Consultancy Service for Technical Support to Lung Bamboo Propagation Model by “Culm Cutting” Method

Term of Reference (ToR)

Technical support to Lung bamboo propagation model by “culm cutting” method

1.    Background.

With nearly 1,5 million ha of bamboo forest, Vietnam has the fourth largest planting bamboo area in the world, only after China, India and Myanmar. Unlike other trees, bamboo can grow on any areas: from the garden to the field, from the river bank to the hill. In particular, bamboo can withstand in extreme weather, the green bamboo rows are the fences that protect human from the devastation of nature. Not being just sustainable and eco-friendly material, bamboo also brings a lot of values to national economy, the products made from bamboo are fresh and eco-friendly, so many customers are willing to pay to buy it. Economic value, culture value, indigenous value that bamboo brings so much, and certainly continue to increase in the future.

Lung bamboo –local name (Bambusa (Lingnania sp.3 or Bambusa longisima sp. Nov) is grown naturally in mixed natural forest including other species of bamboo, woods and NTFPs. Pertaining to Poaceae, is a bamboo cluster, distributing in provinces of Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Son La. Medium size stem, very long internodes, an average of 60-80 cm, many internodes over 1 m long, especially slang up to 1.4 m or more. Wide bell ring, the outside is covered with fur, becoming silver brown when dried. Leaf shaped oblong. As feature of Lung bamboo is elastic with long section, it can be used for weaving households furniture, decoration and handicrafts, pulp, providing bamboo shoots for food.

With support from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), through the grant mechanism International Climate Initiative (IKI), INBAR and RECOFTC is implementing a project “Focusing on production-driven forest landscape restoration under REDD+ through private sector-community partnerships as Asian regional learning exchange -FLOURISH”. The goal of the project is to enhance the climate change mitigation and adaptation potential of forests in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries through innovative and production-driven forest landscape restoration (FLR) in Laos, Thai Land and Viet Nam.

Lung bamboo is selected as key forest product for value chain development and contributing to forest land scape restoration under Nghe An FLOURISH. In 2019, project has facilitated 05 partnership agreements on raw material supply between private sector and local communities in FLOURISH sites of Quy Chau district. One of the most challenge is that Lung bamboos are naturally grown in natural forest and there are no successful methods to produce young seedlings for intensive plantation in production forest for commercial trade and value chain development even testing have been made before. Propagation of Lung bamboo species is recommended in Due Diligence and Value Chain Assessment carried out by FLOURISH project in Nghe An province.

2.    Objective:  

Zoning for improved management, enrichment and plantation of Lung bamboo forest by culm cutting propagation in Quy Chau and Que Phong districts, Nghe An province, Viet Nam for intensive farming of Lung in production forest for improved livelihoods and forest landscape restoration.

3.    Methods/Approach

• Review history of “culm cutting” propagation of Lung bamboo in Viet Nam and
• Provide technical advice to the setting up a community based nursery to test “culm cutting ‘propagation methods of Lung in the field applying chemical treatment to promote rhizome development
• Conduct a technical training of “culm cutting” propagation methods to a group of selected farmers and transfer to local partners
• Documentation of Lung bamboo propagation by culm cutting method
• Present final outcomes of the trial in the sharing workshop

4.    Expected outcomes:

• An inception report including implementation schedule and maps identified sites and areas for Lung bamboo propagation with HHs and zoning for enrichment and Identified appropriate method for Lung bamboo propagation 
• Reports on propagation techniques (journal paper preferred)
• Training manuals
• A technical training course on application of “culm cutting” propagation method to Lung bamboo is provided to 25 selected farmers in Nghe An province.
• M&E and progress report for Lung bamboo propagation.
• Documentation of process of Lung bamboo propagation by culm cutting method
• Final evaluation report including minutes of final evaluation of Lung bamboo propagation

5.    Scope: 

Consultant is required to provide technical support activities to the Lung propagation model from December 2019 to May 2020 in several installments. Total days required is 21 days and daily rate of 70 Euro is applied. Proposed location will be in Chau Hanh and Chau Thang of Quy Chau and Dong Van commune of Que Phong district (FLOURISH project sites), Nghe An province.

6.    Proposed work plan and time frame for the first phase.

7.    Process of selecting participating farmers.

Project will work with communal people’s committee, Forest Rangers in Quy Chau and Que Phong districts and local communities through numbers of meeting/discussion to develop criteria for selecting participants. However, key criteria for participating to the pilot will be:

• Who are interested in planting and protecting Lung bamboo forest
• Who have land area for Lung bamboo forest development ( at least =1 ha or larger) with land use title
• Willing to participate in training and disseminate the lessons learnt to other farmers and local communities
• Pilot location should be convenient for accessing
• Farmers who have experienced in Lung bamboo propagation is welcomed
• Discussion on agreement of participation to the pilot model, objectives and methodology to be carried out, contribution and benefits of the pilot group and each participating farmer to the model.
• Sign commitment agreement to join the pilot model with the witness of local communities and other technical agencies ( Forest ranger on site, Communal Peoples’s Committee, Village Head) and to maintain and develop the model at the end of testing period

8.    Use of successful results.

Total time required for this Lung bamboo nursery model is 3 months. Based on success of this model, project together with district, commune, Duc Phong company, participating farmers to disseminate and communicate other interested farmers to extend the method in other Lung bamboo forest area. As the 1st phase is to ensure that Lung bamboo propagation by culm cutting is successful, then project will facilitate dissemination of the selected methods, process and lesson learnt to other local communities/farmer including local authorities for expansion of the method.

9.    How to apply

Your offer, comprising a technical proposal and financial proposal, should reach the following address: [email protected] [1] with cc to: [email protected] [2] no later than 29 November, 2019.