Consultant to Develop a Forest Protection and Management Plan - Lao Cai Province

Consultancy announcement

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Position: Consultant to develop a forest protection and management plan for communities who are contracted with forest management boards in Lao Cai province for the USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project, RECOFTC Viet Nam.

Sub-Activity Code: 1.2.7.2

Estimated number of consulting days: 29 person days, from July to September 2022

Application deadline: 5.00pm. Hanoi local time, July 15, 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 Sustainable Forest Management Project (The SFM Project) will work with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation, the degradation of natural forests, and poor plantation management. The SFM Project will implement 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 SFM Project will work in seven provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam) and focus on five objectives:

• Improve and expand community forest management
• Increase conservation-friendly enterprises in forest-dependent communities
• Increase functionality of law enforcement system for forest crimes
• Improve production forest management practices
• Mobilize domestic resources for forest management and protection

The SFM Project is being 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 Viet Nam is now inviting applicants for a consultant to develop forest protection plans for communities under forest protection contracts (FPCs) with protection forest management boards (PFMB) in Lao Cai province.

The activity will be expected to contribute directly to the main indicator: ID2: Number of institutions with improved capacity to address sustainable landscape issues as supported by USG assistance; ID3: Number of laws, policies, regulations, or standards addressing sustainable landscapes formally proposed, adopted, or implemented as supported by USG assistance, ID5-Number of livelihood beneficiaries; and ID8: Number of hectares under improved natural resource management, safeguards or sustainable business practices (in 11 monitoring and evaluation indicators of the 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. Four main types of these engagements include: traditional community forests; introduced community forests; groups of households managing forestlands; and individual households, who all individually own forestland, collaborating in forest management.

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 forest household groups). The second modality is community-based forest management (CBFM) in which village communities manage contracted forests with protection forest management boards.

With CBFM models, the community participates in forest protection activities under a forest protection contract with the Protection Forest Management Board. This is one of the most popular CBFM models in Lao Cai province. Under this modality, local communities are contracted by forest management boards to protect forest resources (mainly protection forests and/or special-use forests). Local people are paid based on forest protection contracts, mainly from payment for forest environment services (PFES).

At present, communities are engaged into FPCs with forest management boards mainly for protection forests. Communities elect their forest protection team for forest protection patrolling. The development and implementation of forest protection plans has not always been effective. Therefore, in order to improve the effectiveness of the contracted forest protection work in Lao Cai province, the priority is to support communities under FPCs to develop and implement more effectively participatory forest protection plans.

Objective of the consultancy

To build capacities for the target communities to better protect forests through developing participatory forest protection plans for five communities under forest protection contract (FPCs) with forest management boards, including:

• Community in Khe Pan village, Nam Tha commune, Van Ban district;
• Community in Nam Ma village, Nam Trang village, Ta Mong village, Nam Ma commune, Van Ban district;
• Community in Tham Phuc village, Coc Ly commune, Bac Ha district.

Tasks

The consultant is responsible for performing the following tasks:

1. Develop draft forest protection plans (FPP) of communities engaged with forest protection contract (FPCs) management boards:

• Based on project documents and reports; guiding documents of the Provincial People's Committee, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, FPD on guidelines for the development of FPPs for communities;
• Consult with stakeholders on the content of the draft forest protection plans
• Content the FPP:
• Forest patrol activities (including forms and templates used in patrolling activities);
• Fire prevention and fighting activities according to current regulations (Forestry Law; Circular 25/2019/TT- MARD dated December 27, 2019 on forest fire prevention and fighting);
• Mechanism for sharing benefits from the contracted forests (including PFES, NTFPs etc.)
• Monitoring and evaluation mechanism;
• Integrate gender and social inclusion issues into community forest protection and management plans.

2. Meetings with communities

• Facilitate meetings with communities to establish core groups comprising of community members (core group) for the formulation of FPPs
• Establish or reinforce forest protection patrolling teams at the target communities.

3. Finalize community forest protection plans: Meeting with community forest protection patrolling team and core group to collect information and finalize plans

4. Facilitate consultations from protection forest management boards (PFMBs), commune people’s committees and PPMU to revise FPPs. The final product is the community FPPs with the consensus from respective PFMBs, CPCs and PPMU.

5. Organize meetings with communities to disseminate FPPs

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

Duration

Estimated time for this assignment is 29 man-days, starting from July 2022 to September 20, 2022, including fieldwork on the project sites. All final products are submitted in Vietnamese. Specific products and time frames are as follows.

LOE

Implementation plan and deliverables

The implementation schedule is presented in the table bellows:

Requirements of deliverables

1. 05 Forest Protection Plans of 05 communities; 05 Forest Protection Plans of 05 communities with consensus from relevant parties (Protection Forest Management Boards, commune people’s committees) and accepted by the Provincial VFBC PMU;
2. Village meeting minutes  

Required qualifications

• Vietnamese nationality only
• A bachelor’s degree or higher, majoring in forest protection or related fields
• Having at least 10 years of experience in the field of agriculture and forestry, especially related to the fields of forest protection contract, community forestry. Preference will be given to candidates with working experience in the field of agriculture and forestry in Lao Cai province.
• Having experiences in setting up a community forest protection patrolling team; developing a plan for forest fire prevention and fighting; planning participatory forest patrolling; supporting sustainable harvest of non-timber forest products; mechanism for sharing benefits from forests; monitoring and evaluation activities at community level.
• Having in-depth knowledge and understanding of community forest management;
• Experience and skills in writing reports in Vietnamese; able to use English at work is an advantage.

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 application in both English and Vietnamese languages, including CV; cover letter (indicating why they are suitable for this consultancy); expected consultant fee /or daily rate; current contact details of three references by email to [email protected]. Please indicate “Your full name Consultant to develop a FPMP for communities in Lao Cai” in the email subject title.

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].

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