04/08/2016
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1. Key barriers hindering protected area management effectiveness
In order to achieve the project’s objective, at first, key barriers hindering protected area management effectiveness have been identified. Accordingly, barriers can be grouped under four headings: The lack of a comprehensive and harmonized legal and policy framework for protected area financing; The lack of clear and harmonized institutional mandates and processes for protected area financing mechanisms; Little knowledge of sustainable financing options; and The lack of information and information sharing on biodiversity and protected area status.
Given these barriers, the following outcomes will be secured through implementing the project: A comprehensive and harmonized legal and policy framework will be established supporting sustainable protected area financing; Clear and harmonized institutional mandates and processes will be identified supporting sustainable protected area financing mechanisms; Knowledge on and experience in options of sustainable financing will be improved; and Information on biodiversity and protected area status will support protected area management and help building public support for the protected area system.
2. Project development and achievements
2.1 Establishment of a comprehensive and harmonized policy and legal framework supporting sustainable protected area financing
The main objective of the Project is to create a sustainable policy and legal framework for the management of protected areas and to develop guidance for protected area management boards on how to allocate the available budget.
Reviewing and revising biodiversity conservation legislation
Currently, Biodiversity is regulated in many legal documents, but it focuses mainly on 4 legal systems: Law on Forest Protection and Development, Law on Environmental Protection, Law on Fisheries, Law on Biodiversity. These legal documents have contributed to improvement of legislation systems on biodiversity in Việt Nam. However, there are some differences in scope of regulation, management objective among Law on Forest Protection and Development, Law on Environmental Protection, Law on Fisheries, Law on Biodiversity. Hence, Biodiversity content regulated by these documents which are also different; legal documents remain some confusion; biodiversity, then resulting in a sectoral system for biodiversity conservation differentiating between forest, marine and wetland protected areas, biodiversity on wetland; instead of considering biodiversity as a unified system.
Recognizing that this highly fragmented system hinders effective and sustainable biodiversity management, this Project helps to review and revise the 2008 Law on Biodiversity by identifying contextual overlaps and inconsistencies with other legislation relevant to biodiversity throughout the amendment process and proposing potential modifications. By the end of 2015, a comprehensive report will be completed to fulfill this task.
Guideline on budget allocation
Research under the Project has revealed that the annual state budget granted for protected areas is mainly used for infrastructure development ( roughly 51% of total budget) and operational purposes (about 37%) such as the payment of salary for officials, forest patrol, the prevention of forest burnings, etc. Crucial activities for biodiversity conservation like the observation of plant and animal species, updating biodiversity data on a regular basis, research on ecosystems or the application of geoinformation systems and remote sensing are not seriously performed or only on very rare occasions, mostly when additional external technical support is provided. One of many underlying causes for this situation is the lack of guidance on management practices for protected areas. For this reason, the development of guidelines for the allocation of expenditures of protected areas is a matter of priority of this Project. Consequently, under its direction, a Joint Circular of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and MoNRE on “Guiding the management, use and settlement of the regular expenditures from the State budget in order to implement tasks, projects, schemes, programs of the National Strategy on Biodiversity by 2020 and vision towards 2030” has been formulated and approved on 29/10/2014 under No. 160/2014/TTLT-BTC-BTMT.
2.2 Clear and harmonized institutional mandates and processes support sustainable protected area financing mechanisms
Memorandum of understanding between MoNRE and MARD
Protected areas are an important tool for the management and protection of biodiversity. As has been indicated, in Viet Nam the unclear distribution of responsibilities for biodiversity management and lack of coordination between MoNRE and other stakeholders hinder effective and sustainable biodiversity conservation. Therefore, there is no doubt that there is a need for improved mutual understanding on protected area management between the two ministries. The signing of a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the “coordination of the implementation of state management on biodiversity conservation” has been the “primary accomplishment of the Project”. After an internal review process, the MOU would be signed at the end of 2015 .
Training courses on biodiversity management
According to a definition by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNEP, it might be taken as ‘the actions needed to enhance the ability of individuals, institutions and systems to make and implement decisions and perform functions in an effective, efficient and sustainable manner’. Part of the Project is therefore to provide training courses for MoNRE and MARD staff as well as for protected area employees on matters, such as biodiversity policies and legislation, biodiversity planning (at national and provincial level), biodiversity financing, the performance of an Environmental Impact Assessment, the management of invasive species, biodiversity observation, monitoring and reporting the current status of biodiversity.
The project has organized 35 training courses with 850 trainees from all over the country. Additionally, in order to ensure the sustainability of the training programme once the Project is formally finalized, ‘Training of Trainers’ (TOT) is carried out and relevant training material is provided. Furthermore, according training materials have been developed which will be integrated into postgraduate training programmes of the Center for Resources and Environment Studies (CRES) of Hanoi National University as well as training courses organized by MoNRE and MARD.
Proposing the incentive mechanisms for officers of protected areas
Human resources are one of the decisive factors for the development and protection of natural resources. Under the current regime, forest rangers receive seniority allowance, while officers of management boards of protected areas do not enjoy these benefits even though they handle similar missions on similar scenes. In line with the National Strategy on Biodiversity to 2020 and vision to 2030, Strategy for Management of Special-Use Forests, Marine Protected Areas and Inland Water Protected Areas in Vietnam until 2020 the Project aims to harmonize the seniority allowance mechanism and the salary for ‘conservation staff’ and forest rangers working in protected areas. Furthermore, an incentive mechanism for civil servants and public employees working in the field of biodiversity conservation with direct impacts on their dedication and motivation is developed. The outcome will be a draft Circular providing for a detailed format of federally recognized titles for civil servants and public employees and for recommendations on rearrangements of policies on salary grade, scale of salary and allowances. It will ensure that the salary policies for civil servants and public employees are in compliance with those of the market economy to prevent the well-known effect of “brain drain” from public services to private markets, where higher incomes and salaries often prevail.
2.3 Knowledge on and skills in sustainable financing from demonstration sites.
An effective financing mechanism for protected areas is a key factor for sustainable biodiversity conservation. Many protected areas in Việt Nam entirely rely on government budget allocations, some benefit significantly from funding from international agencies and foreign donors. Yet, there is a need to find new financial resources to supplement existing funding. However, currently, protected area managers lack the authority to explore options for generating alternative revenue streams. Under the Project, the search for additional sources of funding is therefore encouraged. In order to test different schemes for revenue generation, cooperation agreements with the management boards of three pilot sites, Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park, Cát Bà National Park and Xuân Thủy National Park have been concluded. If they are successful, they will serve as examples to other protected area management boards looking for alternative income sources for biodiversity conservation.
Cát Bà National Park
In order to boost sustainable financing of biodiversity conservation a new ticket pricing system is currently tested at Cát Bà National Park. To enable the increase in ticket fees, the approval of the People’s Committee of Hai Phong City had to be obtained. According to its respective Decision No. 1780/2014/QD-UBND dated t /8/2014 Cát Bà National Park is now allowed to increase the entrance fee for visitors from 0.,00s VND to 0.,00s VND per person. The total increase in revenue is estimated at1,.2 billios VND per year.
Furthermore, it is planned to introduce, promote and expand the concept of ecotourism in Cát Bà National Park as an additional source of income. Tourism, in particular ecotourism, is a key economic factor for biodiversity conservation. For Cát Bà National Park, a marketing strategy is developed to attract visitors to the park. For this purpose, visitor desires have been identified and based on these, tourism products and tours have been developed which are unique and interesting to visitors of the Park. For example, a leaflet, a book and a video emphasizing the beauty and ecological value of the site have been created. Moreover, a training programme for National Park employees has been developed aimed at enhancing their marketing and guiding skills. In addition, the internet website of Cát Bà has been updated and is now providing relevant information on the Park’s biodiversity and attractions in Vietnamese and in English.
In order to develop sustainable finance mechanism from ecosystem service in Cát Bà National Park, it is necessary to develop coordination regulation on management of tourist activities between Cát Bà National Park and local authorities; to ensure the consistency and consensus between Cát Bà National Park and local authorities. The regulation is therefore developed so as to determine responsibilities of stakeholders. The regulation was consulted Cát Bà National Park, local authorities and other stakeholders and was signed by them.
Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park
Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park is a site implementing program on the payment for forest environmental service (PFES), Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park did not received any budget from its forest area. Thus, the Project helps the National park to develop the scheme on revenue increasing and utilization the revenue from ecosystem. Following Decision No. 2393/QD-UBND dated /11/2014, Lâm Đồng PPC allows Bidoup - Núi Bà National park to increase revenue from payment for forest ecosystem services, entrance fee, ecotourism service and research activities. The resulting increase in the budget is estimated to increase by 3 billion VND per year. In addition, to secure the sustainable implementation of the scheme, technical support has been provided. This includes the development of a regulation and a corresponding plan for forest patrolling, the creation of a leaflet on the Park’s biodiversity and attractions, the drafting of a species map, the identification of indicators for monitoring and the creation of a report on the current status of the Park’s biodiversity. A meeting with 82 delegates from Universities, travel companies, scientists, and officials from inside and outside the province has been arranged to discuss the promotion of ecotourism.
Xuân Thủy National Park
For the generation of additional funding, for Xuân Thủy National Park, a scheme on increasing and sharing revenues from extensive clam farming has been proposed under the support of the project. The application has been approved by the People’s Committee of Nam Định Province under Decision No. 119/QD-UBND. Of particular importance for Xuân Thủy National Park is to balance conservation needs with the interest to generate additional funding by conducting extensive clam farming. The assessment of the current status of biodiversity within the ecological restoration zone is therefore subject to special responsibility and for this reason carried out under the umbrella of the Project. Part of the assessment will be the establishment of a map illustrating the current status of biodiversity and indicating the planned clam farming area including its impacts on the conservation area. In order to ensure the maintenance of the existing biodiversity, technical guidelines on sustainable clam farming are developed.
2.4 Collecting information and data on biodiversity, reporting on the current status of biodiversity in protected areas; Promoting public support for protected areas
Monitoring, data collection and data exchange between protected areas
Currently, Information system, report on biodiversity are limited; information almost has not been updated and shared among protected areas, Departments of Natural Resources and Environment (DONREs), Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARDs), MoNRE, MARD. To resolve this issue, the Project has supported to develop guideline on biodiversity monitoring, guideline on biodiversity report. For this purpose, data on plant and animal species are collected over a period of two years at Xuân Thủy National Park serving as a pilot site. In order to ensure the systematic management of the data collected and allow their exchange, a Clearing House Mechanism (CHM) between Protected areas and DARDs, DONREs and other stakeholders is currently under development.
Raising public awareness and gaining public support
Of vital significance for effective biodiversity conservation is public awareness and mobilization of community support and participation. The project staffs have therefore developed a ‘Public Awareness Raising Programme’ which is currently implemented at the three pilot sites in 2015. It aims at educating secondary school pupils and first and foremost the population whose life is depending on natural resources within conservation areas.
3.Concluding Remarks
This Project’s studies have clearly identified the need for a comprehensive and harmonized legal and policy framework on biodiversity along with clear and harmonized institutional mandates as key priorities for effective biodiversity conservation in Việt Nam. Although many activities have been initiated under the Project such as reviewing and proposed revision oy Law on Biodiversity, the formulation of a draft MOU between MoNRE and MAD…. However, in the context of the project there are some drawbacks that could not be solved; it requires the close coordination between Ministries, sectors and other relevant bodies.
Policies and sustainable finance mechanism for Protected areas only come into effect and are implemented effectively under the unified management. In addition to unified management and specific strategy, criteria on classification, monitoring, assessment of biodiversity in effective way; these factors are enable for budget allocation, sustainable, systematic and effective investment■
Burbat, Daniela and Trần Huyền Trang
PA project, Biodiversity Conservation Agency
Vietnam Environment Administration
