Country: Vietnam
Organization: SNV - Netherlands Development Organization
Programme: REDD+
Project: Advancing Understanding of Forest Carbon Stock Enhancement as part of REDD+, ENRICH Project
Duration: 15 days, ending on December, 2013
1. Background
Vietnam is a country with rich forest resources. Before 1945, Vietnam had 43 million hectares of forest area, accounting for 42% of total land area. In 1975, the remaining forest area was 9.5 million ha (accounting for 29% of land area). The forest area was 8.5 million ha (23.6%) and 6.5 million ha (19.7% of the total country’s land area) in 1985 and 1989 respectively (Forest Inventory and Planning Institute). Through the efforts of forest rehabilitation under national programs such as Program 327 and 661 and the incentives set up by the Government, the national forest area reached 13,138 million ha (accounting for 39.7%) in 2011. In terms of forest quality, before 1945, national forests have timber stock volume of about 200 – 300m3/ha, including valuable timber species such as Erythrophleum
fordii, Madhuca pasquieri, Sindora tonkinensis, Vatica tonkinensis etc. which are very popular. The trees with diameters of 40 - 50 cm account for up to 40-50% of the forest reserves (Hoang Hoe, 1998). Currently, the forest quality has declined significantly, mainly poor forests with low economic values.
Given the context, rehabilitation of degraded natural forests in order to improve the forest quality and increase forest carbon stocks should be part of the national REDD+ strategy. Although Vietnam’s forestry sector has issued the technical processes and protocols for the rehabilitation of degraded natural forests, the purpose of forest rehabilitation has only focused on timber production and has not put priority on the functions of providing ecosystem services from forests. There has been a lack of guidelines and national approaches to the issues related to enhancing forest carbon stocks as part of REDD+ strategy.
With the support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), and the Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) are implementing the Forestry/REDD+ project entitled “Advancing Understanding of Natural Forest Carbon Stock Enhancement as part of REDD+”, ENRICH in short, over a period of 3 years, from 2012 – 2014 in Ha Tinh and Ca Mau provinces.
This project aims to advance the understanding of the feasibility and benefits of forest rehabilitation activities, timber stock and forest biomass enhancement, thereby enhancing forest carbon stocks in implementing the program on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). One of the important results achieved by the project is to complete and publish technical guidelines for enhancing carbon stocks which are suitable for each measure in selected forest ecosystem in the pilot area of the project.
Currently, the project has been piloting demonstration activities on enhancing forest carbon stocks through: i) the impacts of silvicultural measures for broadleaf evergreen forest ecosystem in Ke Go Nature Reserve in Ha Tinh province and mangroves in Dat Mui of Ca Mau province, ii) improvement of hydrological management for Melaleuca forest ecosystem on peat soil in U Minh Ha National Park, Ca Mau Province.
In order for the project outcomes to be documented and applied to the areas with similar ecological characteristics, the ENRICH project has been looking for suitable candidates to provide comments, supplementations and revision of existing technical reports of the project.
2. Tasks of consultant services
The selected consultant shall:
- Read and provide comments for the technical reports according to the project processes and regulations as well as technical guidance of the state management agencies at all levels for different ecological zones.
- Proofreading and completing the technical reports of the project in order for the reports to be of high international technical standard for enhancement of forest carbon stocks for areas with similar ecological characteristics.
The documents which need reading and editing include:
A- Evergreen forest in pilot sites of Ke Go Nature Reserve
1) Report on assessment of the status and proposing silvicultural measures to restore degraded natural forests in Ke Go Nature Reserve in Ha Tinh province (41 pages).
2) Report on investigation of drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in project pilot site, Ke Go Nature Reserve, Ha Tinh Province (37 pages)
3) Guidelines for forest carbon measurement and monitoring in pilot areas of Ke Go Nature Reserve, Ha Tinh province.(32 pages)
4) Silvicultural guidelines for rehabilitation of degraded natural forests (15 pages)
5) Training guide for forest rehabilitation and sustainable forest management (6 pages)
6) Hand-outs on silvicultural measures for forest rehabilitation (02 pages)
B- Pilot areas of mangroves in Dat Mui, Ca Mau province
1) Report on assessment of the status and proposing silvicultural measures to restore mangroves in the pilot project area, Dat Mui protection forest management board, Ca Mau province (48 pages)
2) Guidelines for mangrove biomass inventory and monitoring in pilot project area in Dat Mui, Ca Mau province (28 pages)
3) Hand-outs on silvicultural guidelines for rehabilitation of mangroves (2 pages)
3. Tentative timeframe:
The timeframe for reading, providing comments and proofreading the documents will be in 15 days and completed before 30, November 2013
4. Deliverables
- The consultants selected will provide a comprehensive report stating in details the comments and revisions for each document provided by the project according to the list of documents provided in Section 2 above.
- The draft report will be sent to the project within one week after completion of the task and the final report is expected to submit on 20 December 2013.
5. Qualifications
The successful consultants should have/be:
- At least 10 years of professional experience in sustainable forest protection and management;
- Proven knowledge and experience in silvicultural measures for rehabilitation of natural forests;
- Demonstrated knowledge on REDD+ and national REDD+ action plans in Vietnam
- Experience in evaluating forestry project activities and working under time pressure to complete the job;
- Experience in reading, commenting and proofreading technical documents related to sustainable forest establishment and management.
- Fluency in English, native English is desirable
6. Request for proposal
Interested consultants are requested to submit:
- The Curriculum vitae (CV) of the consultant who will carry out the work
- A detailed work plan including budget.
Interested candidates should submit their application documents to Mr Nguyen The Chien – SNV REDD+ Programme, e-mail address: [email protected] [1]. Deadline of the submission is 17:00, Thursday, 31 October 2013.