PanNature Vietnam

Promoting Adaptive Collaborative Management Approach (ACMA) through strengthening capacity and participation of Vietnamese CSOs and local communities in REDD+ process

Executing Agency: Centre for People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature)

The sub-project aims to provide a range of benefits to local communities and strengthen their participation in forest governance by adopting the ACMA approach in one REDD+ site, Huong Nguyen Commune in Thua Thien Hue province, one of the six REDD+ provinces in Vietnam. The project has carried out field level activities to capacitate local communities, and the subnational and national level activities with the government and CSOs to create enabling environment. This project has also demonstrated efficient community-based forest change monitoring by building on the local level community institutions (such as local forest protection teams and forest management units) and capacitating them on utilizing modern mobile technologies that could be integrated to the larger government system.

The specific outputs generated by the project and their associated activities include:

  1. Strengthened enabling conditions for REDD+ readiness through a) identification of national level ACMA initiatives, framework and process in consultation with CSOs, and national FCPF/ER-P; b) institutional and context analysis of REDD+ readiness capacity building needs in consultation with leaders of management agencies (namely Hue Forest Protection Department, A Luoi District People Committee, Huong Nguyen Commune People Committee), village leaders, forest owners and local communities in Huong Nguyen commune; c) capacity needs assessment for CSOs in 6 provinces with the development of three training modules (environmental safeguards, sustainable forest management and FPIC, forest governance monitoring) and set of awareness and training materials for grass root CSOs/CBOs and researchers on REDD+ readiness; and d) training workshops that provided basic and advanced knowledge on REDD+/FCPF for civil societies, universities, institutes for effective and efficient management of REDD+ process and promote the role of CSOs on adaptive collaboration forest management and safeguarding local communities’ rights & livelihoods.
  2. Community level engagement on ACMA development with priority strategy REDD+ issues through a) identification of priority consultation framework for community, local authority, and forest owner on the implementation of ACMA through feasibility assessment and organization of a national level consultation workshop ; b) organizing and facilitating three community training courses on REDD+ that enhanced beneficiaries’ capacity on REDD+ readiness and ACMA framework; c) organizing and strengthening 23 village forest protection teams on community based forest/carbon monitoring with provision of 23 smart phones, organization of two training courses on recording data and hotspots in mobile application, and establishing system with Hue Forest Protection Development Fund for official receiving and organization of the data; d) organizing and facilitating a consultation workshop with provincial and district staff on the ACMA framework that helped to build a common vision and enhance collaboration toward sustainable landscape governance in Huong Nguyen commune; e) organizing a national workshop to create a dialogue among national and sub-national policy makers on landscape governance and ACMA framework and generate policy recommendations; and f) preparation of policy recommendations on the ACMA/REDD+.
  3. Promotion of participatory forest governance monitoring (PFGM) system linking local practices to national REDD+ through a) contribution to the development of a CSO-led FCIM/PFGM framework; and b) development of indicators and tools for FCIM/PFGM and test at provincial agencies, A Luoi district, Huong Nguyen commune, local commune and forest owners, with collaboration of CSOs incl. Voice for Mekong Forest project.
  4. Institutionalization of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system involving local communities in payment for forest environmental services (PFES) was intiatited through a) technical workshop on multi-stakeholder approach in policy development for PFES M&E that involved about 100 participants representing Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST)/ Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), national and provincial forest protection and development funds, Vietnam Forest Owners Association (VNFORA), research institutions, national and international development agencies, and forest experts. Participants reviewed PFES M&E initiatives from different organizations at national and provincial levels, and discussed on how lessons from these initiatives could be applied to the future orientation of Vietnam Natioal Forest Fund (VNFF) and PFES policies in Vietnam. Set of recommendations to design, implement and institutionalize the PFES M&E system has been identified, which PanNature will work with VNFORA to develop a policy brief; b) study tour for Dak Lak PFES Fund to the Hue PFES Fund to share provincial level practical lessons and experiences on M&E system for PFES. Members from the Dak Lak PFES Fund visited and discussed with the personnels of Hue PFES Fund (Hue Forest Development and Protection Fund), which has developed a M&E system for PFES, that involves participation of local communities in forest monitoring and reporting process through use of mobile application, and with the local communities in Huong Nguyen commune, where field level forest management and PFES system is being implemented. With the information and knowledge from the study tour, the Dak Lak PFES Fund team will report to their Fund manager to develop planning and budget for establishing their own M&E system in the near future.

The total direct beneficiaries of the sub-project are 552, of which about 239 (43.3%) are women.

The total budget contribution from the project for this sub-project was US $109,756.

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