Forest Land Allocation and Applied Informatics in Managing
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Page 1 of 13 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Thanh Hoa Department of Forestry Protection Report on FOREST LAND ALLOCATION AND APPLIED INFORMATICS IN MANAGING FOREST AND FOREST ALLOCATED LAND IN THANH HOA PROVINCE PART I: BACKGROUND INFORMATION I. NATURAL CONDITIONS. Thanh Hoa, a large province of Northern Central Viet Nam, has a total area of 1,116,833 ha. It borders Ninh Binh to the North, Nghe An to the South, the People's Democratic Republic of Laos to the West and the East Sea to the East. The province has a diversified topography comprising 4 areas: plains, midlands, mountains and seasides. II. POPULATION, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. The population of Thanh Hoa province is 3,700,000, with an average population density is 331 persons/km 2. The province has a certain potential to develop its economy, based on natural resources such as forests, plain agriculture and the sea. However, its economy is an agricultural one which depends much on nature; its industry is under-developed. Natural disasters occur here often. People, especially in mountainous areas, still meet enormous difficulties in their daily life. III. FOREST RESOURCES. Thanh Hoa is one of the provinces with a big forest resources with a total forest area of 698,572.59 ha (which accounts for 63% of natural land area), of which actually forested land constitutes 375,439.90 ha; and barren land 323,123.69 ha. Forest cover is 33,6%. (Source: Inventory and Statistics results on natural forests of Forestry Department stated enclosed with Decision 238 Q§-NN/UBTH dated March 23th 1996 by Chairman of Thanh Hoa People’s Committee). IV. PREVIOUS FOREST AND FOREST LAND USE SITUATION. Page 2 of 13 On implementing Decision 129 and 184 H§BT by the Chairman of Council of Ministers (who is currently Prime Minister), Thanh Hoa has reviewed its forest land to allocate to households, individuals and cooperatives for forest development; 562,271 ha has been allocated. Of which: 157,857 ha to19 State Forest Enterprises. 359,366 ha to 1,500 cooperatives and collective units. 45,048 ha to 79,026 households. Before 1995, the use of forest and forest land on the part of all sectors of the economy produced little economic value, because essentially the ownership of the land had not been clarified. Previous attempts at land allocation did not result in a dynamic process of preserving and developing forests, which in fact continue to be destroyed. Thus, better forest land allocation to economic units, individuals and households who have capacity to accept effective ownership of the allocated land is extremely urgent condition to stop deforestation, develop forest resources step by step, and eventually regreen the destroyed area. PART II: FOREST LAND ALLOCATION IN THANH HOA I. APPROACHES AND METHODS. 1 General basis. 1.1 Based on national policies on land use planning and forest land allocation: Land law. Forest protection and forest development laws. Government Decree 2, January 1994 on long - term forest land allocation to individuals, households and organizations for forestry development. 1.2 Policies, strategic directions, state management regulations, projects on forest land allocation in the province. Provincial strategic directions and policies: o Provincial Party Instruction N 24 CT/TU Project 22 UB/TH of Provincial People Committee. Sate Management and Guidelines on forest land allocation: Inter Departments - Forest Protection and Cadastrial Department Letter No 60 Guidelines on Forest land allocation and issuing the land certificates on long term use at commune level. Forest Protection Department Guidelines on forest land allocation according to Government Decree No 2 at commune level. Methods on Land use planning and land use plans at commune level issued by Forest Protection Department. Guidelines on mapping and sketching forest land allocation at commune level issued by Forest Protection Department. Decision on monitoring the forest land allocation at commune level by the Forest Protection Department. To make plans, directions, methods and funds, and applied research informatics in forest land allocation, the Forest Protection Department has developed 3 projects which have been approved by the Provincial People Committee as follows: "Forest land allocation in plains, midlands and mountains." "Forest land allocation in high mountainous, remote areas". "Applied reach informatics in forest and forest land management in Thanh Hoa 1996 - 2000". Page 3 of 13 1.3 Based on forest land resources of the province and the forest land use requirements of people and other organizations inside and outside province. 2 Principles. Use all mass communications means and policies so that villagers should be voluntarily be involved in land allocation. Social justice should be obeyed. Everybody who has forest land in this area should be allocated land in order to further develop forest economic activities. Forest land allocation must go hand in hand with land use planning in order to improve land use and put land into production with the right purpose; Forest land allocation must not base on the average rule, be expensive, tiresome or complicated regarding procedures. Villagers must be directly involved in land allocation: writing application, discussing land use plans, boundary demarcation, and surveying the land. Land allocation and permanent settlement must be combined together. Priority should be paid to those areas that have ongoing projects; the projects themselves should cooperate with each other to create an integrated fund to invest in production after land allocation. 3 Forest Land Allocation methods. Based on specific conditions of each zone to carry out the land allocation. 3.1 In Plains, Midlands and Mountains. 3.1.1 Organizing: "Based on principle - allocating land according to one's land use requirement and his capacity to invest. " At provincial level: Forest Protection Department is the deputy body. Cadastrial Department is the body to direct the land allocation, process and issue land certificates (Decree N 02/CP). At district level: Establish Land Allocation Council, which consists of : Chairman or vice - chairman of District PC is also Chairman of the Council. Forest Protection Section is the deputy body of the council. Cadastrial and agro - forestry sections etc. are members. At commune level: the Council consists of: Chairman or vice chairman of Commune PC is also Chairman of Council. Forest , cadastrial officers are members. Heads of villages are also members, together with members of working groups on land allocation. 3.1.2 Professional Training. To carry out successfully the land allocation, alongside communication of Party and State policy, professional training on land allocation is of the utmost importance at all three levels: province, district and commune. Training content contains: Page 4 of 13 Training material on forest land allocation and land use. Training material on plan of forest land allocation. Training material on mapping of forest land allocation. Training material on economic - technical specifications of protection and special-use forest. Training material on establishing data base and rapid information systems to monitor changes in forest resources. 3.2 In highland and remote areas. Steps are the same as above, with full attention paid to the principle "forest allocation together with the formulation of investment projects". During this process, Thanh Hoa has formulated and intends to set up the following project areas: Special-use forest: + Ben en National Park . + Viet - Lao Boarder National Defence Special Forest. + Pu Hu Natural Conservation (Quan Hoa). + Son Ba Muoi Natural Conservation ( Bat Thuoc). Protection forest: + Chu River Watershed forest ( Thuong Xuan, Nhu Xuan). + Yen Khuong-Yen Thang Watershed forest (Lang Chanh). + Ma River Watershed forest. + Buoi River Watershed forest. + Sim stream Watershed forest ( Muong Lat). 4. Working measures (to be applied for delta, midland and upland / remote areas) 4.1 Inventory of forest resources (using RRA method). Stand identification (opposite slope applied). Identify Forest capacity by using Piteclic Ruler. Inventory regenerated trees by counting the standard plots on inventory area. 4.2 Measuring: by using tape - measure, handle compass, three-leg compass to draw the sketch and measure the area of the plot of each owner in the field and the map. 4.3 Making the forest land allocation file: This consists of: + Application form (of the household, individual or organization). + Receiving report (in the field). + Sketch of the plot. Page 5 of 13 + Land certificate. + Forest land allocation book. + Map of forest land allocated. + Collateral ( for natural forest or plantation forest by State fund). II. RESULTS OF FOREST LAND ALLOCATION (FLA). All of the province ’s 27 districts have been involved in FLA; 20 districts, 298 communes and 7 Defence Boarder Stations have completed the process. The total area allocated is 416,178.104 ha. Of which: 1 Area allocated to the state enterprises: 106,068.23 ha. Includes: + Land with forest: 71,467.14 ha + Land without forest: 29,122.39 ha + Non-forest land: 5,487,70 ha 2 Area allocated to non-state units: 310,109.874 ha 2.1 To recipients to manage: Households: 66,717 hhs with 192,837.687 ha. Cooperatives and other organizations: 26,834.70 ha. Communes: 35,538.78 ha 7 Defence Boarder stations: 33,683.28 ha 2.2 According to forest classification, there have been + 208,135.4 ha of production forest and watershed-production