20 REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS FOR CF
While legislation to support community forestry has not been approved in Thailand, the Royal Forest Department RFD does support local community
management of its forests. The Community Forestry Division was initiated in 1991 and it later became the office of Community Forest Management in 2003.
Its mandate is to plan and promote community forestry, and to involve local communities, local organisations, NGOs, and other institutes in community forest
management.
5.6.2. Progress with Implementation
Currently, more than 5,300 villages have registered their community forestry programs with the RFD amounting to about 0.7 of the total number of villages
in the country. These community forests cover an area of approximately 196,667 ha in both National Forest Reserves 112,869 ha and other forests 83,798 ha.
The area under registered community forestry management accounts for about 1.16 of the country’s total forest area or 0.38 of the total land area of Thailand.
In addition to these registered community forests, there are an additional 5,550 unregistered community forests.
The major benefit accruing to members of community forestry groups is that they can obtain usufruct rights to a limited range of forest resources mainly
NTFPs without legal ownership of the land. However, there are considerable tensions between community groups and others, including the RFD, over the
legitimacy of communities to have an effective role in forest management decision making. As a result, any real authority of communities to exercise effective
management over the forests is severely constrained. It is unlikely that community forestry will be able to expand i.e. to move from small projects to a national
program and make a significant impact on forest condition or livelihood improvement until there is an enabling regulatory framework both law and
supporting instruments.
5.7. Vietnam adapted from Navie 2005
Since the mid 1990s several projects have operated in Vietnam, piloting and testing approaches to community forestry in a variety of settings. The results have
had a considerable influence on the direction of policy development.
5.7.1. Regulatory Framework
Table 2. Evolution of community forestry policy in Vietnam Period
Recognition of community rights to manage forests
Before 1954 Community rights to access and use forests acknowledged
under traditional law. 1954-1975
No attention paid to community forest, but traditional community management of forests respected.
1976-1985 Focus on planning for state and co-operative forestry, forests
managed by communities was restricted. 1986-1992
First mention that villages were legal forest owners of traditional village forests.
Gilmour, O’Brien Nurse
21 1993-2002
Decentralization process of forest management strengthened, focus on forestry socialization. However, policy on community
forestry was still not explicit. 2003 to present
Legal basis of community forestry formulated. According to the new Land Law approved in 2003, a village community is the
entity to which the State allocates land or whose agricultural land use entitlement is recognized by the State. A new Forest Protection and Development Law revised
in 2004 has a separate item stipulating forest allocation to village communities including rights and duties of village communities.
The Civil Law revised in July 2005 has acknowledged the concept of common ownership by the community as property according to traditional
customs, or property that has been managed and utilized jointly by members of the community in accordance with a benefit sharing agreement.
In short, Vietnam has a basic legal framework and an evolving policy on community forestry which is represented primarily in two Codes, the Land Law
2003 and the Forest Protection and Development Law 2004. There is considerable scope for community forestry in the country, particularly
in the development of mountainous areas. Initial planning perceives four categories of community forest, ranging from forest land that is under de facto
local customary ownership to forest land that may be contracted to communities by State organizations.
These various categories of community forest will be managed by different types of manager, from village communities to special interest groups. Community
forestry in Vietnam is thought of as being of two distinct types, i.e. subsistence community forestry and commercial community forestry.
In terms of forest ownership, community forestry in Vietnam recognizes two concepts related to the type and extent of participation by the community in
forest management. These are a community forest management and b community–based forest management. Community forest management would
apply where forests are owned by a community. In these situations the community is both the owner and manager. Community-based forest management refers to
situations where communities participate in the management of forest that is owned by another entity such as a State Forest Enterprise or a Forest
Management Board. In this situation community members may share in the benefits of forest management by being engaged in paid labour or by contract.
5.7.2. Progress in Implementation
