Forest Land Allocation in Dak Lak: An Initial Assessment · because the PLUP process in Ea Sol was...

Forest Land Allocation in Dak Lak:

An Initial Assessment

Consultancy Report

by

Thomas Sikor

with assistance by

Nguyen Trong Binh

February 2000

On behalf of:

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH and Mekong River Commission Secretariat

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Executive Summary

1. Objectives and Process of the Consultancy

2. Documentation

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List of Figures and Tables

2.1 Forest Land Allocation in Ea Sol Commune

2.1.1 A brief chronology of events

2.1.2 Institutional landscape

2.1.3 Legal documents

2.2 Participatory Land Use Planning in Dak Phoi Commune




3. Assessment

3.1 Objectives of Forest Land Allocation

3.2 Secure Land and Tree Tenure

3.3 Equity

3.4 Records for Land and Forest Management System

3.5 Transparency

3.6 Participation of Villagers

3.7 Coordination Among Relevant Agencies

3.8 Affordability

3.9 Summary and Perceptions by Major Stakeholders

4. Recommendations

4.1 The Role of the Project

4.2 Recommendations at the Policy Level

4.3 Recommendations at the Implementation Level

4.4 Input Requirements

4.5 An Ideal Time Line for Forest Land Allocation in 20 00

References

Appendixes

Appendix 1: Terms of Reference

Appendix 2: Itinerary

Appendix 3: People Met During Consultancy

Appendix 4: Study Design - Issues and Methods at Di fferent Levels

Appendix 5: Annotated List of Legal Documents

A5.1 Land allocation

A5.2 Participatory land use planning

Appendix 6: Samples of Information Products

A6.1 Proposed update for provincial decision-makers

A6.2 Guidelines for the preparation of a video

A6.3 Monitoring forms

Figure 1: The FLA process in Ea Sol 3

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Acknowledgments

This consultancy would not have been possible without the strong support it received from many government officials in Dak Lak province. Most importantly, I am deeply indebted to Tran Ngoc Thanh, Dang Thanh Liem, Tran Huu Nghi and the remaining staff in the SMRP office in Buon Ma Thuot. Their cooperation and dedication laid the foundations for the successful completion of this consultancy. I also want to thank Trinh Xuan Xau and Nguyen Van Xuan for their support of the goals and process of this consultancy. Huynh Duc Luan and Nguyen Huu Hoa facilitated our field work in Ea H'Leo and went out of their way to make our stay as comfortable as possible. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to the villagers in Buon Diet and Buon Cham, who graciously gave us some time to learn more about their lives. Finally, I thank the SMRP staff in Hanoi, in particular Michael Glück and Marlynne Hopper, for their support.

Abbreviations

Figure 2: Institutional landscape of FLA in Ea Sol 5

Figure 3: The PLUP process in Dak Phoi 10

Figure 4: Institutional landscape of PLUP in Dak Phoi 11

Figure 5: Objectives of FLA 13

Figure 6: Households with forest land, by village 16

Figure 7: Distribution of timber volume 18

Figure 8: Distribution of forest land areas 18

Figure 9: Transfer of FLA records 19

Figure 10: Transparency of FLA policy and implementation 21

Figure 11: Coordination gaps in FLA 24

Figure 12: A time line for FLA in 2000 37

Table 1: Stakeholders in FLA by degree of involvement 7

Table 2: Issues in FLA at policy and implementation levels 27

Table 3: Expected effects of proposed activities 35

Table 4: Input requirements of proposed activities 36

ARDO Agriculture and Rural Development Office

CWG Consultative Working Group

DARD Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

DLA Department of Land Administration

DPI Department of Planning and Investment

FDD Forest Development Division

FLA Forest Land Allocation

FPD Forest Protection Department

FPU Forest Protection Unit

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Executive Summary

GDLA General Department of Land Administration

Kinh commonly used term to refer to ethnic Vietnamese

LAO Land Administration Office

LURC Land Use Right Certificate (or Red Book)

MARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

MPI Ministry of Planning and Investment

MOF Ministry of Finance

PC People's Committee

PLUP Participatory Land Use Planning

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

SFDP Social Forestry Development Project Song Da

SFE State Forest Enterprise

SMRP Sustainable Management of Resources in the Lower Mekong Basin Project

VND Vietnamese Dong

This consultancy on forest land allocation (FLA) in Dak Lak had three objectives:

� document FLA and participatory land use planning (PLUP); � conduct an initial assessment of FLA; and, � discuss options for future information exchange .

It was expected to contribute to the learning process around FLA in Dak Lak.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 provides a brief documentation of FLA in Ea Sol and PLUP in Dak Phoi, including chronologies, institutional inventories, and a discussion of major legal documents.

Chapter 2

Chapter 3 summarizes the assessment of FLA conducted in cooperation with the SMRP staff in Dak Lak. The assessment identified seven objectives of FLA as criteria to guide the assessment. The FLA should produce (1) secure ownership rights for land and trees, (2) an equitable distribution of forest land, and (3) simple records for future land and forest management. In addition, the FLA process should be (4) transparent, (5) participatory, (6) coordinated among the relevant agencies, and (7) affordable in terms of human and financial resources.

FLA in Ea Sol has achieved the objectives to different degrees . Overall, the pilot allocation of 2,000 hectares, which is almost complete, has proven that forest land can be allocated to households. The experience gained in the pilot project provides a valuable basis for future rounds of FLA in Dak Lak.

Chapter 3

Chapter 4 develops recommendations at the policy and implementation le vel for overcoming experienced constraints and shortcomings. At the policy level, two measures require immediate attention :

� The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and the Department of Land Administration (DLA) need to find an agreement on the land measurement required in FLA. Coordination problems between the two departments are the major barrier for a suc cessful completion

Chapter 4

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1. Objectives and Process of the Consultancy

The following three larger objectives guided this consultancy:

� document forest land allocation (FLA) and participatory land use planning (PLUP), conducted with assistance by the SMRP in Dak Lak;

� conduct an initial assessment of FLA, including attention to the perceptions of the major stakeholders; and,

� discuss and propose options for future information exchange among the major stakeholders in FLA.

The Terms of Reference can be found in Appendix 1.

It is important to understand that the consultancy did NOT have the purpose to assess the potential contribution of FLA to sustainable rural development in Dak Lak. The link between FLA and sustainable rural development is, at this point, merely an assumption that motivates FLA.

This consultancy was invited to support the learning process around FLA in Dak Lak. The consultants worked closely with the SMRP staff to analyze the existing experience with FLA and develop feasible improvements for the year 2000. They conducted several half-day workshops with the project staff , to plan the work program, define the methodology used for the assessment, and discuss findings. The consultants met with the major stakeholders in FLA in order to understand their perceptions and concerns regarding FLA. They conducted presentations of their findings at the district and provincial level, which they also used to rank preferred means of information exchange in collaboration with decision-makers. Appendix 2 includes the work program of the consultants, Appendix 3 the names of the people met, and Appendix 4 a list of the issues and methods covered at the provincial, district, commune and village levels.

2. Documentation

This section provides brief overviews of FLA and PLUP conducted with technical assistance by the SMRP. FLA and PLUP are described in separate sections because the SMRP supported FLA in Ea Sol commune and PLUP in Dak Phoi commune. Each section presents brief chronologies of activities, describes the major stakeholders, and discusses the most important legal documents. FLA receives more attention than PLUP, for

of FLA . � Expanding the tasks of the district-level Steering Committee on Land

Allocation to include FLA will improve the coordination of related activities.

In addition, it is recommended to strengthen the Consultative Working Group as a mechanism of informal monitoring and evaluation, forum of discussion, and source of new approaches to FLA.

As for measures to improve the implementation of FLA, there is an urgent need to enhance the skills of the SFE staff and test method s for villagers' participation in the FLA process. Improving villagers' participation will help achieve other objectives of FLA, such as tenure security, equity, and transparency. In addition, the recommendations point out ways to increase the transparency of FLA and suggest several options for future information exchange .

As for the future role of the SMRP, it is recommended that the project staff focus on facilitating the dialogue among stakeholders, docum entation, monitoring and evaluation, and information dissemination . Training, direct technical advice, and the preparation of information products should be contracted out as much as possible.

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two reasons. First, the SMRP has documented and evaluated the latter in several reports. Second, the objective of the consultancy was to assess FLA. The reason to pay attention to PLUP in Dak Phoi was because the PLUP process in Ea Sol was very rudimentary and because the SMRP staff has gained important experience in Dak Phoi that may improve FLA.

2.1 Forest Land Allocation in Ea Sol Commune


The People's Committee (PC) of Dak Lak province initiated FLA in January 1998 (see Figure 1). Following the PC's decree, the Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) assigned a plan and budgetary resources for the allocation of 1,000 hectares to the State Forest Enterprise (SFE) in Ea H'Leo district. DPI also asked four other SFEs to prepare allocation of 1,000 hectares each. The goal was to allocate existing forest to households and give them land use right certificates (LURCs) for the land.

Ea H'Leo SFE prepared a proposal for FLA in May 1998. It discussed the proposal in meetings with the PC of Ea H'Leo district, the PC of Ea Sol commune, Buon Diet and Buon Kri villages, and the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). In addition to the meetings, the SFE used written questionnaires (in Vietnamese) to consult villagers about different options for allocation. In the course of the summer, DPI asked the SFE in Ea H'Leo to expand allocation to 2,000 hectares , as another SFE had indicated their lack of capacity to conduct FLA. The SFE decided to include two more villages, Buon Cham and Buon Taly.

The provincial policy of FLA changed in the course of the summer . Meeting objections by national policy-makers, the authorities of Dak Lak decided to refrain from allocation and only assign forest land to households through protection contracts. Protection contracts provide much more limited rights to households than LURCs, in particular they cannot be used as a collateral at the Bank for Agriculture.

Following the approval of the proposed FLA by the district PC and DARD, Ea H'Leo SFE conducted a detailed land use survey and forest inventory and demarcated forest land plots in the field . Field work took from October until December. The subsequent processing of data took another two months. By early March, the SFE had prepared a map of existing forest conditions, a land use planning map, and a detailed inventory of forest land plots. Later in the month, the SFE prepared the allocation of plots in the field, assigning specific plots to households which had expressed an interest in receiving land in the summer of 1998. The SFE finally submitted the FLA project to the provincial authorities for approval.

Figure 1: The FLA process in Ea Sol

Policy discussions revived in the spring and summer of 1999. The provincial authorities held repeated meetings on the parameters of FLA. Much of the discussion focused on the question of allocation (LURCs)

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versus assignment (protection contracts) and the benefit sharing agreement. The discussions included a workshop in Ea Sol commune with participation by the headmen of the four villages. The policy discussion was finally resolved in mid-September in favor of allocation, when the provincial PC approved the FLA project following an agreement between DPI, DARD and the Department of Land Administration (DLA).

The SFE in Ea H'Leo continued implementing FLA at the end of September. The delay in implementation forced the SFE staff to repeat the demarcation of forest land plots. They organized village meetings to ask villagers to confirm their interest in FLA under the new policy. 157 villagers signed up to receive forest land. In a subsequent meeting with the commune PC and three village headmen, the SFE selected the households to receive forest land. In separate meetings with the village headmen, they formed protection groups, each including between seven and eleven households with adjacent fields. At the time of the consultancy, the SFE staff was busy preparing forms and wooden signs for allocation in the field.

Ea H'Leo SFE is the only SFE in Dak Lak that is implementing FLA . The SFE in Lac district is close to begin implementation, all other SFEs have not made any progress.


Figure 2 depicts the institutional landscape of FLA in Ea Sol. At the provincial level , the People's Committee (PC) oversees the Department of Land Administration (DLA), the Forest Protection Department (FPD), the Department of Investment and Planning (DPI), and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). The mandates and actual roles of the different departments in FLA in Ea Sol were the following:

� DARD was designated as the main implementing agency for FLA. Within DARD, it is the Forest Development Division (FDD) that provides technical guidance for FLA. The FDD oversees 48 State Forest Enterprises (SFEs), over which it enjoys direct authority. Corresponding to its mandate, the FDD has been the most important actor in FLA. The FDD has drafted the policy proposals for FLA. With support by the SMRP, FDD has also provided direct technical assistance to the SFEs implementing FLA, for example by placing a technician in Ea H'Leo SFE.

� The DLA is in charge of land allocation . As land allocation has so far focused on agricultural land, DLA does not have any experience in FLA. The department has a center that conducts measurements, prepares current land use maps, and conducts land use planning. The DLA has participated in the discussion of FLA policy, but has not been involved in the implementation of FLA.

� The DPI assigns work plans and budgetary resources to the different technical departments, following the instructions by the provincial PC. It is involved in any decision that affects the work plans

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and financial management of the provincial authorities, thus exerting a strong influence on their operation. DPI has also demonstrated an active interest in the formulation of FLA policy . It has stayed out of implementation, besides its task to provide the required financial resources.

� The FPD is in charge of enforcing forest protection regulations . Its legal authority extends to forest under the jurisdiction of local authorities as well as under the control of SFEs. In practice, SFEs enforce forest protection rules on most forest land in Dak Lak. The FPD has played a marginal role in FLA so far.

� The PC oversees the different line departments. Its approval is required for policy decisions. Because of the pilot character of FLA, it has played a crucial role in initiating FLA and ensuring the cooperation among different line agencies .

The major stakeholders in Ea H'Leo district include the SFE, the PC, the Land Administration Office (LAO), the Agriculture and Rural Development Office (ARDO), and the Forest Protection Unit (FPU).

� The SFE is in charge of implementing FLA . It was established in 1992, when the Ea Sup Industrial Union was broken into several smaller enterprises. Since then, it has been under the direct authority of the FDD. Though it needs to coordinate its activities with the Ea H'Leo PC, it is quite independent of the district authorities, as it receives its funds out of the provincial budget. The SFE includes 25 staff members, including eleven college graduates and five technicians. Its human resources give the SFE the strongest implementation capacity at the district level. It concentrates on the planting of rubber trees and forest management/protection . In FLA, the SFE prepared the proposal and is the sole agency in charge of implementation.

� The LAO oversees land allocation and administration in Ea H'Leo district. The Office includes five staff members, four technicians with vocational training and one with a university degree. The LAO currently oversees agricultural land allocation, for which it receives significant support by the DLA. The provincial center conducts all field measurements, map preparation and land use planning. The LAO has not been involved in FLA but will need to issue the LURCs at the end.

� The mandate of the FPU is to enforce forest protection regulations in the district. As the Unit only includes 17 staff members, it does not have the capacity to enforce forest protection regulations outside the district center. For example, the forest protection officer in charge of Ea Sol commune also has to cover another commune. Most of the violations, mostly illegal trade, are detected in the district center. In addition, despite the legal authority of the FPU, the SFE is de facto in charge of law enforcement on SFE land . For example, the forest station in Ea Sol monitors the transport of timber on the road connecting the commune to the district center and has confiscated a lot of timber in the past. The FPU has not been involved in FLA .

� The ARDO oversees the district's programs in agriculture, forestry, and water resources development . The Office only includes five staff. It has established an Agricultural Extension Center, comprising three technicians. The Office and the Center do not have the capacity for forestry extension, which only exists at the SFE. ARDO has not been involved in FLA .

� The PC oversees the different offices and FPU. Its authority does not extend to the SFE , which is directly managed by DARD. It was consulted by the SFE on the FLA project.

The commune-level PC comprises a chairman, a vice-chairman and several other staff positions. It includes a Land Administration Officer and a Forestry Board. The Land Administration Officer has finished secondary education, but has not received any further training thereafter, works half-time only, and disposes of very basic facilities only. The Forestry Board , established in 1990, comprises the chairman of the PC, the heads of the local militia and law enforcement unit, and a forest protection officer from the FPU. Its activities include the organization of annual campaigns for fire prevention and tree planting. It has the authority to persecute violations against forest protection, but deals with a few cases only each year. Both the Land Administration Officer and Forestry Board have not been involved in FLA. The PC has been consulted by the SFE.

Table 1 provides a summary of the major stakeholders in FLA. It indicates that the DARD at the provincial level and SFE at the district level have been the main implementing units. All other agencies have played marginal roles only.

Table 1: Stakeholders in FLA by degree of involveme nt

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This brief overview has neglected stakeholders at the national level. In the past, national institutions have actively influenced FLA in Dak Lak. The visit by the previous Prime Minister to Dak Lak in 1997 provided the original impetus for the FLA initiative. Intervention by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(MARD) motivated a temporary return to forest protection contracts in 1998. The recent policy shift that allows the allocation of existing forest prepared the way for DARD in Dak Lak to proceed with FLA. Similarly, the DLA is currently citing technical guidelines issued by the General Department of Land Administration (GDLA), when holding up the issuance of LURCs.


National and provincial policies on FLA are currently being revised. Until earlier this year, FLA was basically guided by national legislation from 1994 and 1995. The policy did not allow the allocation of existing forest to households . Existing forest was to be allocated to state organizations, mainly SFEs, which would conclude protection contracts with households. In addition, forest land allocation had to follow similar procedures and meet similar standards of accuracy as the allocation of agricultural land.

Recent national legislation provides a new legal framework for FLA . The new policy allows the allocation of existing forest to households . It also provides specific guidelines for FLA which relax the previous requirements for procedures and levels of accuracy . In addition, the government has further lowered the requirements of land allocation in general to accelerate the allocation of the remaining land.

The change in national policy delayed FLA in Dak Lak in the past, as provincial intentions did not correspond with the previous policy (see 2.1.1). At this point, the new policy is too recent to assess how it will affect the ongoing FLA process in Dak Lak. The new policy was just promulgated during the consultancy or was only available in draft form. In general, it appears that the permission to allow existing forest to households and the relaxation of procedures will simplify FLA in Dak Lak .

Provincial policy documents largely follow the national legislation. Much effort has focused on SFE reform , as SFEs control a large part of the land in Dak Lak.

Appendix 5 includes an annotated list of the most important legal document s relevant to FLA in Dak Lak, including policy documents and provincial decisions guiding the implementation of FLA in Ea Sol commune.

2.2 Participatory Land Use Planning in Dak Phoi Com mune

The following paragraphs document the PLUP process in Dak Phoi commune. They heavily draw on the

Level Actors

Major Role Minor Role No Role

Provincial DARD DLA

DPI

PC

FPD

District SFE PC LAO

FPU

ARDO

Commune PC Land M. Office.

Forestry Board

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documents prepared by the SMRP project in Dak Lak as well as a brief summary report by Nguyen Trong Binh.


Efforts to conduct PLUP in Dak Phoi began in August 1997 (see Figure 3). Under guidance of DARD, the PC of Lac district established a Steering Committee and a Working Group . In the following months, the SMRP organized three training courses for the members of the working group. The members received instruction on the general methodology for PLUP, process monitoring and evaluation, and survey techniques for assessing land potential. The Working Group also assembled existing information about biophysical and socioeconomic conditions in Dak Phoi and prepared base maps.

Starting in December 1997, the Working Group surveyed existing land use and soil potential on all land below 700 meters above sea level. The survey was necessary because the level of accuracy of the existing map of forest conditions proved inadequate. By February 1998, the Working Group had finished the land survey and documented it in existing land use maps for the whole commune (scale 1:10,000) and individual villages (scale 1:5,000).

In March 1998, the Working Group conducted meetings with all villages . The meetings had the purpose to explain the goals and methods of PLUP to villager. The meetings also included the collection of sauce-economic data through PRA techniques. The PLUP process was put on hold in March, when a land measurement group began to prepare agricultural land allocation in the commune.

In July 1998, when the measurement of agricultural land had taken much more time than planned, the Working Group went ahead with village meetings to plan future land use . The village meetings were accompanied by meetings at the commune level. After their completion, the Working Group prepared the land use planning report , three land use planning maps , and a soil map , with direct support by the SMRP. The documents were finished by October, but not approved by the district PC until March 1999.

In sum, land use planning in Dak Phoi took almost two years until its final completion, though field activities were concentrated in a few months. Delays were due to several reasons, all related to coordination problems . First, the operation of the district-level Steering Committee and its guidance to the Working Group were very weak. Second, agricultural land allocation was implemented by the LAO independently of the PLUP process. Third, PLUP was largely implemented outside the regular work and budget of the different agencies involved.

Figure 3: The PLUP process in Dak Phoi

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The institutional landscape of PLUP in Dak Phoi is different from the one around FLA in Ea Sol (see Figure 4). First, with the exception of the SMRP located in DARD, provincial-level agencies have played a minor role in PLUP. DARD has been the sole provincial agency that has p layed a role in PLUP . DARD has initiated the PLUP process and provided technical and limited financial assistance throughout. In contrast, the DLA has not been directly involved in PLUP, despite its mandate to implement land use planning. The DLA has influenced PLUP indirectly , by conducting agricultural land allocation at the same time. Approval of the land use plan was required by the provincial PC at the end.

Second, the institutional set-up of PLUP at the district level was different from FLA. A Steering Committeewas in nominal charge of overseeing PLUP in Dak Phoi commune. It was headed by the Vice-Chairman of Lac district and included the heads of the LAO, Lac SFE, FPU, ARDO, the technical unit of the SFE, and the chairman of the PC in Dak Phoi commune. Experience shows, however, that the Steering Committee was very passive, leaving most of the initiative with DARD. In addition, the Steering Committee was not able to avoid continuing coordination problems , particularly with the LAO, which conducted land measurement under the guidance of the DLA.

Third, PLUP was implemented by a Working Group headed by the leader of the technical unit of Lac SFE. The Working Group over time included up to 24 members, from various district offices, the commune PC, the commune's Women's Union, and two or three village leaders. The members worked for the Group on a part-

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time basis only. In addition, the work required for PLUP had not be included in their annual work plans, making it difficult to find time for PLUP .

National-level agencies played a minor role. Their sole role was to approve the land use plan at the end, as the conversion of three or more hectares of forest to agricultural land requires statements by the GDLA, MARD and MPI and the approval by the Prime Minister's Office.


Corresponding with the institutional landscape, most legal documents specifically relevant to land use planning in Dak Phoi originated from the provincial and district levels . The documents complement more general guidelines on procedures for land use planning issued by the different line ministries at the central level. They include provincial guidelines on priorities in production and land use planning and master plans for socioeconomic development in Lac district and Dak Phoi commune. Appendix 5 provides an annotated list of the major legal documents.

3. Assessment

This section assesses FLA in Ea Sol commune. Because FLA is not finished and due to the brief duration of the consultancy, the nature of the assessment is very preliminary. Yet it is hoped to provide a framework for more thorough assessments in the future.

The section begins with a definition of seven objectives in FLA. It then proceeds to assess the FLA process in Ea Sol commune according to the seven objectives. The findings of the assessment are summarized in 3.9, with particular attention to the question whether observed shortcoming should be resolved at the policy or implementation level.

3.1 Objectives of Forest Land Allocation

During the first three days of the assignment, the consultants discussed the objectives of FLA in Ea Sol commune with the project staff and provincial decision-makers. The discussions yielded the following objectives for the results and process of FLA (see Figure 5).

FLA aims to produce:

� secure land and tree tenure : forest plots are assigned to households in an unambiguous way (no

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land conflicts); households' rights to land and trees are recognized by other people and can be enforced against encroachment;

� an equitable distribution of forest land : villagers receive forest land plots according to clearly defined and widely accepted criteria; there are no major differences in forest land holdings among different groups (rich/poor, men/women, Kinh/Gig Rai, different clans); and,

� records for future land and forest management, meeting the requirements of the DLA and FPD.

The ideal FLA process is:

� transparent : all institutions and villagers involved in forest land allocation understand the policy guidelines and implementation process clearly;

� participatory : villagers participate in the process; they play an active role in distributing the forest land;

� coordinated among the relevant agencies at the commune, district and provincial levels; and,

� affordable : allocation does not demand staff and financial resources that exceed the capacity of the implementing institution.

3.2 Secure Land and Tree Tenure

Boundaries between household plots:

FLA in Ea Sol took place in two fundamentally different contexts . In Buon Diet , villagers have worked permanent agricultural fields for the past 15 years. They have gained control over land with high soil fertility and access to water that allows the cultivation of coffee, pepper, corn and peanuts for sale. Villagers also conclude contracts with the rubber company, under which they care for the company's rubber trees in return for cash payments. And they have sufficient opportunities to hire their labor out to other households near the village. In sum, villagers enjoy access to relatively profitable income-generating opportunities. Their income allows them to purchase food, making food subsistence a minor concern in production.

In Buon Cham , villagers continue to practice shifting cultivation. Land that allows the cultivation of cash crops is limited to a small stretch along the river. In addition, villagers do not have access to employment outside their own farm, as the village is located in a remote area of Ea Sol commune. Cultivation practices in the village are therefore centered around food production , mainly upland rice and corn. Due to rapidly deteriorating soil fertility, households shift their fields to new locations every or every other year.

The implications for existing land tenure and FLA are vastly different. In Buon Diet , villagers have not used the forest land for cultivation for a long time, because it is considered of minor soil quality. The consultants did not detect any strong claims to use the forest land for cultivation . Also, the hill top protected by the village does not lie in the area to be allocated. Therefore, there is no indication that FLA will collide with existing land rights.

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In Buon Cham , villagers hold use rights for land to be allocated. Many households have worked agricultural fields on patches of the forest land in the past. They continue to keep the right to open up those same patches again in the future, a practice tolerated by the SFE in the past as long as households kept to the land already worked in the past. Therefore, there are very clear and widely recognized rules in the village which allow households to maintain control over certain patches of forest land for future use in cultivation.

The SFE attempted to accommodate the use of forest land for cultivation in Buon Cham. During the land use survey conducted at the end of 1998 and beginning of 1999, the SFE staff marked the fields worked in 1998 as agricultural land on the map describing existing forest conditions. The SFE's plan for FLA proposes to re-classify most of the land used for cultivation in 1998 as agricultural land. The SFE also intends to give the land with those fields to their respective users in the village. There appear only a few cases, where the SFE asked some households to abandon agricultural fields permanently, either to allocate a coherent plot of forest land to another household or to plant trees on land considered important for watershed protection.

The SFE did not consider that villagers may have use rights for fallow land . They did not take down the names of households who hold cultivation rights to patches of the land to be allocated. They only zoned part of the fallow land as agricultural land for future purposes. Also, they do not intend to allocate fallow land to the villagers who currently have the right to use the land. As villagers rotate their plots every or every other year, the mismatch between village land tenure and FLA is becoming evident already this year . We saw a field that one household had opened up again this year, but was located on land to be allocated to another household. The field was not included in the map, which appeared accurate otherwise. The SFE staff explained to us that they had not considered the field because it had been "barren land" when they conducted the land use survey.

In sum, the comparison of Buon Diet and Buon Cham indicates that FLA has to cope with fundamentally different conditions. FLA can be expected to yield clear boundaries between household plots in Buon Diet. In Buon Cham, FLA does not accurately reflect existing village rules on land use. The mismatch between FLA and village rules may lead to a discrepancy between formal land records and actual tenure in the village, as villagers can be expected to solve problems of overlapping land tenure among each other. The mismatch may lead to land conflicts if the new owners of forest land plots try to keep out other households which have previously held cultivation rights for land located on the forest land plot.

Local people and outsiders:

It is important to point out that there is no cultivation pressure on forest land originating from migrants . Ea Sol experiences very little in-migration, in stark contrast to many villages in Dak Lak, where illegal forest clearing for cash crop cultivation by migrants poses a major problem. Local conditions in Ea Sol commune supported a FLA process that gives priority to local people. This is of advantage at this point, as it facilitates a learning experience in FLA under easier conditions. The special conditions in Ea Sol, however, do not allow any conclusions about the effects of FLA in villages with migration pressure. The reports on PLUP in Dak Phoi suggest that the pressure exerted by migrants and the problem of land sales may be much more acute there.

In contrast to land, outsiders put pressure on the trees to be allocated to households in Ea Sol. Most of the illegal logging appears to be undertaken by recent migrants from outside the four villages. This poses the question how villagers and the state can enforce tree tenure in the future. Many elements are in place for an effective enforcement of tree tenure. The SFE staff is preparing a clear demarcation of forest land plots, by posting signs with the owner's name and issuing IDs to forest land holders. It has asked households to form protection groups and is currently preparing identity cards that households can use to prove their ownership of allocated plots. The Forest Protection Unit is developing village protection rules. There is a commune forestry board, and the SFE's forest stations monitors the transportation of logs along the only access road. Yet it is not clear how the different institutions will work together to enforce households' rights over the trees allocated to them.

Women versus men:

Women make the major decisions about land among the Gig-Rai (Junker 1999). In contrast, men's names will be entered in the Forest Management Contracts and Land Use Certificates . This stems partially from the fact that men take care of most affairs between the household and outsiders. Also, Kinh officials carry the assumption that men are, or should be, the household heads. The question is if the discrepancy between actual land rights and their formalization in FLA will affect land and tree tenure security in the future. It may if a husband can take advantage of his name in the legal documents to make decisions against the will of his wife, for example in the case of divorce. Yet the discrepancy may not matter as well. For example, it was pointed out to us that land sales require the signatures of both husband and wife.

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Lessons learned: secure land and tree tenure

� It is relatively easy for FLA to support secure forest land tenure in villages where there is no cultivation pressure on forest land.

� Re-classifying forest land as agricultural land helps reduce the conflict between legal classification and actual use.

� It is difficult to match FLA with existing rules on the use of forest land in villages, where people work agricultural fields on forest land.

� Even when FLA matches existing rules in the village, outsiders may not respect forest land owner's legal rights.

� Including only men's names in legal documents conflicts with village rules, which designate women as primary land owners.

3.3 Equity

Distribution of forest land among villages:

The SFE selected the four villages on basis of their close location to the forest parcels to be allocated. In a next step, the SFE met with the commune PC and four village headmen to distribute the land among the four villages. They divided the land on the basis of geographical proximity and the existing division of forest land in parcels and sub-parcels. As a result, the portion of households which will receive forest land differs among the four villages (see Figure 6). Correspondingly, the villages will receive different forest land areas and timber volumes.

Factors determining a household's ability to receiv e forest land:

FLA will benefit households in Ea Sol differently. Most importantly, less than one third of all households will receive forest land. The SFE proposes allocation to only 108 out of a total of 361 households, mostly because the division of forest land into plots only yielded enough plots for ten commune officials and 108 other households. The division was undertaken on the basis of technical criteria, mainly area, topography and vegetation cover. Yet the 108 plots to be allocated to households fall short of meeting the demand of the around 150 households that indicated interest in 1998 and 1999. In response, the SFE told villagers that they would be considered when further parcels will be allocated in the future.

A preliminary comparison of households with and without forest land suggests that three factors influenced a household's ability to be allocated forest land. First, households including a commune official were more likely to receive land. Out of 13 commune officials, ten were allocated forest land (77 per cent, in comparison with 30 per cent for other households). SFE staff justified the large representation of commune officials by pointing out that the commune officials had to set a good example for other households to follow. Second, there is some evidence that households with close relations to the village head men were more likely to

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receive forest land. Both factors demonstrate the functioning of information exchange between the SFE staff, on the one side, and the commune PC and villages, on the other. Some households were in a better position to be informed about new opportunities and take advantage of them . Third, household labor capacity was intentionally used to differentiate household access to forest land. Households were required to have a least two main laborers to be eligible for forest land. This rule excluded elderly households and those with sick members from allocation. Finally, there was no indication that well-off households were more likely to receive forest land than poor households, or vice-versa. The shares of households which were allocated forest land were very similar among different economic groups .

Women versus men:

The SFE and LAO plan to use the husband's name only in the forest management contracts and land use right certificates. It is an open question how FLA will affect the distribution of land rights within households . FLA may increase men's influence on household decision-making, if men will actually make the major decisions about the use of the allocated land and forest. FLA may also bolster women's control over land, if they can extend their existing role for agricultural land and house plots to forest land.

The distribution of forest land and resources among households with land:

The distribution of forest land and timber volume is relatively equal among the households which will be allocated forest land plots (see Figures 7 and 8). Land areas and timber volumes are centered around the mean, and there are no households that hold either extremely large or small areas or timber volumes. In addition, the average land area and timber volume is very similar for households with a commune official and households without one. Also, we did not find any evidence that households in different economic conditions

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receive different land areas or timber volumes.

Lessons learned: equity

� FLA easily benefits some households more than others, in particular those with good access to information.

� The rigid application of technical criteria can limit the number of forest land plots, thus excluding households from receiving land.

� Good judgment by the SFE staff can prevent major inequalities in forest land plots among those households which will receive land.

� FLA can change the distribution of control over land within the household.

3.4 Records for Land and Forest Management System

FLA also has the purpose to generate the records required for the future management of land and forest. This requires the transfer of records compiled by the SFE in the process of FLA to other offices and households (see Figure 9). The FLA records have to fulfill several purposes. First, they provide the basis for future land administration , overseen by the district's LAO. Second, they help the district's FPU and SFE in the enforcement of the forest protection law . And third, they are a crucial input in production planning , carried out by households with assistance by a district-level forestry extension unit (which is yet to be established) and the SFE.

There is an obvious mismatch between the data generated by the SFE and the data required for land administration, forest protection, and forest manag ement . The SFE conducted a relatively detailed forest inventory, measuring forest resources on more than 600 sample plots of 1,000 m² each. The measurements yielded detailed information on forest type, tree density, and tree diameters, which the SFE staff used to prepare a map of current forest conditions and files for each plot to be allocated. The SFE staff also determined the size of forest land plots by mapping them and determining their size on the map. They measured land to be allocated as agricultural land with tape measures, which increased the accurateness of the measurements.

The mismatch between the prepared records and requireme nts for future land administration has been recognized by DARD and the SFE, on the one side, and the DLA and LAO, on the other. The mismatch centers around two issues. First, the DLA only recognizes a land survey that uses measurements by theodolite. As DARD points out, the tree density and topography prohibit its use in the forest. Second, the DLA requires plot maps and land use maps with a much higher accuracy than the ones prepared by the SFE. The DLA basically requires the level of accuracy applied in the allocation of agricultural land to the allocation of forest land. It has announced that it will perform a random check of the measurements conducted by the SFE. If the measurements turn out accurate enough, the DLA will accept them. If not, the DLA will re-measure all forest land plots.

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DARD has also recognized that FLA has produced much more detailed data than neces sary for the enforcement of forest protection and production pla nning . Though there has not been any discussion with the FPD, data on the size of forest land plots appear sufficient for the requirements of forest protection. The FPU does not need to have detailed information on the timber volume or forest quality. Approximate visual estimates of forest quality, based on the common Vietnamese categories (Ib, IIa, IIIb, etc.), are sufficient.

DARD also admits that the existing data are not needed for future production planning. Households will not be able to make use of the data. And for the purpose of benefit sharing, it will be sufficient to determine the timber volume at the time of harvest. This is an advantage of the benefit-sharing agreement provided by the proposed provincial policy.

Lessons learned: records for land and forest manage ment

� FLA requires attention to the future uses of forest land records: land administration, forest protection, and production planning.

� The requirements for land measurement issued by the GDLA are very difficult to achieve for land with existing forest. The measurement problem deserves priority attention by provincial decision-makers .

� FLA needs to produce very simple data on forest quality only to satisfy the demands of forest protection and production planning.

3.5 Transparency

The transparency of FLA differs between the provincial FLA policy and the implementation process (see Figure 10). Provincial government staff demonstrated a clear understanding of the FLA policy, within DARD and the other relevant line departments. The policy was also clear to the district PC, includes the relevant offices, and the commune PC, including the guidelines on benefit-sharing. The policy was generally not understood in the villages , however. While village headmen grasped the major policy provisions (allocation with Red Book, benefit sharing), other villagers possessed only a vague notion of the FLA policy.

The implementation process was much less transparen t, at all levels . Villagers had no way to understand how the FLA policy was implemented, as they were only rarely and sporadically contacted by the SFE staff. Commune officials and district staff similarly possessed little knowledge of the implementation process, though their work was very related sometimes (e.g. agricultural land allocation conducted by the LAO).

There was a better understanding at the provincial level, mainly in DARD, which has assisted the SFE in implementing FLA. Yet even the provincial staff that was most closely associated with FLA did not know the exact steps that the SFE had undertaken for implementation.

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Lessons learned: transparency

� Government staff has achieved a clear understanding of the FLA policy.

� Virtually nobody outside the SFE understands the implementation process of FLA.

� Villagers lack information about the FLA policy and implementation process.

3.6 Participation of Villagers

Villagers' participation in FLA has been very limited. Villagers participated in FLA in the following ways:

� the village headmen of Buon Diet and Buon Kri participated in a meeting at the district level in July 1998, which discussed the proposal for FLA;

� village meetings in Buon Diet and Kri in July 1998, attended by around one half of all households; the SFE staff informed villagers about the FLA policy and asked them to express their interest in receiving forest land;

� a questionnaire in August 1998, in which the SFE asked villagers in Buon Diet and Buon Kri to voice their opinions about certain parameters of FLA, such as applicable tax rates, benefit sharing between state and households, and the size of forest land plots; the questionnaire was left with the village headmen and collected a week later; 89 out of 94 forms were returned;

� village headmen participated in a meeting at the commune PC in July 1999, in which government officials from the provincial, district and commune level discussed the FLA policy with them;

� village meetings in October 1999: the SFE announced the updated policy provisions and asked villagers to sign up for FLA under the new conditions;

� the village headmen of Buon Taly, Kri and Diet participated in a meeting at the commune PC in November 1999, in which SFE staff, commune officials and village headmen selected the 118 households to receive forest land from a total of 157 which had applied; and,

� meetings with village headmen in November, in which the SFE staff asked village headmen to help organize forest protection groups among the households which will receive forest land plots.

This brief overview indicates that villagers' participation in the FLA process was lim ited to their information about the policy and individual decisions to apply for forest land or not. Though the SFE attempted to consult villagers on the parameters of FLA in August 1998, all issues on which villagers were consulted were finally decided at the provincial level. Similarly, though provincial policy-makers intended to consult villagers in July 1999 about the question of allocation versus contract, the meeting minutes demonstrate that government officials shaped the meeting and its main outcome, the decision to allocate forest land.

The limited participation of villagers stems from a lack of knowledge about participatory methods , among other factors. The SFE staff used three methods to work with villagers: meetings with village headmen, village meetings, and a questionnaire. The questionnaire appears highly unsuitable, considering that it was written in Vietnamese, administered by village headmen, and asked villagers about policy parameters which villagers did either not understand or were unlikely to have a clear opinion about. Meetings with the village headmenmay be suitable for certain purposes, though SFE staff may not involve them fully in decision-making. The SFE staff tends to invite participation with the sole purposes of obtaining quick information on local conditions, recruiting households, or providing the required legitimization for the SFE project. In addition, it is unclear to which degree village headmen represent the interests of all villagers. Finally, the village meetings appeared a suitable mean to inform people about FLA at certain times. Yet they were not used to consult villagers or involve them in decision-making.

As a result, villagers did not participate in the planning or implementation of FLA, they were not effectively consulted, and they did not make any decisions. All the major decisions on implementation were made by the SFE , which at times consulted the commune PC and village headmen as villagers' representatives. The

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SFE decided the forest parcels to be allocated and the villages eligible to receive them. In consultation with commune PC and village headmen, the SFE divided the forest land among the four villages. The SFE also determined the number of forest land plots available and assigned specific plots to households. SFE, commune PC, and, to a lesser degree, the village headman performed the final selection of households to receive forest land. In addition, the village meetings, the only opportunity to participate, were attended by men only, no women.

Lessons learned: participation of villagers

� The SFE staff faces difficulties to involve villagers in FLA.

� Villagers' participation was lacking because there were few opportunities for them to take part in FLA.

� Efforts by the SFE staff to invite villagers' participation focused on headmen. The SFE staff lacks knowledge of techniques to facilitate more diverse forms of part icipation .

� The lack of villagers' participation endangers other ob jectives of FLA . It leads to a lack of understanding among villagers for the FLA policy and its implementation (see 3.5), underlies the tension between the existing village rules and FLA (see 3.2), and contributes to inequity (see 3.3).

3.7 Coordination Among Relevant Agencies

FLA involves many government agencies at the provincial, district and commune levels (see Figure 11). The coordination of their activities is required to smooth the process of FLA and ensure the suitability of its records for future land and forest management.

The lack of coordination between DARD and DLA was discussed in Section 3.4 already. Different opinions about the accuracy required from land measurement are currently holding up the issuance of LURCs. Experience from the past demonstrates that disagreements between different line departments ca n endure for prolonged periods , without any movement on either side. They often require intervention by the PC for their resolution. Also, technical issues are sometimes used as an argument to demand a higher participation in decision-making and implementation, backed up by a higher budget allocation.

The provincial Consultative Working Group (CWG), established with assistance by the SMRP, is not the adequate institutional mechanism to resolve coordination problems among the line departments. The CWG has gained some importance as a forum of informal discussion . Its core group includes members from DARD (FDD), Tay Nguyen College 's, and provincial Gardeners' Association. DLA staff has not participated in meetings organized by the CWG.

At the district level, the LAO, FPU, and SFE are currently implementing three activities that are closely related (see Figure 11). The LAO is overseeing agricultural land allocation , conducted by a provincial cadastral team. The Office expects to issue LURCs in Ea Sol commune in June 2000. The FPU is starting up a program to assist villages in developing forest protection rules . It chose Buon Taly as a pilot site for the program. Finally, the SFE is implementing FLA.

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There is no coordination among the three activities, though all three attempt to increase the security of land and tree tenure in Ea Sol . The PC of Ea H'Leo district has established a Steering Committee to guide agricultural land allocation. The Committee includes the relevant agencies (LAO, ARDO, Planning Office, etc.), but it does not include the SFE and FPU. In addition, informal coordination does not appear to substitute for a formal coordinating body. Though the district PC is aware of the ongoing FLA and the policy guiding it, it is not informed about concrete activities in FLA and lacks a feeling of ownership of the FLA project.

Lessons learned: coordination among relevant agenci es

� FLA requires coordination among agencies at the provincial and district level.

� Coordination is difficult to achieve at the provincial level as line departments operate relatively independent from each other. Coordination of their operations may require active guidance by the PC .

� A mechanism of coordination is lacking at the district level, though different agencies are implementing related programs. This can easily lead to the duplication of efforts (e.g., issuing LURCs twice).

3.8 Affordability

The allocation of the first 2,000 hectares of forest land in Ea Sol commune has already taken close to two years and cannot be expected to be finished until the second quarter of 2000 (see Figure 1). The following factors have caused delays in implementation:

� a slow start in 1998: the SFE took four months until it began to discuss the project proposal with the different stakeholders; the SFE staff explained that the delay happened because they were busy with other activities; the lack of experience with FLA may also have prolonged the start-up phase; the discussions with the different stakeholders took another three months;

� the land use survey, forest inventory, and demarcation of forest land plots from October 1998 to February 1999: data collection in the field and their subsequent processing took five months, largely due to the detailed inventory method applied by the SFE; and,

� extended policy discussions between March and September 1999: discussion of FLA policy at different levels took six months until they were terminated through the decision by the provincial People's Committee; the delay required a re-demarcation of plots in October 1999, as the old markers were vanishing.

The brief overview indicates that the prolonged duration of FLA in Ea Sol was to a large part due to the pilot character of the project . Discussions during the preparation of the project proposal in 1998 and again in 1999 covered many issues that are resolved by now and will not be discussed any more in the next rounds of FLA. In addition, the overview shows that the land use survey, forest inventory, and plot demarca tion took a long time . This is a technical issue that will re-appear in future FLA unless the procedures are

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changed.

A preliminary assessment of the use of staff resources in FLA in Ea Sol also indicates that the land use survey, forest inventory, and plot demarcation put high demands on the SFE staff . The three activities demanded around 400 labor days in the last quarter of 1998, occupying between six and eight technicians for three months. The subsequent processing of data in the office required at least another 200 labor days. The re-demarcation of plots in October 1999 took another 160 labor days. The staff resources used for other activities in FLA appear very small in comparison. For example, the SFE estimates that the preparation of the land allocation documents including plot maps only takes 35 labor days.

Comparison with other FLA projects indicates that the overall costs in Ea Sol are reasonable. The budget allocated to the SFE for allocation was VND 120 million or around VND 60,000/hectare . The budget exceeds the cost of land allocation in the SFDP Song Da wat ershed , which is around VND 20,000/hectare (SFDP 1997). However, most forest land in the Song Da watershed is not allocated through LURCs, but only contracted out under protection contracts. On the other hand, the costs of FLA in Ea Sol are below the costs of FLA in the KfW-financed afforestation project in Ha Bac/Lang Son , which produced measurement acceptable to the GDLA and gave households Red Books. Most importantly, both projects have allocated barren land only , which makes land measurement much easier from a technical perspective.

The consultants were not able to obtain more detailed data on how the overall budget for FLA was spent by the SFE in Ea H'Leo. In general, it appears that a large part of overall costs is due to the high de mands on staff resources . The SFE did not use any expensive equipment or inputs. In addition, DARD supported the use of a scanner to multiply colored plot maps.

Lessons learned: affordability

� FLA has taken long time, caused by delays due to institutional and technical issues.

� Most institutional issues were due to the pilot character of FLA and have been resolved by now.

� Land use survey, forest inventory, and plot demarcation are highly time consuming.

� The costs of FLA lie in the range of other FLA projects.

3.9 Summary and Perceptions by Major Stakeholders

Table 2 summarizes the issues identified through the assessment of FLA in the previous sections. The table differentiates the issues by the level at which they will require attention. Some issues will be best dealt with at the implementation level , leaving some degree of flexibility to the SFE for adapting general policy guidelines to local conditions. Other issues will require attention at the policy l evel , as they have arisen due to existing policy guidelines. The table also includes some issues that may be dealt with at the policy or implementation level. They are marked by question marks.

Table 2: Issues in FLA at policy and implementation levels

Policy Level Implementation Level

Tenure Security � women? � outsiders?

� potential for conflicts among households

Equity � women? � differences among households � differences among villages

Data for Future Management

� boundary measurement � forest inventory for legal

enforcement and production planning

Transparency � lack of guidelines? � Lack of reporting � Lack of suitable means for

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The issues which are currently receiving the largest attention by provincial authorities are the lack of coordination between the DARD and the DLA and the prolonged duration of the FLA process. The DPI is not concerned about the costs of FLA at this pilot stage. Tenure security and equity aspects receive little attention. Most provincial government staff assumes tenure security to be identical with the issuance of LURCs. Equity is not a concern because the households which have been left out in this round of allocation are expected to receive land in following rounds.

The district PC pays much attention to the lack of coordination between its activities and the FLA project. Just with the provincial level, the LAO emphasizes the need for FLA to yield data that meet its requirements. The FPU points at the need to coordinate the enforcement of forest protection regulations with the SFE, commune's forestry board, and households in the future. In addition, the district authorities note the insufficient information given to villagers , as well as their lack of participation in FLA. Other issues appear of minor concern.

The commune PC emphasizes the gap between FLA and existing village rules on land tenure. The PC felt sufficiently informed about FLA. The officials pointed out that it took villagers a while to understand the FLA policy, and that their interest in receiving forest land increased over time. Yet the households to be included in FLA were decided at a very early stage, at a time when few households had understood the policy.

Villagers finally expressed a clear lack of understanding of the FLA policy and its imp lementation . Also, there are many households which would like to receive forest land but were not included in allocation.

4. Recommendations

4.1 The Role of the Project

The SMRP has played an important role in FLA in Dak Lak. The SMRP has provided crucial technical assistance to promote FLA at the policy and impleme ntation level . Most project activities have focused on the policy discussion at the provincial level. But the SMRP has also provided practical assistance to the implementation of FLA by Ea H'Leo and Lac SFEs. In addition, the project staff has played an important role in documenting the FLA process, through the preparation of background documents and the collection of relevant legal documents. The staff further improved the coordination among stakeholders and transparency of FLA by facilitating workshops including government agencies at the commune, district and provincial levels. The CWG was established with the explicit purpose of supporting FLA.

It is recommended that the project continues to facilitate the learning process around FLA. Yet in contrast to the past focus on the policy level, the attention of the project needs to shift more to the implementation level . After most policy issues have been resolved, efforts should concentrate on improving FLA implementation. The SMRP can provide crucial technical assistance to the next rounds of FLA. Such assistance will include facilitating training, access to outside expertise, and the exchange of experiences among the involved SFEs, as well as documentation and monitoring and evaluation.

Because of the limited size of the SMRP staff in Dak Lak, the project is encouraged to contract out as many support services as possible, particularly training, direct technical advise, and the preparation of information products. Continuing the collaboration with the SFDP Song Da will be a suitable strategy to provide technical expertise to FLA in Dak Lak in the future. Such more durable collaboration is easier from a logistical perspective and promises coherent input into the FLA process in Dak Lak. Also, the SFDP's experience with

information dissemination

Participation � lack of guidelines? � Limited possibilities to participate in FLA � Participation limited to headmen and men

Coordination � DARD-DLA � district level

Affordability � forest inventory � allocate to villages?

� Lack of experience � Lack of technical guidelines

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field-level implementation of FLA makes the project an ideal partner for the SMRP in Dak Lak. Vietnamese staff of the SFDP could satisfy most training and advisory needs in Dak Lak.

During the coming year, the SMRP staff should focus on the following core t asks :

� facilitating the dialogue among different stakeholders,

� documentation,

� monitoring and evaluation, and

� information dissemination.

These core tasks cannot be delivered by outside expertise.

The lack of established procedures for FLA advises against scaling-up current FLA activities. It is recommended that the SMRP accompanies another round of FLA on a smal l scale , including the SFEs in Ea H'Leo and Lac only. Also, the SFEs may select forest land for allocation where only a small share is used for cultivation. The reasons for a gradual approach are multiple. First, some policy issues still need to be resolved, as indicated in Table 2. Also, the provincial authorities will need to check the compatibility of their guidelines with the new national legislation on FLA that is being promulgated now. Second, the experience with PLUP in Dak Phoi needs to be integrated into the FLA process. The SMRP has gained experience with specific elements of PLUP in Dak Phoi , such as participatory planning methods, PRAs, 3D land use models, soil evaluation, and village land use planning exercises, which will be highly valuable if integrated into the FLA process . Third, FLA is still in an early stage in all SFEs but Ea H'Leo. Besides Ea H'Leo SFE, only Lac SFE can be expected to have the capacity to implement FLA. The key objective in the coming year should therefore be to assist, document, and analyze procedures for FLA in Ea H'Leo and Lac SFEs ,which then can provide guidance for FLA in other SFEs in the future.

In addition, the SMRP may initiate some activities to strengthen the institutional framework for the management of land and forest after FLA . The institutional framework will have to fulfill three functions. First, households with forest land will require assistance in production planning and techniques. They may also need initial support in the marketing of forest products. Second, the tasks and functions of households, forest protection groups, village forest protection regulations, commune Forestry Board, SFE and FPU in the enforcement of forest protection regulations need to be clarified. Third, the land management system needs to be improved, including the storage of FLA records and training of the commune-level land management officer.

4.2 Recommendations at the Policy Level

P1. Establish a working group on land measurement , including technical staff from the DARD and the DLA. The working group has the object to find an agreement about the level of accuracy and method required in forest land measurement. A second objective is to develop an approach through which land measurement is integrated into the overall FLA process. The working group will achieve these objectives best through close cooperation with Ea H'Leo SFE in the next round of allocation. Pre-condition for successful cooperation will be the commitment by the DARD and DLA to resolve the probl em within a certain time frame , possibly backed up by a suitable instruction of the provincial PC.

The working group will also need to consider the data requirements for production planning and the enforcement of forest protection regulations. For the latter, it will need to consult the FPD. The working group will profit from a study tour to related projects and a workshop with the respective national-level agencies to coordinate their efforts with national guidelines.

P2. Expand the functions of existing district-level Ste ering Committee on Land Allocation . The Steering Committee should include the SFE and FPU and integrate the supervision of FLA among its tasks. The Steering Committee will participate in the planning of future rounds of FLA. It will play an important role in monitoring the activities and progress of FLA and actively participate in future evaluations of FLA. The Steering Committee will require limited technical assistance and financial support by the SMRP, which appears adequate considering the pilot character of current FLA. Funding should come from the government budget in later rounds of FLA.

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P3. Strengthen the Consultative Working Group at the provincial level. The CWG should play an important role as a forum of discussion at the provincial level and an institution that monitors and evaluates the experiences with FLA on an informal basis. During the coming year, the CWG should use repeated field tripsto relate experiences with FLA to the policy discus sion . It should discuss the question to which degree certain elements of FLA, such as participation, monitoring and information dissemination, should be regulated by provincial guidelines or left to implementation (see P4). In the future, the CWG will be a suitable forum to prepare, monitor and evaluate slight variations in FLA, such allocation to whole villages or recent migrants.

To become more effective, the CWG will need to meet at a regular basis and become more independent from the actual implementation process. Its purpose is to facilitate the policy discussion, not to provide technical assistance to the implementation of FLA. To achieve these objectives, the CWG will require substantial assistance at the beginning . An external consultant with experience in the functioning of working groups will help to improve the organization, Terms of Reference, and work program of the CWG.

P4. Develop a proposal for provincial guidelines on FLA that include specific requirements for the participation of villagers, monitoring, and informa tion dissemination . For example, provincial guidelines could specify that SFEs need to submit brief quarterly reports to DARD and the district-level Steering Committees (see also I6). Such provisions will be important to guide the implementation of FLA throughout the province. Most importantly, budget allocations by the DPI should include specific budget items for these three types of activities. Technical assistance to the drafting of appropriate policy guidelines can be provided by SMRP staff. The CWG will play an important role in early stages to coordinate the interests of provincial PC, DARD, DPI, and district PC.

P5. In the long term , the SMRP should continue to provide technical assistance for an innovative approach to FLA . The SMRP can serve as a channel of new ideas into the FLA process, encouraging experiments with alternative approaches to FLA. Such alternative approaches that should be explored eventually include the allocation of forest land to whole villages, allocation to recent migrants, and the inclusion of both husband's and wife's names in the LURCs. These alternative approaches, though not considered feasible at this time, may become more attractive in the future. For example, allocating forest land to whole villages may look more attractive in the future, after allocation to households has been found too time-consuming. The CWG will serve as an appropriate forum to explore new approaches on an informal basis. Study tours to related projects will provide new ideas.

4.3 Recommendations at the Implementation Level

I1. Provide short-term PRA training for SFE staff and develop technical guidelines for village PRA exercises. The capacity to begin FLA with village PRAs will improve the FLA process in two ways:

1. help SFE staff distinguish between villages in which people cultivate forest land and have existing rules for forest land use and villages without cultivation pressure on forest land; FLA can follow a simple approach in the latter, but needs a more sophisticated and participatory process in the former villages;

2. collect information on local conditions as an input into land use planning; and, 3. improve the information of villagers about FLA.

The SMRP could employ an external consultant to provide training for the two SFEs and compile the technical guidelines. As an alternative, the SMRP staff could draw on its PRA experience in Lac district.

I2. Provide short-term training on PLUP for SFE staff and develop technical guidelines for PLUP . Strengthening capacity for PLUP at the two SFEs would yield the following benefits:

1. reduce the mismatch between legal land classification and actual land use;

2. direct the expansion of cultivation, considering state and villagers' goals; and,

3. improve villagers' understanding of state goals and land use plans. The SMRP staff is currently preparing a manual on PLUP, drawing on its experience in Dak Phoi and documents from other projects. The staff should focus its efforts on preparing a set of brief technical notes on concrete activities in PLUP , such as the preparation of 3D-models, organization of village meetings, preparation of base maps, etc. It should not produce a complete process of PLUP that does not include FLA. An external consultant could support the SMRP staff in preparing the notes and

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providing training for SFE staff.

I3. Train two DARD staff members as participation speci alists . Training DARD staff appears more suitable than in-depth training for SFE staff, considering the large number of SFEs in Dak Lak and the limited areas that will be allocated to households in each SFE. It is common practice that provincial government staff provides technical assistance to SFEs in the implementation of their activities. The objective of the in-depth training would be to generate awareness for the motivation and ideas underlying participatory approaches, as well as providing training on concrete methods. The training could combine placement in a project that follows established participatory procedures in combination with class-room instruction.

I4.Provide direct technical support to FLA planning in the two involved SFEs. The technical support will be necessary to design a FLA process that builds upon existing land use and village tenure. It will focus on planning the steps of FLA and integrate PLUP into FLA. Such process of FLA could follow the steps developed by the SFDP Song Da: preparation and collection of basic information, consultation of villagers, mapping of existing land use and forest conditions, PLUP, allocation in the field, and processing of legal documents. The technical support will help the involved SFEs plan the overall process and be complementary to training and the preparation of technical notes on small elements in FLA. The support may be best delivered in a planning workshop at the beginning of 2000, including a resource person with experience in FLA. SMRP staff could follow up on the workshop through concrete guidance on the FLA proposals to be submitted to the relevant authorities.

I5. Set up a FLA working group at the commune level , including SFE staff, the Land Administration officer, a member of the forestry board and key villagers. The working group would be in charge of FLA implementation. While specific technical activities, such as the forest inventory, could be undertaken by the SFE staff only, other activities, such as the land use survey, would benefit from the participation of "local experts". For example, the "local experts" would be able to differentiate truly barren land from fallow land, an important input into PLUP. In addition, it would increase the transparency of the FLA process to villagers, in particular the language problem between Kinh staff and ethnic minority villagers. The working group would work under the overall guidance of the SFE, which remains in charge of implementation. It would require initial financial support by the SMRP for the allowances of members from outside the SFEs.

I6. Develop and establish monitoring procedures , such as bimonthly reports by the SFEs to DARD and the Steering Committee at the district level. The procedures should be kept very simple, providing an overview over planned and actual inputs, activities, and outputs. Appendix 6.3 includes samples for such simple monitoring forms. The SMRP staff could develop the appropriate forms and instruct the SFEs about their usage. The monitoring system would complement the informal monitoring undertaken by the CWG (see P3).

I7. Diversify the means of information dissemination to villagers. Suitable means include the preparation of a video on FLA policy and implementation , the posting of large-size information sheets in the villages, the installation of blackboards , and, if suitable, site visits in villages where FLA has already been implemented. The video could be made by the district's or provincial TV station, with appropriate guidance by the SMRP. A proposal for the contents of the video is included in Appendix 6.2. The video could be shown in the villages and be broadcasted locally, a common practice. The preparation of large-size information sheets should be assisted by the SMRP staff, which disposes of the necessary equipment (scanner, A0 plotter). The blackboards can be used to announce upcoming events, a practice used by local traders to request product sales. The site visits would require financial and technical assistance by the SMRP. The information products would also serve for the information of the commune PC and, to a minor degree, district agencies.

I8. Continue to diversify the means of information dissemination at district and provincial level. The recently printed newsletter is a first important step to find more attractive ways to inform decision-makers at provincial and district level about FLA policy and implementation. Similarly, the CWG contributes to information exchange at the provincial level. These activities need to be continued (see P3). The SMRP should plan the next issue of the newsletter for the second quarter of 2000, focusing on the implementation of FLA. The next newsletter thus would complement the first one, which concentrated on policy issues, and follow the shift of attention toward implementation. In addition, the SMRP should periodically prepare brief updates on experiences in FLA that are distributed to decision-makers. An example is included in Appendix 6.1.

I9. Guide the evaluation of FLA. The guidance includes technical assistance for the preparation of the final report on this round of FLA in Ea H'Leo. The report should include estimates of the staff and financial requirements of different activities in FLA, similar to the report prepared on PLUP (Tran Ngoc Thanh and Dang Thanh Liem 1999). As a second step, the SMRP should facilitate an evaluation workshop at the end of this year that examines the experiences from FLA in Ea H'Leo and Lac SFEs. The workshop should include representative of all major stakeholders, from the provincial authorities to the villages. The objective of the

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workshop will be to identify and generate consensus about the issues that need to be resolved, most importantly the coordination problem between DARD and DLA.

As a third step, the SMRP should facilitate a more in-depth evaluation of FLA upon completion of the next round of FLA . Such evaluation should be participatory, be performed by a team of provincial, district, and commune staff, and include field work in villages. See SFDP (1997) for an example of the issues, methods and composition of the evaluation teams in the evaluation of FLA. This evaluation would benefit from an external facilitator. Between these two evaluation workshops, the CWG can play an important role in informal evaluation, if repeated field trips allow its members to gain insights into field experiences with FLA (see P3).

I10. Document experience in FLA in a set of short technical notes . The format of technical notes is recommended because the notes will provide practical guidance to SFE staff in future rounds of FLA. In addition, the overall process of FLA still needs to be integrated experience from PLUP and be refined. Examples for notes that can be written based on existing experience are practical guidelines on the construction of a 3D model, the preparation and organization of a village meeting, different PRA activities, the preparation of base maps, soil evaluation, the preparation of legal documents, etc. The preparation of the notes will benefit from review of manuals elaborated by related projects, such as Chuong Trinh Hop Tac Ky Thuat Viet Nam - Duc (1999), and may justify the use of an external consultant to advise on format and general information requirements.

I11. Explore technical options which reduce time and staff requi rements of the land use survey and forest inventory . The description of forest conditions needs to be kept simple during FLA. Exact forest measurements can be conducted later, when a household transfers land to another one or sells wood. The planned consultancy on the use of aerial photos will help in this process. Additional activities may include a workshop including SFE staff with experience in forest inventory and a visit to a related project that has found efficient ways to describe forest conditions. These activities will require attention to the results of the working group to be established between DARD and DLA on land measurement (see P1).

Table 3 provides an overview of how the proposed activities help achieve the objectives of FLA.

Table 3: Expected effects of proposed activities

4.4 Input Requirements

Table 5 summarizes the input requirements of the preceding recommendations. The first column lists the proposed recommendations. The second column identifies the proposed activities that require technical support by the SMRP staff. The following columns include activities that primarily require financial support from the SMRP, with some supervision by the staff.

4.5 An Ideal Time Line for Forest Land Allocation i n 2000

Figure 12 presents a proposed time line for FLA in 2000. Considering the continuing pilot character of FLA in Dak Lak, it follows a cautious approach . For example, it provides two months for the land use survey and measurement to accommodate the need to resolve the measurement issue at the policy level. Also, it

Policy Level Implementation Level

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Ten. Security x x x x x x

Equity x x x x x x

Data for Man. x

Transparency x x x x x x x x x x x x

Participation x x x x x x x

Coordination x x x x

Affordability x x x x x

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provides more time for planning, village PRAs, and PLUP activities, as they will need to be coordinated with advise and training services provided by the SMRP staff and external consultants. According to the proposed time line, FLA would be finished by November and followed by an evaluation workshop in December. The land use survey and PLUP would be finished by the middle of June, when the rainy season sets in and villagers get very busy in crop cultivation. Allocation in the field could be undertaken at the end of the rainy season (September). Given the preparation of suitable guidelines and technical notes, future rounds of FLA could be conducted in three to five months, depending on the area to be allocated.

Table 4: Input requirements of proposed activities

Figure 12: A time line for FLA in 2000

SMRP staff

Financial support

staff time meetings fieldwork study tour training consultant

P1 x x x x

P2 x x x

P3 x x x x x

P4 x x

P5 x x x x

I1 x x x

I2 x x x

I3 x

I4 x x x

I5 x

I6 x

I7 x x x

I8 x

I9 x x x x x

I10 x x

I11 x x x

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References

Birner, Regina. 1999. Forest Land Allocation to Households: Experiences from the Pilot Project in Dak Lak Province. Draft Interim Report. Analysis of the First Experiences from Ea Sol and Dak Phoi Communes. Consultant Report (Draft November).

Chuong Trinh Hop Tac Ky Thuat Viet Nam – Duc. 1999. Huong Dan Quy Hoach Su Dung Dat va Giao Dat co Nguoi Dan Tham Gig Ap Dung Tren Dia Ban Xa – Tinh Son La. Son La: Uy Ban Nhan Dan Tinh Son La.

Junker, Brigitte. 1999. Traditional Natural Resource Management of the Jarai in Easol Commune, Eahleo District, Dak Lak Province. Consultant Report.

Social Forestry Development Project (SFDP) Song Da. 1997. Land Allocation in the Song Da Watershed. Paper presented at the National Workshop on Participatory Land Use Planning and Forest Land Allocation, 4-6 December 1997, Hanoi.

Tran Huu Nghi. 1999. Report on Information on Natural Resources and Sauce-economic Conditions in Ea Sol Commune, Ea H'Leo District, Daklak Province. SMRP project document.

Tran Ngoc Thanh and Dang Thanh Liem. 1999. Lessons Learnt From Participatory Land Use Planning Process in Dak Phoi Commune, Lak District, Dak Lak Province. SMRP project document.

Vu Van Me and Claude Desloges. 1997. Methodology for Participatory Land Use Planning and Forest Land Allocation. Hanoi: MARD and FAO.

Appendixes

APPENDIX 1: TERMS OF REFERENCE

Assessment and Documentation of Forest Land Allocation in Dak Lak

Introduction:

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) is presently implementing, through five state forest enterprises (SFE), forest land allocation (FLA) of ca 6000 ha to households throughout the Dak Lak province. The involved institutions consider the FLA, including the issue of red books for stocked forestland, a

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learning process.

The process of FLA is supported by the Sustainable Management of Resources in the Lower Me kong Basin Project (SMRP) as a complementary component of its overall assistance to DARD in the field of participatory land use planning (PLUP), forest and forest land allocation (FLA) and the development of joint forest management systems.

DARD wants to engage a consultant to assist in analysing and documenting the FLA experiences so far.

Objective

The consultancy will contribute towards (a) the analysis and documentation of the complete PLUP/FLA process; (b) joint identification and preparation of "lessons learned" from PLUP/FLA process and (c) in cooperation with the major stakeholders, identification and recommendations to establish exchange mechanisms for experiences and information concerning PLUP/FLA.

Tasks:

� Provide an overview of all documents relevant to PLUP/FLA activities in Dak Lak (annotated list)

� Identify, list and visualise (institutional landscape) all relevant stakeholders in FLA for all administrative levels;

� Produce a brief institutional directory of all relevant stakeholders with a brief analysis of their roles, importance, stakes

� Assess and document the benefits and constraints of PLUP/FLA as perceived by major stakeholders;

� Assess and document the transparency of the PLUP/FLA as perceived by major stakeholders

� Assess and document present steps of PLUP/FLA at the involved SFE, as perceived by various stakeholders

� Provide an overview of the steps taken so far by the authorities regarding PLUP/FLA

� Develop a detailed 'time line' of the PLUP/FLA process for five forest enterprises

� Identify, according to defined criteria, "lessons learned" (technical as well as institutional) and jointly elaborate recommendations to further develop promising approaches and/or overcome experienced constraints

� Use of resources and timeliness, e.g. smaller number of endless meetings with same participants. Methods and instruments to guarantee and increase community participation;

� Jointly identify with decision-makers their preferred means of information exchange and appropriate information products

� Document all findings using appropriate means and forms for different recipients;

� Discuss and identify mechanisms to formalise documentation and information dissemination of experiences and information concerning FLA;

� Prepare and conduct three presentations of findings and recommendations for respective groups of stakeholders (communities, district, provincial). Prepare a presentation at the national level.

Methodology

The consultant will conduct the tasks in a participatory and process-oriented way.

� Conduct open/semi-open interviews (CWG members, decision makers) and focus group discussions

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(sector institutions);

� Prepare documentation and visualisations (e.g. institutional landscape);

� Present and discuss findings with all relevant stakeholders;

� Report on a weekly basis to the SMRP co-ordinator at Dak Lak on progress during the course of the consultancy

� Prepare report comprising process, activities, results and recommendations;

� Prepare samples of information products concerning FLA for various groups of stakeholders on all administrative levels.

Planned duration of consultancy is 20 working days including report writing.

APPENDIX 2: ITINERARY

DATE ACTIVITY OVERNIGHT

12-11-99 preparation Hanoi

13-11-99 preparation Hanoi

14-11-99 AM

PM

preparation

travel Hanoi-HCM City0

HCM City

15-11-99 AM

PM

travel HCM City - Buon Ma Thuot

briefing in project office

discussion of work plan with project staff

meeting with FDD

Buon Ma Thuot

16-11-99 AM

PM

meeting with DLA

meeting with DPI, work in office

Buon Ma Thuot

17-11-99 AM

PM

meetings with FPD, work in office

workshop with project staff

Buon Ma Thuot

18-11-99 AM

PM

travel Buon Ma Thuot - Ea H'Leo

meeting with PC Ea H'Leo, ARDO

meeting with FPU and LAO

Ea H'Leo district

19-11-99 AM

PM

meeting with PC Ea Sol

meeting with SFE Ea H'Leo

Ea H'Leo district

20-11-99 AM

household interviews, Buon Diet

transect walk, Buon Diet

Ea H'Leo district

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APPENDIX 3: PEOPLE MET DURING CONSULTANCY

In Hanoi

In Buon Ma Thuot

PM interview with village head, Buon Diet

21-11-99 AM

PM

interview with village head, Buon Cham

household interviews

transect walk, Buon Cham

Ea H'Leo district

22-11-99 AM

PM

prepare presentation

presentation at PC Ea H'Leo

travel Ea H'Leo - Buon Ma Thuot

Buon Ma Thuot

23-11-99 AM

PM

work in office

workshop with project staff

Buon Ma Thuot

24-11-99 AM

PM

prepare presentation

prepare presentation, meeting with John Ambler

Buon Ma Thuot

25-11-99 AM

PM

presentation at DARD

workshop with project staff, meeting with Brigitte Junker

Buon Ma Thuot

26-11-99 travel Buon Ma Thuot - Hanoi Hanoi

27-11-99 report writing Hanoi



30-11-99 AM

PM

meeting with Michael Glück and M. Hopper

report writing

Hanoi


2-12-99 AM

PM

meetings with Elke Förster and Hubertus Kraienhorst

report writing

Hanoi

Michael Glück TA, SMRP

Marlynne Hopper Communication Expert, SMRP

Elke Förster Team Leader, Social Forestry Development Project Song Da

Hubertus Kraienhorst Chief Technical Advisor, Reforestation Project in Ha Bac, Lang Son and Quang Ninh

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In Ea H'Leo district

APPENDIX 4: STUDY DESIGN - ISSUES AND METHODS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

Provincial level:

Tran Ngoc Thanh Field coordinator, SMRP

Dang Thanh Liem Coordinator PLUP/FLA, SMRP

Tran Huu Nghi Coordinator wood stoves and NTFP, SMRP

Brigitte Junker ethnology student (M.A.), supported by SMRP

Trinh Xuan Xau Vice-Director, DARD, Head, FDD

Nguyen Van Xuan Vice-Head, FDD, DARD

Nguyen Van Binh Head, Policy Division, DARD

Vo Thuan Policy Division, DARD

Tran La Planning Division, DARD

Truong Hien Vice-Director, DLA

Pham Mai Khang Head, Office for Statistics and Land Use Certificates, DLA

Do The Nhu Director, DPI

Ms. Ha Vice-Head, ODA Office, DPI

Nguyen Xuan Huong Vice-Head, Office for Economic Sectors, DPI

Truong Vice-Head, Forest Protection Division, FPD

Doan Kim Ca Vice-Head, Management Division, FPD

John Ambler Social Science Research Council, previously Representative of Ford Foundation in Hanoi

Huynh Duc Luan Director, Ea H'Leo SFE

Nguyen Huu Hoa Vice-Director, Ea H'Leo SFE

Hai Silvicultural specialist, Ea H'Leo SFE

Lam Silvicultural specialist, Ea H'Leo SFE

Nguyen Duc Quang Vice-Chairman, Ea H'Leo PC

Vo Hong Huan Vice-Chairman, Ea H'Leo PC

Pham Van Ngo Head, ARDO

Thao Vice-Head, ARDO

Truong Cong Dich Head, LAO

Nguyen Van Vinh Member, LAO

Ung Vice-Head, FPU

K'sor Quy Chairman, Ea Sol PC

Nang Party Secretary, Ea Sol

K'sor Mit Village head, Buon Diet

3 villagers Buon Tiet

Ksor Nho Village head, Buon Cham

2 villagers Buon Cham

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Issues:

(1) forest land allocation

� objectives of FLA; priority for which objectives?

� evaluation of ongoing FLA with respect to objectives

� coordination at provincial level: needs, successes, problems

� policy issues that require coordination:

� FLA versus forest protection contracts

� sale of allocated forest land

� change of land classification (from forestry to agricultural land)

� benefit sharing agreement: percentage shares, implementation

� households versus groups/villages

� insiders versus outsiders

� transfer of Land Administration authority from SFE to district PC

� data requirements for future land and forest management

� relationship with land use planning and agricultural land allocation

� activities and role of Consultative Working Group

� coordination with district PC and offices

� use of time, staff resources, and money

� transparency (policy and implementation)

� benefits and problems, suggestions for improvement

(2) information exchange

� how do provincial departments usually communicate with each other?

� how do provincial departments usually communicate with district PC?

� preference for written report, brief, newsletter, oral report, poster, video, or site visit

Method:

� interviews with officials of DARD, FDD, DPI, DLA, and FPD

� group discussion with project staff

� group discussion (decision-makers) of mechanisms for information exchange

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District level:

Issues:

(1) agricultural land allocation

� when implemented in Ea Sol? progress in whole district

� how was land use planning implemented?

� type of financial and technical support received by provincial authorities

� specific regulations or criteria on LUP/LA (land classification, land ceiling)

� available maps (present land use, land use planning, land allocation) and records; their storage

� technical capacity of LAO: staff resources, transportation, storage

� Land Administration: changes in ownership

� land use conflicts: what, where, when, why, solve or not, how

(2) forest allocation

� role of district authorities in ongoing process; their interests (Red Book versus contract; transfer of land from SFE)

� relationship between PC and SFE

� future forest land management: which office? what records are needed from the SFE?

� future land management: changes in land classification and ownership

� technical capacity of FPU: staff, transportation

� how enforce land rights?

� experience with forest protection under Decree 327 projects; treatment of violations

� benefits and problems and suggestions for improvement


� how do district authorities usually communicate with each other?

� how do district authorities usually communicate with provincial authorities and commune PC?


Method:

� interviews with vice-chairman of PC and officials from LAO, ARDO, and FPU

� inspection of land records and offices

� group discussion of mechanisms for information exchange

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SFE:

Issues (forest land allocation only):

� when implemented in Ea Sol? plan for total area to be transferred to local authorities

� how were forest plots to be allocated selected?

� how implemented? steps: collect information and prepare; consult people; current land use map; plot boundary demarcation; land use planning, allocation in the field; issue certificates

� local people's participation: methods, results

� distribution of land allocated among households (data for two villages)

� time and money spent on different steps in allocation; relationship to staff and financial resources; reasons for slow progress

� financial and technical support received by provincial authorities

� coordination with district PC (land use planning, etc.)


� change in land use in the future (fallow land)


� records to be transferred to district


� benefits and problems with LUP/LA and suggestions for improvement

Method:

� interview with vice-director and technical staff

� inspection of land allocation records

Commune level:

Issues:


� when implemented in four villages?

� how did they participate in land use planning?


� commune Land Administration officer; background and skills; tasks; activities

� Land Administration facilities

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� land management: changes in ownership



� when implemented? progress in whole commune

� relationship between commune PC and SFE

� role of commune forestry board

� previous land use

� how did they participate in allocation? steps


� how was decision made to allocate existing forest? why?

� why is priority given to local people?

� distribution of land allocated among villages, in relation to population


� time spent on allocation

� future land management: changes in land classification and ownership





� how do commune officials learn about state programs?

� Vietnamese language skills


Method:

� interview with chairman of PC and Land Administration officer

� inspection of land allocation records and facilities

Village level:

Issues:

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� how did they participate in land use planning?


� available maps (present land use, land use planning); their storage

� land management: changes in ownership



� when implemented?

� previous land use/land tenure

� how did they participate in allocation? who? time spent? results? (different steps)

� process of land allocation: activities, how did they determine which household gets what? how demarcate boundaries?

� will Red Books include husband's or wife's name?

� process of land allocation: land classification, etc.; relationship to previous land tenure and land use

� specific criteria on land allocation: land ceilings, etc.; relationship to previous land tenure

� how was decision made to allocate existing forest? why?

� why only local people?

� after allocation: rights and obligations of land users; changes in land classification and ownership, exchange of plots?

� after allocation: how do new households get access to land: insiders and outsiders?

� land use conflicts (between villages and households): what, where, when, why, solve or not, how




� how do villagers learn about external events?

� Vietnamese language skills

� preference for written report, brief, newsletter, oral report, poster, video, or site visit in the field:

� discrepancies between current land use and land use planning maps and actual land use; should actual or planned land use be changed given the characteristics of the land (slope, soil quality, erosion, distance)?

� land tenure

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� plot demarcation

� can village headman identify plots on map?

� what changes in plots allocated to households?

Method:

� village selection: one village with pressure by migrants and another one without pressure

� interview with village headman

� transect walk with map and village headman

� wealth ranking

Household level:

Issues (agricultural and forest land allocation taken together)

� household background (size, location, social and economic status)

� household land holdings (category, amount, form of allocation)

� application for forest land? how much? why?

� preference for allocation or contract for existing forest?

� previous land use and tenure

� participation in allocation and land use planning

� how were plots identified? relationship to previous land use

� rights and duties with regard to the different types of land; how enforce them? how are boundaries demarcated?

� changes in land holdings after allocation

� future forest exploitation: rights and obligations; plans

� land use conflicts?

� enough agricultural land for food sufficiency?


in the field:

� does the actual land use reflect the planned land use? should actual or planned land use be changed given the characteristics of the land (slope, soil quality, erosion, distance)?

� how does the plot size correspond to the data registered in the land record?

� what changes in plots allocated to household?

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Method:

� households with and without forest

� household interviews, including field visits

Note: These issues and methods draw upon the methodology employed by the Social Forestry Development Project Song Da in the evaluation of land use planning and land allocation in Yen Chau and Tua Chua districts, as described in SFDP (1997).

APPENDIX 5: ANNOTATED LIST OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS

A5.1 Land allocation

At the national level:

Decree 2/CP (15 Jan 1994):

The decree has provided the basis for FLA in Vietnam for the past six years. It determines that barren land and planted forest can be allocated to households with LURCs, as long as they are located outside crucial watershed areas. Existing forest can only be assigned to households under forest protection contracts. Funds for forest protection have come out of national programs, following Decrees 327/CP/1992 and 556/CP/1995.

Technical guidelines 06/LN-KL (18 June 1994):

The guidelines prepared by the previous Ministry of Forestry have guided FLA and forest protection contracts in Vietnam for the past six years.

Decree 364 (1994):

The decree provides guidelines and procedures for the clarification of administrative boundaries between villages, communes, districts and provinces.

Decree 656/TTg (13 September 1996):

The decree lays out a master plan for sauce-economic development in the Central Highlands for 1996-2000 and 2010. The master plan accords priority to forest protection and management, defines a forest cover of seventy per cent as the goal, and calls for a rapid implementation of FLA.

Decree 77/CP (29 November 1996):

The decree includes a detailed list of fines for forest violations. Many fines are calculated on the basis of the area of the forest destroyed, but some, such as for illegal logging and illegal trade (articles 5 and 12), are based on timber volume. The decree also regulates the level of government at which violations are persecuted, making it dependent on the gravity of the case.

Decree 3013/1997/QD-BNN&PTNT (20 November 1997)

The decree provides practical guidelines for the demarcation of forest land plots. The requirements on demarcation differ between plots up to ten hectares and those above.

Technical Guidelines 346/1998/TT-TCDC (16 March 1998):

The guidelines issued by the GDLA provide procedures and requirements for the allocation of agricultural and forestry land. In fact, the procedures and requirements are the same for both types of land.

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Decree 661/QD-TTg (29 July 1998):

The decree initiates an ambitious program of afforestation for the whole country. The goal is to increase the forest cover by five million hectares, hence the name of the program ("5-million hectare program"). The decree allows the allocation of barren land only to households (article 5).

Inter-ministerial Circular 28/1999/TT-LT (3 February 1999)

The circular issued by MARD, MPI and MOF provides guidelines for the implementation of the five-million hectare program. Priority is given to tree planting, on protection forest land (2 million hectare) and production forest land (three million hectares). The program also includes money for protection contracts on protection and special use forest land.

Decree 245/1998/QD-TTG (21 December 1998):

The decree clarifies the mandates of the different line ministries and the People's Committees at different levels with respect to forestry. The district PCs have the mandate to organize FLA and issue land titles (article 5), under guidance by the provincial PC (article 4).

Decree 187/1999/QD-TTg (16 September 1999)

The decree guides SFE reform. It calls upon SFEs to specialize as commercial forest enterprises, protection forest management boards, or extension service providers (article 3). The decree also determines that SFEs have to transfer the land that does not match their defined purpose to local authorities.

Decree 18/1999/CT-TTg (1 July 1999)

In the decree, the government provides several measures to accelerate land allocation. Most importantly, it calls upon local authorities to implement land allocation quickly and conduct the required land measurements later.

Decree 1442/1999/TTLT-TCDC-BTC (21 September 1999)

The GDLA and Ministry of Finance elaborate procedures for the implementation of Decree 18/1999.

Decree xx/1999/TTLT-BNN-TCDC (draft, 20 January 1999):

The decree amends Decree 2/CP/1994. It allows the allocation of existing production forest to households (part I, section 8), in general for a period of 50 years (part I, section 13), and promulgates a land ceiling of 30 hectares per household (part I, section 12). The decree provides specific guidelines for forest land use planning and FLA, simplifying the required procedures and accuracy as compared with the Technical Guidelines 346 (parts II and III). It names the GDLA and Forest Protection Department as the line agencies in charge of FLA (part IV).

Inter-ministerial circular (draft):

MARD and GDLA are currently preparing new technical guidelines on land use planning, land allocation and land titles for forest land to replace the guidelines 06/LN-KL from 1994. The circular complements the decree to be issued by MARD and GDLA (see above).

Decree xx (draft, 7 May 1999):

The decree will regulate the rights and responsibilities of households, individuals and village communities with allocated or assigned forest land. The decree allows households with allocated forest limited forest exploitation for home use, but requires the approval of the district PC for commercial exploitation (article 10).

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Provincial level:

Decree 21/CT-UB (10 August 1993):

The decree initiates efforts by the Dak Lak PC to transfer the legal authority over some land from SFEs to local authorities.

Decree 1308/CT-UB (1997):

Through the decree, the PC renews efforts to transfer the legal authority over land from SFEs to local authorities.

Decree 96/1998/QD-UB (21 January 1998):

The PC assigns the responsibility for FLA on 1,000 hectares to the SFE in Ea H'Leo.

Decree 41/1998/QD-KH (21 January 1998):

The DPI assigns the plan for FLA on 1,000 hectares to the SFE in Ea H'Leo.

Official letter 103/1998/KH-KTN (19 February 1998):

The DPI provides guidelines for the implementation of FLA by Ea H'Leo SFE.

Official letter 487/CV-KH-KTN (14 August 1998):

The DPI increases the planned area for FLA in Ea H'Leo to 2,000 hectares.

Plan for the implementation of FLA in Ea H'Leo (1 September 1998):

The plan was prepared by the SFE in Ea H'Leo and submitted to DARD.

Official letter 979/CV-NN-PTNT (14 September 1998):

DARD approves the plan for FLA submitted by the SFE in Ea H'Leo and elaborates the major policy parameters of FLA.

Decree 441/1999/QD-UB (2 March 1999):

The decree regulates the composition and membership of the commune-level Forestry Boards.

Decree 606/1999/QD-UB (25 March 1999):

In the decree, the PC publishes the budget for forestry activities for the year 1999. The decree follows a circular jointly prepared by DPI, DARD, and the Department for Finances and Prices. It includes funds for FLA on 5,000 hectares, absorbing one percent of overall expenditures in forestry.

Interim Regulations on FLA (5th Draft, May 1999)

Draft for provincial policy on FLA, to be submitted to PC. The regulations clarify the parameters of FLA in Dak Lak. Most importantly, they determine that all production forest and less critical protection forest around populated areas should be allocated, while other forest will be assigned under protection contracts only (articles 4 and 5). They also specify a simple benefit sharing between state and forest owners, based on percentages that increase for forest owners over time (from 30% in the first five years to 100% after 15 years in the case of seasonal deciduous forest) (article 20).

Plan of Forest Protection and Development, Period 2000-2010, Dak Lak Province:

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The plan provides a general framework for provincial policy and programs, including the zoning of forest into special use, protection and production forest, SFE reform, FLA, investment planning. It identifies rapid population growth, shifting cultivation, expansion of long-term industrial crops (coffee, rubber), and excessive logging by SFEs as the main forces driving the decrease in forest cover and forest degradation. The plan also emphasizes the lack of ownership, the preference given to short-term benefits, and the lack of institutional capacity as the root causes of deforestation. The plan therefore stresses the needs to transfer some land from SFEs to local authorities and allocate forest land to households.

Multi-departmental letter 772/1999/KH-NN-DC (14 August 1999):

DARD, DPI and DLA agree on the proposed plan for FLA in Ea H'Leo.

Decision 2232/QD-UB (7 September 1999):

The PC approves the proposed plan for FLA in Ea H'Leo.

A5.2 Participatory land use planning

Note: This section only lists documents which were not included in A5.1. Several documents discussed in the previous section were also relevant to land use planning, as noted for the relevant documents.

At the provincial level:

Plan xx (25 December 1996)

The plan provides measures for hunger eradication and poverty alleviation in the province. For example, it suggests norms for agricultural land areas to be allocated to households for meeting subsistence requirements.

Decree 13/CT-UB (22 April 1999):

The PC announces some urgent measures to reduce illegal forest destruction for the cultivation of coffee, pepper and short-term crops. The Decree differentiates the treatment of cases of forest destruction by the year in which they occurred and by the type of forest they destroyed. For cases committed in 1998 and 1999 and forest land enjoying a higher priority in protection efforts, the Decree calls for the destruction of agricultural fields and afforestation. In other cases, households are required to interplant trees.

At the district and commune level:

Decree xx

The People's Council of Dak Phoi issued a decree in which it provides a master plan for sauce-economic development in the commune.

Decree xx

In the decree, the People's Council of Lac district presented a general master plan for sauce-economic development in the district.

Report on Land Use Planning in Dak Phoi Commune, Lak District, Period 1998-2010 (November 1998):

The report presents the final results of PLUP in Dak Phoi and submits them to the district and provincial PCs for approval.

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APPENDIX 6: SAMPLES OF INFORMATION PRODUCTS

A6.1 Proposed update for provincial decision-makers

Overall goal: FLA to households in Dak Lak province.

Purpose of update: Report first experience with FLA on 2,000 ha in Ea Sol commune, Ea H'Leo district.

Activities completed:

1. Preparation of proposal for FLA (May 98).

2. Discussion of proposal for FLA with stakeholders at provincial, district, commune, and village levels (May-Sep 98).

3. Forest inventory and land use survey (Oct 98-Feb 99).

4. Demarcation of forest land plots in the field (Oct-Dec 98).

5. Allocation to 118 households in the field (Oct-Dec 99).

Outputs:

1. Map of existing forest conditions (2,000 ha).

2. Inventory of 123 forest land plots.

3. Land use planning map (2,000 ha).

4. 118 forest management contracts.

Results: The pilot FLA project in Ea H'Leo demonstrates that existing forest can be allocated to households. Over the past two years, many policy issues have been resolved. The SFE in Ea H'Leo has gained important experience in the implementation of FLA. The DARD is in the process of evaluating the pilot project and has invited the expertise of an external consultant.

Costs: VND 60,000/hectare have been given to the SFE for FLA. This is above the costs of land allocation in the Song Da watershed, but below the cost in the Ha Bac/Lang Son afforestation project.

Inputs: Technical assistance by the DARD, including the placement of a technician in Ea H'Leo SFE and technical support provided under the SMRP project. The SFE has proven the capacity to implement FLA.

Time requirements: Two years so far. Field activities have taken six months only. The remaining time has been absorbed by policy discussions due to the pilot character of FLA.

Next steps:

1. The DARD and DLA need to define the land measurement required for FLA to complete FLA on the first 2,000 ha.

2. FLA needs to be included among the tasks of the district-level Steering Committee on land allocation.

3. FLA should continue on small-scale in 2000, to develop a sound approach for large-scale FLA.

4. Large-scale implementation can begin in 2001.

A6.2 Guidelines for the preparation of a video

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General guidelines:

1. make simple

2. describe FLA policy and implementation from villagers' perspective

3. use local languages (the same footage can be used for several languages)

4. show concrete activities and items, not abstract explanations or speeches (for example, use actual tree to explain benefit sharing, show farmers using Red Book at Agricultural Bank)

5. approximate length should be around 10 minutes to allow the broadcasting of the video at the district TV station; this may call for the preparation of two video films, possibly one focusing on the current allocation process and the other one on future management;

The preparation of the video will require close gui dance by the SMRP staff and possibly an external consultant on the major issues to be covered and th e way how they are conveyed.

Contents:

(1) motivation for allocation:

- improve villagers' income

- rational forest management

- reduce migration

(2) rights of households which are allocated forest land plots

- exploitation

- exchange with other household

- use as collateral to obtain credit

- pass on to children

- limited right of sale

(3) who can receive forest land plots? (criteria)

(4) the allocation process (steps and villagers' participation)

- preparation: role of working group, members

- first village meeting and PRA

- land use survey

- land use planning

- allocation in the field

- processing of documents

(5) benefit sharing:

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- minor forest products: what? rights of exploitation

- timber: shares of state and households, their change over time, why they change over time

(6) future forest management:

- exploitation (give example)

- application for exploitation (give example)

- marketing (give example)

- income to be gained (give example)

(7) future enforcement of land use rights:

- how owners and other people recognize allocated forest land plots

- fines for illegal encroachment

- how to deal with illegal encroachment

(8) future land administration:

- why land administration helps households with forest land plots

� how to report changes in land use and land ownership

A6.3 Monitoring forms

The SFE may use the following monitoring forms to report progress in FLA to DARD and the district-level Steering Committee. The forms are adapted from Vu Van Me and Desloges (1997).

ACTIVITY MONITORING

ACTIVITY LOCATION PROPOSED ACTUAL COMMENTS

START END START END

INPUT MONITORING

ACTIVITY LOCATION STAFF TIME FINANCE COMMENTS

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proposed actual proposed actual

OUTPUT MONITORING

OUTPUT NO. PROPOSED DATE ACTUAL DATE COMMENTS

FLA project proposal 1

Topographic base map 1

Existing land use map 1

Soil evaluation map 1

Land use planning map 1

Land use planning report 1

Records of field allocation x

Land allocation map 1

LURCs issued x

FLA report 1

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Forest Land Allocation in Dak Lak: An Initial Assessment · because the PLUP process in Ea Sol was...

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