Thousands of hectares of naturally regenerated chestnut forests are found from North Central Vietnam to middle highlands in Northern Vietnam, mainly in provinces such as Bac Giang, Hai Duong, Nghe An. Most of these chestnut forests have been allocated to community for protection and management. However, the local authorities, relevant agencies and the community have not implemented any plans or programs for rational exploitation of these forests due to the lack of technical knowledge on proper forestry techniques. In most areas, communities live very close to the naturally regenerated chestnut forests. Therefore, the forests are very sensitive to the community needs in production and daily life. In places like Bac Giang or Hai Duong, when the growing of litchi trees has been strongly developed because of their high economic values, some chestnut forests have been destroyed.Besides the environmental value, chestnut forests have high economic values. Exploitation of environment and resources of chestnut forests to promote these economic and environment values is the most effective and sustainable measure in chestnut forest management and protection. The project VN/04/012 is expected to be implemented in 3 different communes of Bac An commune (Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province), Truong son commune (Luc Nam district, Bac Giang province), and Tay Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district, Nghe An province). The project aims to develop a model in sustainable use and development of chestnut forest resources through an integrated management of chestnut forest resources. The project will give high priority to building and replicating demonstration models in sustainable use and development of environment and resources of chestnut forest. The key project activities include to enrich and promote the sustainability of the existing chestnut forest and to develop the utmost productivity of the chestnut forest to bring higher income from chestnut forest for community. One of the project key components is to develop mechanisms to ensure the project sustainability and replication (drawing and sharing experience, compiling and disseminating technical guidelines, and building the technical capacity for local forestry extension workers and community). The project will provide technical assistance in surveying and assessing chestnut forest resources, and developing an action plan for chestnut forests protection and management in the project area.