Thailand forest landscape restoration for asia pacific forests 2016 04 eng

25 Forest restoration in Viet Nam has been successful owing to well-developed forest policies, other relevant policies, legislation and effective enforcement agencies. Some of the relevant policies are highlighted in Box 11. Initially the ‘forest zoning and maintenance system’ which is equivalent to ‘passive reforestation’ Lamb and Gilmour 2003 provided the basis for protection and natural regeneration in the 1950s. Viet Nam’s forest restoration efforts have been translated into two major projects, the Program 327 and the 5MHRP. The success of the projects was preceded by re-organization of the state forest enterprises, along with the classification of forests into conservation special-use, protection and production categories. The revisions to the land laws allowed for allocation of land to households and individuals for sustainable forest production. Revisions in investment policies, credit and tax systems are being made to improve the environment for developing forestry- based enterprises by individuals and private companies. Overall, Viet Nam has been able to move towards greater participation of people in forestry, increasing plantation area and strengthening timber-processing industries. In the process, forestry has become an important economic sector which is contributing to higher employment, livelihood improvement and reduction in poverty. The trend for forestry in Viet Nam appears to take the following course FSIV 2009: •฀ Plantations emerging as the main source of timber, while natural forests are increasingly targeted for protection; •฀ Forestry shifting from production of wood to a variety of value-added products and ecosystem services; and •฀ Shifting from state control and public forestry to people’s forestry with empowerment of local bodies in forestry- related production and trade. In summary, the technical aspects of forest restoration, from protecting and allowing natural regeneration to proceed in natural forests, to rehabilitating denuded lands with exotics and indigenous species have been reasonably well developed across the region. In fact, in countries like the Philippines, innovative new techniques such as ANR have been developed. Likewise, the coppicing system of regrowth that is prevalent in the drier areas such as Nepal provides an easy option to regenerate degraded sites with minimal interventions. Nevertheless, there are still some drawbacks in the choice of species, their genetic quality and plantation establishment techniques. However, the difficulties surrounding these technical issues seem marginal when compared with the problems associated with policies, institutions and social issues required for dealing with forest restoration. While the commitment to reverse forest loss and degradation might remain high among professional staff, it is not always translated into action. The crucial policy issues appear to be related to tenure and equity, especially with access to and use rights of natural forests. There is now ample evidence that participatory planning is critical for all restoration undertakings. It is clear that China, Nepal, the Philippines and Viet Nam have developed supportive policies for forest management, particularly with the various aspects of forest restoration. China and Viet Nam developed major restoration programmes to realize the benefits of policy revisions. Forest and land allocation policies provided clarity to ownership issues, which encouraged people’s participation Box฀11.฀Major฀policies฀and฀initiatives฀for฀inluencing฀forest฀rehabilitation Policy and legislation have been quite conducive for forest restoration and they can be extended to FLR approaches. They are divided into two groups: a reclamation and reforestationafforestation, and b restoration of natural forests. Some of the highlights include: •฀ Forest zoning, equivalent to passive restoration, has been in place since the 1950s. This has latterly been called ‘forest zoning and promoting regeneration’ and is regulated by technical rules on promoting regeneration and enrichment planting e.g. QPN 21-98. •฀ Program 327 1993-1998 and the 5MHRP Decree 661Q-TTg 71998 have had a major impact on forest rehabilitation, leading to increase in forest cover of 43 percent, protection of soil and water resources, and flood control. •฀ Forest and forest land allocation policies Decree No. 021994CP have clearly defined the rights of land users, and have allowed allocation and lease of forest land to businesses, households and individuals with production objectives. In the process afforestation of barren land has taken place. •฀ When households invest in production forests, laws give them ownership and permission to decide on the plantation period and method. •฀ The National Forestry Development Strategy 2006-2020 was announced in 2007. It provided new guidance and programmes for sustainable forest management; forest protection, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services; forest product processing and trade; research, education, training and extension; renovating forestry sector institutions, policy, planning and monitoring. •฀ Laws have been formulated to allow individuals and organizations engaged in production forest plantations access to preferential credit, and preferential tax if the work involves planting fallow land and denuded hills. •฀ Nationwide regulation of PES Decree No. 9992010 has opened up opportunities to benefit from REDD+ and other PES mechanisms. Source: Phan see p. 167 26 in the programmes. The implementation of community forestry in Nepal, which basically involved denuded lands being handed over to communities, testifies to how effective the role of people is in bringing back forest cover. Here too, policy and regulations slowly evolved to shift from state-controlled forest management, to an increase in people’s participation, with a strong emphasis on reducing poverty. In fact, all the reviewed countries that are beginning to enjoy stable or increased forest cover have implemented large community-based forestry programmes. Myanmar, Indonesia and Thailand have not made much progress with community forestry and this is reflected in relatively less progress in improving forest cover, forest resources and the role of forestry in poverty reduction. State control of forests is being gradually reduced in China and Viet Nam, which has resulted in the growth of collectives, expansion of community forestry, and participation by the private sector. This has been further assisted with non-sectoral