s effects on forest resources caused many consequences to forest: forest fire, forest resources decrease, biodiversity loss, diseases to exploiters due to the poisons of jungle bees - Economic is the main cause that lead to these effects: insufficient food and money demand, insufficient fuel demand - To decrease the effects of local people on forest resources, law enforcement agencies should carry out effective policies to develop local economy, create jobs for people, saving their culture, etc The participation of local people in sustainable forest management in the buffer zone of Ba Vi National Park is very low  The forest area in Yen Bai commune is 1430.42 hectares, in Ba Vi commune is 2438.12 hectares  Only 25.17% of forest area in Yen Bai commune belongs to local communities while in Ba Vi commune, the forest area for local people is only 3% 33 There are so many factors that effect to the participation of local communities in sustainable forest management: limited awareness and knowledge of local people about sustainable forest management, lack of environmental projects, conflicts between law enforcers and ethnic group about land use purpose 5.2 Recommendations Through the analyzed results show that the number of people in buffer zone of Ba Vi National Park participate in sustainable forest management is quite low, a lot of people recognized the importance of protecting and managing the forest but they don’t have specific actions to improve the situation in their area There are some solutions that can increase the effectiveness of local –community in sustainable forest management in this area: - Changing behavior and habit of a people takes a long time, so regular environmental propaganda and education about sustainable forest management is necessary, all forms of media tool should be used to provide information to people in every gender, age occupations, and education level - Building up practice programs for local people to provide them information about sustainable forest management - Creating a good condition for developing traditional jobs to raise life standard of local people - Cooperating between law enforcers, national park’s staffs and local people tightly about sustainable forest management, have effective solutions for long-time problems in the area with the participation of social organizations like Women Union, Youth assembly - Develop a number of models to develop commodity crops to increase income from home farming 34 - Encourage people to use energy stoves in order to decrease the number of firewood exploiting from the forest, give people land to grow forest and carry out more strict laws to banning illegal acts - Creating define area that allowed to exploit timber, exploit in combination with growing traditional medicinal plants in order to increase income for local families as well as save the original genes of endemic plants - Add forest protection projects, especially managing, protecting the forest in a certain area in combination with denouncing actions that compromise the economic and biological value of the forest; rewarding the households which have merit by certificates in order to motivate people around to participate in every project - Ba Vi National park should have more cooperation with state government and private business about creating new environmental projects especially with buffer communes to carry out some policies to develop the local economy, create jobs for local people and develop their traditional jobs 35 REFERENCES (1) (PECF- Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) (2) Arthur Ebregt and Pol De Greeve (2000), Buffer zone and their management (3) FAO (2005), Forest and Poverty Reduction (4) Dao Cong Khanh (2014), SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT AND CERTIFICATE OF FORESTS IN VIETNAM (5) Nguyen Ngoc Lung, Ngo Dinh Tho, Sustainable forest management in VietNam (6) Atrayee Banerjee and Chowdhuty Madhurima (2013), Forest degradation and livelihood of local communities in India: A human rights approach , scientific research (7) Viet Nam Red Book (2007) , Viet Nam Institute of Science and Technology and IUCN (8) Report: Results of land statistics in 2015 (9)Ba Vi Forest Ranger Station, (2017), Annual Report of forest management and protection and next year directions in 2018 (10) Yen Bai Commune People's Committee, The report summarizes the results of socioeconomic development, security and defense in 2017 (11) Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Decree No 2-CP of 1994 regulating the allocation of forestland to organizations, households and individuals for stable and long-term use for forestry purposes signed by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai 36 APPPENDIX Appendix 1.Questionaire for law enforcement agencies Interview time: Location of interview: Part 1: Personal information Name of respondent: … …… Position: … …………… Year old: …………… Ethnic: ……………………… Sex: ………………………… Religion: … Educational level: … Marital status: … Part 2: Demographics - Number of households: ……………… Number of people: …………………… - Ethnic minority people in the commune: ☐ Yes: % ☐ No - Education level of the people in the commune (18+) + 12/12: % + University: % + Drop out of school midway: % - Sex ratio: Male: % Female: % 37 - Labor parts (15+) + Stable employment: % + Lack of employment: % + Unemployment: % Part 3: Natural conditions of the commune - Commune area: ha: Agricultural land: % Non-agricultural land: % - Does the commune belong to Ba Vi national park? ☐ Yes: ☐ No - Does the commune have precious products? ☐ Yes: ☐ No - Is illegal exploiting popular here? ☐ Yes: ☐ No Part 3: Sustainable forest management Does Ba Vi National Park allocate forest land to people? ☐ Yes: ☐ No Are farmers allocated forest plantation contracts? ☐ Yes: tree / ☐ No 38 Does Ba Vi National Park sends experts and staff to guide people planting and tending forests? ☐ Yes ☐ No How often:….times/month Reasons why local people don’t participate in sustainable forest management? ( ( you can skip this question if available) + ………… Reasons why local people participate in sustainable forest management? + ………… What is the type of forest allocated to the household: ☐ Protected forest ☐ Special-use forest ☐ Production forest ☐The above types ☐ Other: How labor costs are calculated: Area: x .VND / = VND Are people satisfied with the price offered? ☐ Satisfied: % ☐Not satisfied: % Does the cost of labor increase from year to year? ☐ Yes: ☐ No 39 Some outstanding issues in Ba Vi National Park buffer zone: +… 10 Domestic and foreign projects on forest conservation, awareness raising are often implemented in this area: ☐ Yes: + ☐ No 11 Which benefit local people get from these projects? + 12 What are the advantages and problems that arise when working with local people on sustainable forest protection? Advantages Problems … … 13 Particular policies of the State for this area: + 14 Local government solutions to enhance local community-based forest protection: + 40 Appendix 2.Questionaire for local people Date: ……………………………………… Location: …………………………… Part 1: Personal information Name: ………………… Age: Gender: ………………………………Ethnic…………………………… Marital status: … Educational level: ☐ Primary school ☐ Secondary school ☐ High school ☐Other: ……… Part 2: Life standard Where does your main income come from? ☐ Agriculture ☐ Forestry ☐ Business (name of products: ….) ☐Other: ……… ☐ I refuse to answer this question Average income: … millions VND/year Do you have another income? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No ☐ I refuse to answer this question Beside your house, you own another land in this area? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No ☐ I refuse to answer this question 41 (If the answer is yes: what type of land you own? How large is it? Which purpose are you using with that land?) +……… Do the law enforcement agencies have special policies or supports to increase your home income? ☐ Yes: + ☐ No Part 3: Sustainable forest management: Do you often go to the forest and exploit forest products? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No ☐ I refuse to answer this question What kind of forest products you often exploit? ☐ Timber ☐ Mushroom ☐ Firewood ☐Bamboo shoots ☐Honey bee ☐Wild vegetable ☐Medical plants ☐Other product: …… How much: ……./month Do you think you are collecting too much forest products? ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ I refuse to answer this question Is exploiting forest products popular in this area? ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ I refuse to answer this question Do you think exploiting forest products is illegal? ☐ Yes ☐ No 42 Do you grow any plants outside the area of your garden? ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ I refuse to answer this question (If the answer is yes: what type of plants you grow? How many of them? Which purpose are you using with those plants?): ……………………………… Do you raise cattle or poultry? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No (If the answer is yes: where does the source of food for cattle come from? How much you feed them every day? Where you often graze them?): ……………………………… Does your family allocate any forest area to protect and manage? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No (If the answer is yes: what type of the forest? How large is it? And how much are you paid for that work? Who paid? ): ……………………………… Are you satisfied with the price offered? ☐ Satisfied ☐Not satisfied 10 Does the cost of labor increase from year to year? ☐ Yes ☐ No 11 Which action can bring harms to sustainable forest management? ☐ Cutting trees for timber ☐Hunting wildlife ☐Breeding in forest land ☐Exploiting forest products 43 12 In your opinion, how important is sustainable forest management? ☐Very important ☐Important ☐Normal ☐Not important 13 Does Ba Vi National Park sends experts and staff to guide people planting and tending forests here? ☐ Yes ☐ No How often:……… 14 Do you think local communities play an important part in sustainable forest management? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No 15 Are there any forest protection programs/projects in Ba Vi NP that you know? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No (If the answer is yes, are you a part of them? Which benefits have you got from those projects?) 16 Are there any training courses in Ba Vi national park? ☐ Yes: … ☐ No (If the answer is yes, how often are they held? you often join them? Which skills are you often taught in those training courses? 17 Are you willing to join sustainable forest management? ☐ Yes ☐ No (Reasons for the answer Yes: 44 ☐ Responsibility ☐ Increase income ☐ Follow people around ☐Propaganda efficiency ☐Other reason: ……) (Reason for the answer No: ☐ Not responsibility ☐ Short of money ☐ Waste time ☐Not interested ☐Conflict with forest manager ☐ Lack of knowledge ☐Other reasons: …….) 45 ... jobs for people, saving their culture, etc The participation of local people in sustainable forest management in the buffer zone of Ba Vi National Park is very low  The forest area in Yen Bai commune... Document Inheritance 3.2.2 Interviewing local people in Yen Bai and Ba Vi commune 3.2.3 Interviewing officials of Ba Vi national park 3.2.4 Interviewing officials, forest. .. National Park Objectives - To assess the current situation of forest management in Ba Vi national park - To evaluate effects of local people in buffer zone to forest resources in Ba Vi national park