Villagers cross the Nam Ma River to patrol the forest area in Muong Nhe District in Dien Bien Province (Photo courtesy of the Muong Nhe Nature Reserve) Dien Bien (VNA/VNS) - Vang LongCa of Dien Bien province in northern Vietnam pointed at his pig and explainedhow he planned to sell it.
“When it weighs less than 100 kilograms, I sellit for 20,000-30,000 VND (0.9-1.3 USD) per kilogram,” he said. “50,000 VND perkilogram when it gets heavier.”
Ca is a resident of Doan Ket village in MuongNhe district where all the households have joined a project to protect thelocal forest area.
The payment he gets from patrolling the forestis the only source of additional income for his household, apart from the saleof pigs that often takes him a whole year to raise to 100 kilograms.
A policy of paying residents to patrol theforest has been implemented in the district since 2013, part of a Governmentplan to improve forest quality and quantity and increase the forestsector’s contribution to the economy.
Some 120 households in Ca’s village were dividedinto two groups. Ca belongs to Group 1, which is responsible for patrollingsome 940ha of forest.
His job is patrolling the forest once or twiceeach month to detect signs of illegal intrusion and forest productexploitation; each patrol trip lasts three to five days.
At a payment rate of some 500,000 VND perhectare, Ca earns some 4 million VND per year from the job, making thelivelihood of his family “somewhat easier”.
Muong Nhe district is the poorest of the 62 poordistricts in the country, with a per capita income of some 4 million VND.
The payment that each household receives forenvironmental services varies in the 10 communes of the district, according tothe Muong Nhe Nature Reserve.
“In the communes where there’s a large area offorest to patrol but few households offering the service, a household can earnan average of 7-10 million VND per year,” Diep Van Chinh, deputy director ofthe reservation area’s management board, said.
Forty-four groups are assigned to patrol some40,000ha of the reservation, consisting of local residents and staff from thearmed forces and border guard stations.
“Before we applied the policy, villagers fromaround the forest often intruded into the reservation to exploit bamboo shoots,wood and other forest products,” Chinh said.
“The number of illegal wildlife traffickingcases and forest product exploitations has dropped dramatically since weimplemented the policy, thanks to the high patrolling frequency of localresidents,” he added. Only one case of forest clearance and one case ofreservation area intrusion were detected in the first 11 months of this year.
The patrollers are not allowed to exploit forestproducts in the core areas of the forest and are accompanied on long patroltrips by forest rangers.
The managing board of the reservation hands patrollerspasses, which they must present before entering the forest and upon finishingtheir patrols. Some 1,700 patrol passes have been given out since 2013.
The money to pay patrollers comes from theprovince’s Forest Protection and Development Fund. Group leaders are in chargeof receiving the payment and dividing it to their group members.
“We keep 10 percent of the total payment tosupport the group’s management team,” said Giang Hu Sinh, leader of Group 2 of DoanKet village.
“Group leaders, like me, receive the same amountof money as group members, not more,” he added.
During the 2011-15 period, some 306 billion VND(13.5 million USD) were disbursed to the province patrollers.
During a conference on evaluating the policylast October, Lo Van Tien, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee,said the policy helped local residents stabilise their lives, whileacknowledging that the province’s mountainous terrain and underdevelopedtransport system made it difficult for patrollers to do their job.
Residents in some distant areas of the provincehave not been informed of the benefits of providing environmental services, headded. It was hard for authorities to persuade them to take part in theservices, partly because the payment rate is different in different areas ofthe province, he said.-VNA
“When it weighs less than 100 kilograms, I sellit for 20,000-30,000 VND (0.9-1.3 USD) per kilogram,” he said. “50,000 VND perkilogram when it gets heavier.”
Ca is a resident of Doan Ket village in MuongNhe district where all the households have joined a project to protect thelocal forest area.
The payment he gets from patrolling the forestis the only source of additional income for his household, apart from the saleof pigs that often takes him a whole year to raise to 100 kilograms.
A policy of paying residents to patrol theforest has been implemented in the district since 2013, part of a Governmentplan to improve forest quality and quantity and increase the forestsector’s contribution to the economy.
Some 120 households in Ca’s village were dividedinto two groups. Ca belongs to Group 1, which is responsible for patrollingsome 940ha of forest.
His job is patrolling the forest once or twiceeach month to detect signs of illegal intrusion and forest productexploitation; each patrol trip lasts three to five days.
At a payment rate of some 500,000 VND perhectare, Ca earns some 4 million VND per year from the job, making thelivelihood of his family “somewhat easier”.
Muong Nhe district is the poorest of the 62 poordistricts in the country, with a per capita income of some 4 million VND.
The payment that each household receives forenvironmental services varies in the 10 communes of the district, according tothe Muong Nhe Nature Reserve.
“In the communes where there’s a large area offorest to patrol but few households offering the service, a household can earnan average of 7-10 million VND per year,” Diep Van Chinh, deputy director ofthe reservation area’s management board, said.
Forty-four groups are assigned to patrol some40,000ha of the reservation, consisting of local residents and staff from thearmed forces and border guard stations.
“Before we applied the policy, villagers fromaround the forest often intruded into the reservation to exploit bamboo shoots,wood and other forest products,” Chinh said.
“The number of illegal wildlife traffickingcases and forest product exploitations has dropped dramatically since weimplemented the policy, thanks to the high patrolling frequency of localresidents,” he added. Only one case of forest clearance and one case ofreservation area intrusion were detected in the first 11 months of this year.
The patrollers are not allowed to exploit forestproducts in the core areas of the forest and are accompanied on long patroltrips by forest rangers.
The managing board of the reservation hands patrollerspasses, which they must present before entering the forest and upon finishingtheir patrols. Some 1,700 patrol passes have been given out since 2013.
The money to pay patrollers comes from theprovince’s Forest Protection and Development Fund. Group leaders are in chargeof receiving the payment and dividing it to their group members.
“We keep 10 percent of the total payment tosupport the group’s management team,” said Giang Hu Sinh, leader of Group 2 of DoanKet village.
“Group leaders, like me, receive the same amountof money as group members, not more,” he added.
During the 2011-15 period, some 306 billion VND(13.5 million USD) were disbursed to the province patrollers.
During a conference on evaluating the policylast October, Lo Van Tien, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee,said the policy helped local residents stabilise their lives, whileacknowledging that the province’s mountainous terrain and underdevelopedtransport system made it difficult for patrollers to do their job.
Residents in some distant areas of the provincehave not been informed of the benefits of providing environmental services, headded. It was hard for authorities to persuade them to take part in theservices, partly because the payment rate is different in different areas ofthe province, he said.-VNA
VNA
