FOREST PEOPLE December 8, 2008

To highlight the important role of forests for communities in Central Vietnam, WWF hired photographers Pham Ba Trinh and Dang Van Tran to take a series of images that portray the interrelationships between the forests and people’s livelihoods.

The story begins in the enchanting city of Hue, home to various historic and cultural sites, including the ancient Citadel, a myriad of temples, and the legendary Huong (Perfume) River. Discover the life of forest people with Vietnam Travel.

If you were to look upstream to the source of this majestic river, you would discover magnificent forests that harbor an amazing amount of biodiversity. Hidden inside this region, known as the Central Annamites, is a wealth of species unique to this area.

In the 1990′s three of the last large mammal to be discovered were found here, including the saola an elusive and unusual species of cattle. As scientists survey this area a plethora of new species continues to be found, which is remarkable considering that this region was heavily sprayed with dioxin during the American War.

The majesty of these forests is shared by the communities found within them. The Ca Tu and Ta Oi people depend upon the forests for rattan, bamboo, medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products, as they have for centuries. As populations grow and more forestland is converted for other use, the forests and the people who depend upon them teeter between survival and collapse. The best Vietnam Travel Deals can be accquired for the best prices.

To combat these issues, WWF and the Forest Protection Department are working with local communities to establish “community forests”. WWF also helps to advise locals in the development of eco-tourism.

These new, eco-friendly programs allow visitors to explore newly opened areas in A Luoi, such as A Roang commune on the Ho Chi Minh Highway. Tourists can visit historic sites like the infamous Hamburger Hill, and experience life in local Ta Oi communities. Excursions into the forests offer visitors the chance to view gibbons-apes known for their ethereal morning calls, hundreds of bird species, spectacular wild orchids, and, if they are very lucky, the elusive saola.

Forest owners find financial benefits in protecting trees December 8, 2008

Late last month, Viet Nam was selected as one of 14 countries in the world to apply the mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

Nepal, Laos, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico and Panama were also selected.

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), an innovative approach to financing efforts to combat climate change, aims to achieve REDD by compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Meanwhile, the industrialised countries, which include Australia, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, have committed to contribute about US$82 million to the FCPF.

Vuong Van Quynh, who will be in Ghana to represent Viet Nam in discussions with United Nations about applying REDD in the country, has high hopes for the mechanism.

He says forest destruction will be reduced when forest owners, meaning the local people, can be prevented from destroying them if they’re paid enough to support their lives.

Return to three endangered ethnic minority groups December 8, 2008

Five years ago, it was extremely hard to reach Yen Hop village, the first village of the Ruc people in the central province of Quang Binh. Nowadays, it takes only 2 hours by car from Dong Hoi town to Yen Hop village.

In the first days the road to Yen Hop village was built, all Ruc people sat outside of their houses to watch the workers, trucks and motorbikes. Many of them quit fieldwork to watch the new things all day. At night, they went to the field to pull up some cassavas to grill and eat and wait for the new day to come to continue watching the construction. They watched the bulldozers and trucks for several days on end, awestruck.

When the construction finished, the new road brought the Ruc people nearer to the community and modern life. Since then, the Ruc people have shared happiness and difficulties with the community.

We visited the Ruc people when several local newspapers wrote about them as woodlanders in the early 1960s. At that time, we had to walk on hazardous Huynh De road for one day to reach Yen Hop village. When we arrived at the village, our bodies were covered with blood from terrestrial leeches.

Forest land remains under-utilised December 8, 2008

So far, only between 2.5 and 3.7 million ha have been set aside, says Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Hua Duc Nhi.

Viet Nam has about 12.87 million hectares of land earmarked for forests. But participants at a national forum on the subject in Ha Noi yesterday heard that forest areas owned by individuals, families and enterprises were small because economic returns were low.

“People have not yet been able to make a living from forest land,” said the ministry’s Forest Ranger Department deputy head Nguyen Huu Dung.

Reasons are varied, but obstacles such as delays in issuing “red books” which certify land-use rights over each plot have discouraged many families from investing in forests.

Insufficient legal guarantees are another difficulty faced by those who lease forest land.

Many do not feel comfortable taking control of land without a map defining its boundaries.