Consultant on Forest Inventory

Consultancy announcement

Position: consultant on forest inventory for developing GESI integrated Sustainable Forest Management Plans for three target communities in CFM demonstration sites in Nghe An province for the USAID Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Project, RECOFTC Viet Nam

Sub-Activity Code: 1.2.5.1&1.2.6.1 Develop and implement GESI integrated forest management plans for demonstrating CFM communes

Estimated number of consulting days: about 60 working days, from June till August 2022

Application deadline: May 20, 2022

At RECOFTC, we believe in a future where people live equitably and sustainably in and beside healthy, resilient forests. We take a long-term, landscape-based and inclusive approach to supporting local communities to secure their land and resource rights, stop deforestation, find alternative livelihoods and foster gender equity. We are the only non-profit organization of our kind in Asia and the Pacific. We have more than 30 years of experience working with people and forests, and have built trusting relationships with partners at all levels. Our influence and partnerships extend from multilateral institutions to governments, private sector and local communities. Our innovations, knowledge and initiatives enable countries to foster good forest governance, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

The USAID Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Project supports the Government of Viet Nam to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation, degradation of natural forests and poor plantation management. The project implements a ‘green prosperity’ approach that strengthens local communities’ ability to protect their natural resource base and reduce emissions while building a strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods and equitable economic growth.

The project works in seven provinces: Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri and Quang Nam. It focuses on five main objectives:

1. Strengthening community forest management
2. Promoting conservation-friendly enterprises
3. Improving law enforcement to tackle environmental crimes
4. Enhancing the management of production forests
5. Mobilizing domestic resources

The Project will be implemented during the period 2020-2025 by DAI in collaboration with RECOFTC and Preferred by Nature as partners, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as the counterpart and the Management Board of Forestry Projects (MBFP) as project owner.

RECOFTC is implementing Objective 1 by improving and expanding community forest management in the seven target provinces, in close coordination with other partners and Viet Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

RECOFTC Viet Nam is now inviting applicants for a consultant on forest inventory for developing Sustainable Forest Management Plans which incorporating GESI for communities who are allocated forest land in demonstration sites on CFM in Nghe An provincefor the USAID Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Project.

Background

Background

Forest dependent communities’ participation is increasingly recognized as an important factor in effectively maintaining forests. Communities have been engaged into forest management and protection in various forms.

Under the SFM Project, the concept of community covers two forms of local people's participation in forest management. The first modality is community forest management (CFM) in which residential communities/villages manage their allocated forests. This also covers the modality where communities manage household’s allocated forests as a community group (community-based forest household groups). The second modality is community-based forest management (CBFM) in which village communities manage contracted forests with protection forest management boards. In Fiscal Year 2021, the Project conducted the CFM baseline assessments which reflected the status of community forests and proposed potential sites to improve and expand community forestry management.

A residential community is recognized by Forestry Law, as one of the seven forest owners which is an important milestone in promoting community forestry in Viet Nam, towards sustainable management of natural forests. Indeed, many successful models of community forest management prove communities’ capacities in effective management of forests, through which they enjoy considerable benefits from forests. Nevertheless, by the end of 2020, communities in seven provinces managed only 373,731 hectares of forests or 9.7 percent of total forestlands in the Project sites. CFM modality has been facing various key challenges such as limited access to their entitled tenure over forests and forest land, community forests are mostly degraded or poor which fail to provide adequate benefits and maintain communities’ commitments on forest protection and management.

With CFM modality, local communities can access different financial sources, including but not limited to forest protection expenditures, PFES program, NTFP income, joint cooperation/investment and other credit programs to support communities to more effectively fulfill the roles and responsibilities of forest owners under CFM.

In order to strengthen the capacity of the community to manage, protect, sustainable use and develop the allocated forest resources, the community will actively develop a community sustainable forest management plan (SFM Plan) with support from the SFM Project. Through this process, the community will effectively perform the role of forest owner to protect the forests, promote multi-purpose of forest, and protect the environment of the forest, increase the supply capacity of forest and ensure the long-term use of forest products, especially NTFPs. Communities can also effectively explore the potential of eco-tourism, cultural tourism, resort, and environmental education. This process strengthens the capacity of the community, towards self-sufficiency in part of financial resources through revenue from forest protection, from PFES, from sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products, from organizing ecotourism activities to contribute to economic development, poverty reduction, and sustainable livelihood improvement..

Composition of the consultant team:

To carry out the task of developing a sustainable forest management plan for communities that have been allocated land and forests, the SFM Project is seeking to recruit a team of consultants including:

• Consultant 01: is the team leader, responsible for organizing, coordinating, assigning, checking and supervising team members during the implementation. The team leader will directly participate in the survey, development of intervention activities, coordinate forest inventory and synthesize the development of sustainable forest management plans for the selected communities.
• Consultant 02: is a team member, responsible for performing forest inventory tasks, with the participation of the team leader and consultant 03.
• Consultant 03: is a team member, responsible for carrying out the tasks of surveying, developing interventions, participating in forest inventory, developing community forest protection conventions.

Objective 

Review and assess the current status of community forest resources to inform the development of three sustainable forest management plans for the three selected communities.

Tasks

Consultant 03, a team member, is responsible for performing the following tasks:

1. Collect relevant documents:

Collect and synthesize relevant information and documents to carry out the Forest Inventory for the community, including:

• Maps and data on forest status
• Maps and data on planning for three types of forests
• Maps, data and reports on commune-level land use planning
• Other information and documents related to forest status.

2. Conduct participatory community forest inventory:

The implementation of community forest inventory task is carried out according to the guidance in Articles 10, Article 11, Article 14, Article 15, Article 19, Article 20 of Circular 33/2018/TT-BNNPTNT dated November 16, 2018 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on forest survey, inventory and monitoring, which are supplemented and updated according to Article 10 in the CFM Manuals of the Project, including:

• Forest area inventory : review and update the latest forest status map of the Forest Protection Department
• Forest reserve inventory
• Investigation of forest regeneration
• Investigation of non-timber forest products
• Investigation of endangered and rare forest plants
• Investigation of endangered and rare forest animals
• Determination of forest biomass and carbon stock

3. Conduct technical training of field forest resources inventory s for the community

During the forest resources inventory, on the job training will be conducted for the community in order to strengthen their capacity to carry out forest resources inventory and serve the community's forest monitoring mission in the future.

Scale and sites for implementation

The consultant team is expected to develop three Sustainable Forest Management Plans for the following 03 selected communities:

• Community in Dinh Huong village, Tam Dinh commune, Tuong Duong district, Nghe An province with an area of ??1,471 hectares
• Community of Dinh Thang village, Tam Dinh commune, Tuong Duong district, Nghe An province with an area of ??1,153 hectares
• Community of Dong Tien village, Lang Khe commune, Con Cuong district, Nghe An province with area 630 ha.

Anticipated duration, level of effort (LOE), timeline and deliverables

Duration

Estimated time for the consultant 03 to carry out this task is 60 man-days, expected to start from June 2022, and submit the final report on August 30, 2022. Details are in the following table:

LOE

Implementation plan and deliverables

Requirements of deliverables

1. Report: in Vietnamese, including:

• 03 reports on forest survey results for 03 communities

2. Maps: in Vietnamese, edited with specialized software Map/info according to TCVN 11565:2016 standard, including:

• 03 Forest status maps for 03 communities
• 03 Distribution maps of endangered and rare forest plants and animals for 03 communities

3. Data: Forest survey results sheets and forms in Vietnamese for 03 communities as prescribed in the CFM Manuals.

Required qualifications

• Vietnamese nationality only
• Having a university degree or higher, majoring in forest inventory and planning; forest protection or management
• Minimum 10 years of experience in the forestry sector
• Having a lot of experience and expertise in using GPS and GIS technology in forest inventory and planning; updating and developing forest status maps.
• Having experience and expertise in biodiversity and NTFP investigations
• Experience and skills in teamwork
• Experience and skills in writing reports in Vietnamese; Able to use English at work.
• Priority is given to consultants with experience and understanding of community forests in Nghe An province

RECOFTC’s core values

At RECOFTC, our core values are the foundation of our culture and guide all our work. In addition to job specific skills and experience, the applicant should possess the following characteristics, attitudes and skills:

• Embrace innovation
• Adapt to, and learn from, challenges
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders
• Nurture commitment, responsibility and ownership
• Prioritize sustainability
• Cultivate participation, social inclusion and gender equity

How to apply

Interested individuals are requested to submit their CV and a cover letter indicating why they are suitable for this consultancy along with the expected fee or daily rate and current contact details of three references, to [email protected]. Please quote the consultancy title in the subject line of the email. Only shortlisted individuals will be notified.

For any further information you may need about the consultancy, please contact [email protected].

Deadline to apply is 5.00 p.m. Hanoi local time, 20 May, 2022.

To learn more about RECOFTC, please visit our website www.recoftc.org