- Hai Duong Province is a plain province with forest only in Chi Linh and two Kinh Mon district. In the '70s and earlier, most of Chi Linh mountain area is natural high biodiversified forest connected to forest in Dong Trieu (Quang Ninh) and Luc Nam (Bac Giang).
- Of the nearly 2,500 ha of natural remaining forests, there were 1,200 hectares of pure regenerating chestnut forests, adjacent to many pure recovered chestnut forest in Dong Trieu (Quang Ninh) and Luc Nam (Bac Giang).
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- Natural forests area in Chi Linh belongs to lowland tropical rainforest ecosystems of northern Vietnam with the dominant tree species such as lim ? d? ( phía B?c ), táu- d? ( Ngh? T?nh ), gõ ? hu?nh d? ( Qu?ng Bình, Qu?ng Tr? )
- Chi Linh forest had 149 species of vertebrates on land and many other animals. There were about 530 plant varieties belonging to 105 families and 290 sub-species of which 150 timber varieties, 132 medicine varieties, 11 high valued varieties and 9 rare species listed in Vietnam Red Book.
- Income of the community did not meet the needs of life. Income from main productivity activities was from rice, fruit trees (litchi) and animal husbandry. The exploitation of the economic value of the chestnut forest was not effective so the community's income is low, incommensurate with the actual economic potential of chestnut forest. In addition to gathering chestnuts, with few households (13.6%) were beekeepers in chestnut flower season. The advantage of chestnut forest resources was taken in very low effectiveness. Because not understanding the value of chestnut forests and not exploring the potential value of forests, the community had missed sense of responsibility for protection and local governments had not respected and considered the economic development of chestnut forests to be in local economic development. Therefore, there were significantly floating/ missing time of state economic development activities.
- It was effective to involve the participants from government, corporate concerned departments of the provinces (Provincial people committee, provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Forestry Protection Department), the departments of the district (District People Committee, Agriculture and Rural Development Department, Education Department, Farmers? Association, Women's Union...) and the local community where the project is actually implemented. For example, there were the commitment letter from the PPC, provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and participation on project design from Chi Linh forestry plantation, Bac An commune and Hoang Hoa Tham commune.
- There were co-financing commitment from the recipients and beneficiaries as following:
? 127,512,870 dong from PPC of Hai Duong.
? 16,000,000 dong from authorities in Bac An and Hoang Hoa Tham communes.
? 270,196,500 dong from people in community to take part in the project.
? 54,000,000 dong from the grantee.
- Local authorities and communities had enhanced responsibilities in protecting the chestnut forest, especially an issuance of the convention on forest protection and development. Provincial People Committee issued Directive no. 21/CT-UBND to prevent the encroachment of natural and planted forest for litchi plantation. When the project numbered VIE/00/007 was implemented, people consciously and voluntarily make the protection of natural forests and plantations have created conditions for Directive 21 of the province made more effective. The project contributed termination of encroachment issue in Hai Duong forest according to Directive no. 21 of the province.
There is potential for a policy link with forest protection and management.
Capacity - Building Component
- Organized well 02 technical trainings on planting autochthonous trees in 2 communes in 19 - 21/02/2003 with 111 times of participation.
- Organized workshop on forest protection rules
? Participated in 03 study tours such as:
+ Study tour organized by GEF
+ Study tour organized by project members:
o For students in 02 districts (60 people) to go to the stork area in Chi Lang Nam
o For community members in 2 district (12 people) to go to L?c Ngan, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa.
- Three conferences with 50 participants per each were organized. They were from government officials, unions, government departments in the districts and communes together with communities. The conference was held at the successful participating households to share experience and promote good model building.
Planning gef grant
GEF/SGP gave the second grant to this project (
Replication of project activities
Project replication
? The project developed the models which have the potential to be largely replicated in other provinces in Vietnam where there are the naturally regenerated chestnut forests, contributing to poverty alleviation for the communities living in adjacent to the forests.
? The project models were integrated in the provincial and district agro-forestry programmers.
? The documentary film was produced by the national TV and is often broadcasted on national TV. This helps to replicate the models in Viet Nam.
Project sustainability
Project sustainability
? The models were tested the first time in Chi Linh in particular and in Viet nam in general. This provided good models in sustainable use of resources of naturally regenerated chestnut forests. The project contributed to controlling the encroachment of agriculture development in the forest area in order to protect the existing forests and generating higher income from sustainable use and exploitation of chestnut forest resources for the community.
? Deforestation is a pressing issue in the project area. In order to protect the forest, the local Government has issued a local decree strictly applying administrative fine to the communities who have violated the national law on forestry protection. The project helped to implement the local decree on forest protection. The project also contributed to improving the quality of the environment and the landscape in the project area where major provincial industrial parks and national historic relics are located.
? The project stakeholders were well-aware of the importance of forest protection and sustainable use of forest resources.
? The Tropical Sivilculture and Environment Research Centre (TROSERC) gained a lot of experiences in project design and management. The implementation of the project has created favorable conditions for the Centre to build and enhance relationships with various government levels and relevant government agencies in forest management and environmental protection. This also helped enhance the credibility of the Centre among the community.
? Working partnerships between the local authorities and relevant agencies of Bac An and Hoang Hoa Tham Communes, Chi Linh District, the Centre, and GEF/SGP were built and strengthened through the project implementation.
Linkages gef projects
There is no linkage with GEF initiative.
Planning non gef grant
There is potential that the local department of agriculture and rural development will replicate the project models in their agro-extension programmes.
Project Results
Project results
1. Awareness and understanding on environmental issues in general and forest protection and biodiversity conservation in particular of local stakeholders, including local governments of Chi Linh district and Hoang Hoa Tham and Bac An communes, Upstream Forest Protection Committee of Chi Linh District, department of agriculture and rural development and mass organizations of Chi Linh district, and community of Hoang Hoa Tham and Bac An communes enhanced thanks to the successful implementation of the following activities:
? 3 training workshops on forest protection and management were organized with 150 participants.
? 1 study tour to learn and exchange experience in promoting community participation in forest protection was conducted with 50 participants mostly from the community.
? Environmental campaign was organized on Viet Nam Forestry day.
? An environmental contest was organized in the schools which attracted and mobilized strong interest and participation of school children. A song on the local chestnut forest was written and became very popular among community.
? Advocacy activities were conducted through local media. The project attracted the attention of national TV. The national TV made a documentary film on the project results and this was broadcasted on national TV.
2. Project models
The models of applying appropriate sivilculture techniques in harvesting chestnut forest resources
? piloted in Bac An and Hoang Hoa Tham commune, an area of 150 ha, 60 participating households.
? The productivity of nut increased from 80kg/ha to 480kg/ha, farmers? income from chestnut forest increased 3 times.
The model of developing mixed forest of chestnut and forest trees.
? piloted in Bac An and Hoang Hoa Tham commune with an area of 150 ha
The model of bee keeping from chestnut flowers
? piloted in Bac An and Hoang Hoa Tham commune, 25 participating households with 100 beehives. The community was assisted through the revolving loan programme. The project budget for loan was $1,721. The repayment rate was 100%.
3. A study on pest management for pure chestnut was researched and applied in some research forest area.
4. Technical guidelines on sustainable use of chestnut forest resources was compiled and distributed among community.
5. The understanding and knowledge on environmental issues in general and on biodiversity conservation in particular, and capacity in project implementation and management and M&E of the project grantee organization staff were considerably enhanced thanks to the project implementation and management, and training activities, such as training workshops, study tour, exchange on project management, provided by GEF/SGP office.
Project sustainability
? The models were tested the first time in Chi Linh in particular and in Viet nam in general. This provided good models in sustainable use of resources of naturally regenerated chestnut forests. The project contributed to controlling the encroachment of agriculture development in the forest area in order to protect the existing forests and generating higher income from sustainable use and exploitation of chestnut forest resources for the community.
? Deforestation is a pressing issue in the project area. In order to protect the forest, the local Government has issued a local decree strictly applying administrative fine to the communities who have violated the national law on forestry protection. The project helped to implement the local decree on forest protection. The project also contributed to improving the quality of the environment and the landscape in the project area where major provincial industrial parks and national historic relics are located.
? The project stakeholders were well-aware of the importance of forest protection and sustainable use of forest resources.
? The Tropical Sivilculture and Environment Research Centre (TROSERC) gained a lot of experiences in project design and management. The implementation of the project has created favorable conditions for the Centre to build and enhance relationships with various government levels and relevant government agencies in forest management and environmental protection. This also helped enhance the credibility of the Centre among the community.
? Working partnerships between the local authorities and relevant agencies of Bac An and Hoang Hoa Tham Communes, Chi Linh District, the Centre, and GEF/SGP were built and strengthened through the project implementation.
Project replication
? The project developed the models which have the potential to be largely replicated in other provinces in Vietnam where there are the naturally regenerated chestnut forests, contributing to poverty alleviation for the communities living in adjacent to the forests.
? The project models were integrated in the provincial and district agro-forestry programmers.
? The documentary film was produced by the national TV and is often broadcasted on national TV. This helps to replicate the models in Viet Nam.
GEF/SGP gave the second grant to this project (see project ????)
There is potential that the local department of agriculture and rural development will replicate the project models in their agro-extension programmes.
There is no linkage with GEF initiative.
There is potential for a policy link with forest protection and management.
