Community Forest Management under the Forest and Forestland Allocation Policy: The Case Study of Ta Vac Village, Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam

Abstract

In Vietnam, a legal framework for Community Forest Management (CFM) development has been established since 2003. Although the government has paid increasing attention to development, CFM has yet to show notable signs of progress in this area. This paper aims to understand problems and challenges to CFM development. A field survey was conducted through different methods in which information was cross-checked for credibility. In August of 2009, an interview using visual tools was applied to informants with low education and considerable language barriers for reliable information. The results of this study showed that current laws and regulations of the time had been insufficient in supporting CFM development. These interviews indicate that during the process of implementing forest and forestland allocation policy, there was little effort to build people's awareness of the project or to properly develop the skills of those designated to work in a managerial capacity, and overall participation was limited due to the poor approach employed by policy implementers. Outside actors have less support and poor collaboration with the village community, leading to many villagers with poor knowledge of the laws, regulations and policy. Village regulation was less effective, and many households lost a chance to benefit from community forest. The CFM system did not function well and serious conflicts happened. Moreover, it was found that people's lack of arable land put a large pressure on CFM. The village failed to cover certain costs for the CFM operation as expected. Errors in defining forest boundary will make it difficult to stop severe disputes in the allocated forest. Failure to realize forestry production causes a decrease in people's interest and motivation to CFM.