Institutional weakness, weak law enforcement and financial deficits

179 monoculture of exotic species. Unless fees for other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity and genetic conservation are available, natural regeneration forests and restoration approaches will not be able to compete with afforestation and commercial plantations. The low forest ecosystem service fee paid to farmers in some localities i.e. Son La Province makes natural forest maintenance and protection over conversion to other land uses such as cropland and industrial tree plantations much less attractive Pham et al. 2012. In conclusion, it is important to find a compromise to achieve the best possible results in forest restoration strategies. If the ecological and environmental values of forests are completely quantified and highly recognized in the climate change context, there may be more chances for natural forest and landscape restoration.

4.3 Case studies

The project ‘Demonstration of Capacity Building of Forest Restoration and Sustainable Forest Management in Vietnam’, sponsored by the Asia Pacific Network for Forest Rehabilitation and Sustainable Forest Management APFNet was implemented from September 2010 to December 2012. The overall objective was to contribute to improving the livelihoods of local communities through enhancing ecological services, biodiversity conservation and economic value via the restoration of secondary degraded natural forests Phu Tho Sub-department of Forestry 2010. The project applied best practices in natural forest restoration and sustainable forest management in Viet Nam including both technical and community development aspects. The best technical practices were species selection, planting and tending techniques. Project participants were the poorest ethnic communities in Phu Tho Province who had suboptimal cultivation techniques. It was necessary to design simple, easy and effective restoration approaches and techniques. This was the basis for the success of natural forest restoration in project areas, which can be replicated in other localities. The highest pressure on natural forest resources in the project area was the lack of cropland and forestry plantation land; poor natural forests were mostly protection forests which were prohibited from conversion into plantations. In this environment, the forest restoration model needed to create income for people both in the short and long term. Besides enrichment planting using native timber trees, the project also selected high value NWFPs that could grow under the forest canopy andor in forest gaps in order to create short-term income for farmers Phu Tho Sub-department of Forestry 2010; Phan 2014. A forest inventory conducted at pilot model sites revealed that poor secondary forests in these areas had low composition of valuable timber species, only about 15 to 35 percent in the stands Figure 3. The survey also found that there were approximately 17 NWFP species in low population densities. Figure 3. Commercial and non-commercial tree species in degraded natural forests in the project area Based on the prevailing characteristics at the project site, enrichment planting was designed in strips along contour lines in the simplest possible arrangement. Saplings of native timber species and NWFP seedlings were grown in clear strips of 8-m width or in forest gaps, and the interstrip widths were kept at 12 m. Valuable regenerating species in cleared strips were carefully retained while climbers in the strips were cut for promoting targeted sapling growth. Local community participation was essential for project success. Applying recognized community forest management techniques of successful ODA and governmental projects and a micro-institutional structure for forest protection and development in communities was carried out; village regulations for forest protection, management and benefit sharing 20 40 60 80 100 Plot 1 Plot 2 Plot 3 Plot 4 Plot 5 Plot 6 Plot 7 Plot 8 Plot 9 Plot 10 Plot Percentage Non-commercial species Commercial species