The primamry aims of the planning grant are to promote the participation of key stakeholders of the proposed project, including local authorities and relevant agencies and communties, and provide scientific assistance for the project development. Major activities of the project include conducting surveys on socio-economic conditions of the proposed project site, identifying proposed project objectives and activities and assessing their feasibility, and providing needed technical assistance in project design and writing project proposal which will be submitted to GEF/SGP for review and appraisal; and identifying possibilities for project synergies and resource mobilisation.
Parashorea chinensis Wang Hsie belongs to the plant family of Dipterocarpaceae, which is a typical plant family of tropical forest in South East Asia. It is listed in the Plant Red Book (1996) as a threatened species which requires immediate protection measures. The proposed project aims to develop a model of insitu conservation of this species through appropriate sivilculture techniques of promoting natural forest regeneration. Seed collection, sowing and planting trials of Parashorea chinensis Wang Hsie will be tested. One of the main objectives of the proposed project is to develop mixed forests of Parashorea chinensis Wang Hsie and other forestry species of high economic value so that the ethnic community can increase their income from their forestry activities, contributing to poverty alleviation in the area.
The proposed project is intended to be carried out in three communes in Thanh Son District, Phu Tho Province, one of the northern mountainous provinces where the Dipterocarp forests and Parashorea chinensis Wang Hsie used to be the major type of forest ecosystem.