Report by

Nguyen Ngoc Hue

Pham Quoc Tuan

11/1997

On behalf of:
Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH and
Mekong River Commission Secretariat

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

Sustainable Management of Resources in the Lower Mekong Basin Project is supported by the German Technical Co-operation Agency GTZ, implemented in collaboration of Department for Forestry Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam. In order to reach the project objectives, from the very beginning, it pays attention to studying the issues related to sustainable land use management, and to the security of land tenure right for local people. The project has cooperated with agencies concerned (forest protection, land management) to review, assess land allocation process which started in early 1997 in Lak district, Dak Lak province, in order to find out the problems of land allocation and to propose effective solutions for them. One of the most important reasons is that no suitable approach has been found to meet the expectations of local people, the efficiency of land allocation is still very low, land tenure right has not been actually determined.

On 2^nd-3^rd of August, 1997, the project organized a technical training workshop on land use planning and land allocation for key officers of land management, forest protection, agriculture organizations at district and provincial level, foreign experts and project staff with the purpose to find out the shortcomings and difficulties in land allocation process as well as the needs and expectations of farmers, at the same time to propose appropriate solutions, to elaborate contents, methods and steps to be taken in LUP/LA process.

To facilitate participatory LUP/LA process, on 3rd-10th November 1997, the project organized a training course for commune officers and functional staff of Lak district, who directly participate in LUP/LA process.

2. RESULTS OF THE TRAINING COURSE ON LUP/LA

2.1 Time

from 3/11 to 10/11/1997

2.2 Venue

Office of the People’s Committee of Dak Phoi commune, Dak Lak province

2.3 Participants:

2.4 Objectives of the training course

On 3^rd November 1997, in the afternoon, the project held a meeting at the office of Dak Lak Department for Agriculture and Rural Development with LUP/LA experts from Song Da Social Forestry Development Project. The purpose of the meeting was to work out the objectives, contents and the list of participants of the training course, as well as to analyze the results of the training course on land survey and mapping supported by Tay Nguyen University held in September 1997 in Lak district. Especially, the important recommendations of the project Chief Technical Advisor were discussed in the meeting. As the result, the following concrete objectives were agreed upon:

• Develop suitable LUP/LA methods for the Project to apply in Lak district.
• Provide those who is directly involved in land allocation with practical experiences on LUP/LA.
• Practice extension skills in farmers meetings, practice steps of participatory LUP/LA process at the field.
• Prepare implementation to carry out trial LUP/LA in Dak Phoi commune, Lak district, Dak Lak province.
• Prepare village development plan for the next year based on land allocation. (after the survey of Dak Phoi, is was agreed to introduce a simple method that is suitable for existing staff and existing tools of the locality as well as for financial capabilities. The staff and local farmers are able to start up activities after the training course.)

2.5 Expected results of the training course

• Make clear the reasons, objectives, principles and background of LUP/LA as well as rights and responsibilities of the farmers to receive land allocated.
• The participants understand the steps of participatory LUP/LA and its results.
• Master usage skills of tools in LUP/LA (organize a meeting with farmers, in which establish models, identify transects and carry out transect walks, use topography map and other technical tools...).
• Understand why it is necessary to allocate land to households, groups of households or village communities.
• Understand Laws on Land, issued in 1993 as well as Laws on Forest Conservation and Development.

2.6 Program of the training course.

2.7 Results and some comments

For the participants of the course:

• All the participants have understood the steps of LUP/LA process
• They have mastered the skills of using topographic maps, interpreting its contents and mathematical factors.
• They have mastered modeling methods with necessary materials (sand, tree leaves, color powder, etc.), understood why 3-side model is needed while discussing with farmers.
• They have learnt how to assist a village to organize village meetings, to facilitate farmers to discuss main topics of LUP/LA, to analyze the potentials and key issues of existing and future land use.
• LUP/LA policies, land law, forest protection law, rights and responsibilities of farmers to receive allocated forest land were disseminated.
• The participants have understood clearly the role, functions and tasks of the LUP/LA field working group.

For Lieng Ong villagers:

• Heads of 49 from 55 households of the village participated in the first village meeting on the 5^th of November, 1997, of which there were 8 woman household heads, 1 village women union member, the rest are men. In the meeting, the working group and village headman explained to the households why it is necessary to conduct land allocation and disseminated the LA policies as well as rights and responsibilities of farmers while receiving allocated land. As the result, all the household heads have agreed upon the willingness to receive allocated forest land with land use right certificate (red book).
• The practice in Lieng Ong village shows that the farmers are able to establish the model of their village, indicating all the geographical places and terrain (river, stream, roads, houses, living area, existing land use, fields, industrial crops, barren land, plantation forest...). The farmers discussed existing land use and land use planning for the future. Especially, there were 3 opinions of women on land use planning for forestry land with the purpose of supplying timbers and firewood to villagers. Some participants proposed to clarify village boundaries, resolve conflicts in agricultural land use. That doesn’t mean that all the villagers are able to build village model, the experience shows that about 1/5 villagers is able to do that, but it can be said, however, that all the villagers can understand and discuss on village model. The biggest difficulty of Lieng Ong village is water for irrigation for agricultural crops, coffee and pests, the reason of which is unclear to the villagers yet.
• While discussing LA issues, most participants propose that:
• Natural forest land should be allocated to household groups or community for management and protection.
• Barren land should be allocated to households for forest plantation and industrial crops.
• There is no land left for livestock gazing, so it is required that everybody should take care of their livestock, not to leave it free.
• To manage the existing forest, the village needs to have a village convention (regulation) concretizing violation cases and reasonable rewards/sanctions. Especially the productivity of upland rice is reducing, it is necessary to find a way to protect land, maintain a stable productivity while the population is increasing.

2.8 Concrete results

• Modeling skills

• Establish transect of the village

• Skills of using topographical maps, indicating existing land use types.

• Land allocation

To evaluate the quality of the training course, we organized a 15-minutes test before closing. The test gave the following results:

Based on the said situation, we have some comments on the LUP training course as followed:

• The participants were very active and serious, the time schedule was followed strictly.
• Due to the great gap among the participants in terms of educational grade, the training course focused on field practices to give everyone a chance to understand the basic contents of participatory LUP/LA.
• Generally speaking, after the training course, the participants have understood well the steps of field works during LUP/LA process as well as the expected results, the usage skills of PRA tools for LUP/LA (organization of meetings with farmers, establishment and utilization of LUP models, transects, utilization of maps and technical tools to indicate existing land use systems and allocation of agricultural and forestry land).
• The number of participants was too large (22 persons/class), including university graduates, college graduates, even village headman with educational grade of 4-7 class, which has not passed any training course before. Especially, none of the participants attended a training course on extension skills. Therefore the quality was not ideal. It is advisable to have 10-12 persons participating in a training course.
• The test didn’t show high marks because the subject was of high level in comparison with the thoughts of participants, mainly officers at commune level and village headmen and deputy headmen. It is also needed to stress that 6 from 12 village headmen can conduct the steps of land allocation after the course. Of course the direct assistance from the field working group was needed in many works during LUP/LA process.
• On November 9, 1997, a meeting of officers related to land allocation from Land Management, Forest Protection, Lak Forestry Enterprise, project staff and LUP/LA experts from Song Da SFDP was held at the project office in Buon Ma Thuot. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and propose the solutions to facilitate land allocation process in Lak district. The concrete proposals are following:

3. RECOMMENDATIONS

Having reviewed local situations of project areas as well as the results of the training course, we would like to make some recommendations on LUP/LA to be conducted in the coming time, in order to facilitate land allocation process in Dak Phoi commune.

• The Project should co-operate with Lak Forestry Enterprise to clarify the boundaries between the LFE and project area in Dak Phoi commune, to elaborate the plan for LUP/LA of the commune to submit to district PC for approval.
• Together with Dak Phoi PC to organize a negotiation among village headmen to clarify boundaries of the villages in the commune.
• Make village the unit of LUP/LA process, only by that farmers have chance to participate in LUP/LA; the process of land allocation should be conducted in each village, and then in the whole commune.
• It is needed to establish a field working group composed mainly of district officers (cadastral, forest protection, forestry enterprise, agricultural and commune cadres). The project should provide them with per-diems and let them conduct a trial land allocation in a village of Dak Phoi, during that process they can discuss and complete each other’s knowledge, at the same time the project would have a common standard for land allocation. After this field work, each member of the said field working group would form another group to conduct land allocation in other villages with farmers.
• The project should select Lieng Ong village as pilot village for land allocation, and then organize a seminar at district level to consult various opinions in order to draw experiences and to complete the methodology and then to expand to the other villages. With existing resources provided to the project by the district, it is possible to organize 3 LA groups in 3 villages simultaneously, this will save time and expenses.

Concerning the organization structure of the project at district level, as it plays an important role in executing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating activities, we would like to make some following recommendations:

• A field coordinator at district level is needed to organize the implementation of activities, regularly report on project activities to the authorities and step by step transfer operational functions of the project to district authorities. The position should act as intermedium between district units and commune authorities as well as project office in Buon Ma Thuot.
• It is needed for the provincial and district authorities to have a decision to assign staff to work for the project during its implementation and to learn about advanced technologies from the project for future expansion.
• The project should organize training courses on agricultural extension for project staff and officers from forest protection stations, agricultural and forestry extension centers as the main partners for the project to access and transfer new technologies to the farmers.
• After land allocation, it is advisable to cooperate with villagers to establish a village management unit, support them to help the communities understand the benefits they would have under forestry policies, so that forest is actually protected by local farmers.
• The project should recruit more local people for its staff at district level, as it is easier for them to discuss with farmers and address problems in their language rather than using Kinh language.
• During LUP/LA process it is necessary to use simple, easy for understanding tools and methods, especially active participation of farmers is essential to ensure sustainability and possibility of wide application.

4. ANNEX 1: PARTICIPATION DURING LUP/LA PROCESS

1. Introduction

This guidelines presents some issues related to farmers’ participation in LUP/LA process. Why participation is needed? Who needs to participate and when? How to increase to farmers’ participation? How can we ensure the participation of all villagers, including women and ethnic minorities? These issues all shall be mentioned shortly in this guidelines.

More details of how to facilitate farmers’ participation can be reached through PRA and RRA tools and methods.

2. The necessity of farmers’ participation

Vietnamese policies on forestry land allocation come from the verification that land and forest resources would be managed in a more sustainable way if the responsibility for management and protection could be shared with local communities and private households.

Attention to farmers’ participation in LUP/LA process, especially their needs as well as priorities and managerial potentials, shall lead to a more sustainable way of forest resource management.

The purpose of sustainable land use is to maintain land use types at a required level to meet the needs and expectations of farmers while not harming the possibility to satisfy future needs, avoiding overload environment degradation. It requires good relationship between land and land users, and the improvement of linkage relationship between physical environment and socio-economic system.

Both physical environment and socio-economic system should be considered in land use planning and land allocation.

Sustainable land use can be ensured not only by maintaining production sources, but also by social capacity managing those sources. That includes capacity of land users to change their land use types, to establish important relationships between natural environment and socio-economic system.

Therefore, it is very important to involve local farmers in all stages of LUP/LA process, from the very beginning. Participation shall be different in terms of scale and level, depending on the implementation contents and schedule.

Participation does not mean that everybody should directly and actively participate in all LUP/LA activities, but rather that everybody, men and women, whatever position they have in their communities, must have the same chance to participate if they wish to. This means that concrete activities must be conducted to improve the participation of those who normally can not participate in the decision making process of their communities, whose voice is not often heard.

3. What is farmers’ participation?

Joint participation can be direct and indirect.

Direct participation of community’s members.

Participation of farmers in LUP/LA is a process in which farmers:

• assess their needs and sources, as well as study opportunities offered by LUP/LA.
• contribute to planning process and make decisions in all stages of the process
• develop sources in the forestry land allocated to them
• benefit from the land allocated to them
• develop effective collaboration with authorities of all levels (district and commune)

To involve effective participation of farmers, we should know:

• Offered facilities and support forms
• Does every farmer have the same chance to participate, if not, why?
• Are the farmers proposed to participate directly or through community representatives?
• Who is the representative and why?
• How is the monitoring and evaluation of participation? Who is responsible for it?

So far there are several types of participation. Participation can be direct when an individual, a household speaks out his opinions, discusses problems, contributes and benefits. Joint participation may be semi-direct when farmers act through a representative, with whom farmers have regular and direct relationships. Participation is indirect when farmers act through those with whom farmers hardly have direct relationships.

To improve farmers’ participation, the working group has to: first of all explain clearly to local people about all the benefits they would have if they participate in LUP/LA process, i.e. how they would benefit from the allocated forestry land? what is the benefit? when they would benefit and how long?

To explain rights and responsibilities of households participating in forest protection and management process.

To recommend, propose for discussion, not only for approval.

To use PRA, RRA tools, transects, existing land use maps, village models… to promote farmers’ participation.

5. ANNEX 2: MODELING

1. Why is it necessary to establish a model?

• It helps villagers see the comprehensive picture of their village (terrain, existing land use, population allocation).
• Local people can discuss their difficulties and advantages
• It facilitates farmers to discuss land use orientation and plan for forestry land allocation in the future.
• It makes it easier for farmers to establish existing land use and forest resources map

2. Preparation works

Selection of participants: there must be at least 2 persons who is familiar with his/her village terrain, it could be better if one of them is veteran, as he might be familiar with modeling. As usual, in a village there are 3-5 persons who can establish model of their village very well.

Select a suitable venue (central part, wide yard) to make it easy for farmers to observe

Get use of material available at the locality (sand, gravel, color powder, tree branches)

3. Modeling

The working group should explain the objectives of modeling to every member of community before starting the works.

Geographical places need to be expressed on the model first of all, such as roads, streams/rivers, peaks, commune PC, village PC, lakes, schools, medical stations…; then all the village shall be expressed on the model.

After establishing the 3-side model of the village, the working group discussed with farmers if there is anything to add to the model, if not, it means that the model is correct. Then they guided the farmers to use tree leaves, color powders and gravel to express existing land use of the village (timber-tree forests, bushes, fields, barren land, industrial crops, fruit trees, living land…)

It is necessary to make everybody feel comfortable and fair to analyze their potentials and the key problems they are facing.

Discuss on proposed land use planning for the future.

Discuss on land proposed to be allocated to household groups, households, cooperative, reserve land of the community.

Working group staff transform to existing land use map with all village’s boundaries, geographical names, places, forest land types… on big size paper. The same will be done for land use planning map.

Notes: It is advisable to let farmers do by themselves, working group only need to play the role of facilitating, stimulating the farmers by making some questions not to miss any details or to discuss the wrong topic. It is necessary to try every way to involve as many farmers as possible, not to be shy of any mistake, it is possible to make many adjustments till the model is correct.

It is not advisable to do for farmers, not to put too many unimportant details to the model, making it difficult for farmers to observe and discuss on the model.

When the model has been established correctly, the working group staff shall transform all the geographical places to 1:10000 basic map.

6. ANNEX 3: TRANSECT

Transect is a diagram describing major land types being in use. It helps us to compare main characteristics, sources, land use patterns…of different areas.

Preparation for Transect establishment

• Select community’s members that have knowledge and willingness to participate in village walking.
• Discuss with them the factors that need to be described in the transect (seasonal crops, land use patterns, crops, soil types…) and the way to walk through
• Walk along the transect
• Observe, ask questions, listen to farmers (not to give lectures)
• Discuss problems and opportunities
• Identify agricultural land and natural land, outline the features of each land type, including:

Methods

• Use checkered paper to draft the topography
• Generalize, not to fall in too many details
• Include in the picture appropriate proportion
• Adjust the transect through field work

Notes

• Be patient to work at the field, no matter how long it takes
• Talk with those you meet while walking along the transect
• Encourage those who are willing to join the team, as they can help describing when no one is met on the way
• Observe and listen carefully, take notes, ask every possible question, such as: what, when, where, who, why, how?
• Use triangulation

• Collect grass, leaves and other materials on the way
• Draw "triangulation" to the local farmers, explain to them and ask them to discuss
• Include "arguments" on topics and chances as discussed on the way

Not to

• Walk along the only straight way, walk around or zigzag
• Walk too fast – you will miss the slight differences between areas.
• Hurry, give lectures
• Base too much on the diagram. It describes differences among areas, but it can be useless if presented to local people.

LAND USE PLANS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

EXISTING LAND USE OF LIENG ONG VILLAGE, DAK PHOI COMMUNE, LAK DISTRICT