Scoping Study on FLEGT and REDD+ Linkage in Illegal Timber Controls

After the training course in Da Nang last October, the Network of Vietnamese Non-Governmental Organisation on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VNGO-FLEGT) built a toolkit to study the FLEGT and REDD+ linkage and make recommendations for effective implementation. Based on the toolkit, the VNGO-FLEGT network members and study groups including SRD, CORENARM and experts conducted a scoping study in the Lam Dong Province from November 2^nd to 5^th to collect secondary information and survey the implementation status of REDD+ in Lam Dong. Mrs. Vu Thi Bich Hop – Executive Director of SRD and the chair of the VNGO-FLEGT’s Steering Committee-- is the head of the study delegation. 

Over the past years, the Lam Dong Province has been one of the pioneers and received lots of support from domestic and foreign programs and projects on forest management and protection such as: experiments on Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES), PFES implementation throughout the province, and assessments on participatory forest governance.

Currently, the Lam Dong Province is implementing the REDD+ program and is one of the 6 provinces to pilot this program. The objective of the activities is to minimize deforestation, forest degradation and ensure the national target program on safety is receiving payments from the REDD+.

This study focused on assessing the current state of encroachment and conversion of land use, monitoring and assessing the status of harvesting and using illegal timber as well as monitoring benefit sharing processes and livelihood vulnerability of local people. After meeting with Mr. Le Quang Nghiep – Director of the Management Board of the UNREDD+ in Lam Dong province-- Mrs. Hop emphasized the necessity of the FLEGT and REDD+ linkage, and on behalf of the VNGO-FLEGT network, she expressed a desire to be supported by UNREDD+ in the Lam Dong Province. Mr. Nghiep said that the linkage could bring more benefits to forest governance and the livelihoods of people.

Through support from the UNREDD+ at the national-level and in the Lam Dong Province, the study group met with representatives of provincial authorities such as: the Forest Protection Department and the Forest Protection and Development Fund to collect important secondary and primary data. It will be the basis for the main study in the Lac Duong and Di Linh districts, Lam Dong Province from November 21^st to 25^th 2015.

-SRD-