Accounting for 30% of Viet Nam’s natural forest area in 2005, the Central Highlands Region is a biodiversity hotspot and the watershed of several important rivers. However, it was also the country’s second poorest region at the time, with poverty levels as high as 57% among the ethnic minority groups that made up 23% of its population.
To help improve forest protection and management and reduce poverty, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved in October 2006 a $45 million loan for the Forests for Livelihood Improvement in the Central Highlands Sector Project. Covering the provinces of Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lam Dong, and Phu Yen, the project’s expected impact was improved forest productivity and livelihoods and reduced poverty in the Central Highlands. Its expected outcome was state-owned and other forests sustainably managed in the Central Highlands. It had four components: (i) sustainable forest resource management and development planning, (ii) livelihood improvement, (iii) capacity development; and (iv) project management and implementation.
Forest Protection and Development Plans (FPDPs), which incorporated some key sustainable forest management (SFM) principles, were prepared or updated for all six project provinces. The FPDPs covered about three million hectares (ha) of forestland, which were surveyed and subsequently allocated for management to relevant institutions such as Protection Forest Management Boards (PFMBs) and state forest enterprises (SFEs). Sixty commune investment plans, which identified commune-level financing needs in forest management, small-scale infrastructure, and livelihood, were likewise prepared. Land use planning in 37 additional communes were supported.
Afforestation on 40,169 ha of production forest, protection activities on 59,555 ha of natural forest, and biodiversity conservation on 135,162 ha were assisted. Around 71% of the total project-supported production forest area consisted of household-level timber woodlots, agroforestry plots, and home gardens. Community groups living within protected natural forest areas managed by PFMBs were engaged in forest protection activities. Participating households received $100-equivalent every three months, constituting about 30% of their total income.
The issuance of Land Use Rights Certificates (LURCs) or “red books” to households involved in afforestation activities was facilitated. 90% of the 4,142 LURC households who received rights to 3,722 ha through the project were ethnic minorities. An additional 8,379 project household participants, with rights to 8,023 ha, also received LURCs through other programs.
Community development funds (CDFs) were established in 60 communes. These CDFs provided 11,163 households with livelihood development loans aggregately amounting to $1,980,772. CDF seed capital was revolved 2–3 times over the project period. While the individual loans, equivalent to $130–$220, were considered too small to have a substantial impact, they significantly helped poor households who lacked collateral to access larger loans. 375 small-scale, community infrastructure, including irrigation canals, roads, bridges, communal houses, classrooms, school drinking water systems, and a health clinic, were constructed.
SFM-based business development planning for 8 SFEs and 18 SMEs were assisted. The resulting business development plans helped these institutions rationalize land use and improve production efficiency.
Through its outputs, the project was able to demonstrate a model of decentralized forest management. However, as there was a lack of clarity over targets, which should have been addressed at the outset, it was difficult to monitor progress during the project and post-project. The project as designed was also ambitious in expecting the government to fully embrace SFM, some principles of which challenged traditional forest management practices.
Viet Nam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) was the executing agency. A central project management unit within MARD’s Management Board for Forestry Projects, coordinated national-level implementation, which was supervised on a day-to-day basis by provincial project management units. A grant of $8 million from the Trust Funds for Forests, of which $5.5 million was utilized, also supported the project.
