A brief presentation of the LISO Alliance working with the Red Dzao people of Phin Ngan, Bat Xat, Lao Cai province, Vietnam to assist them secure forest land rights over their communal and sacred forest.

2. The mountain forests of Phin Ngan after a storm.
LISO moved here at the request of Lao Cai province after SPERI’s successful
land allocation programme with the Mong people of Simacai district

3. Stepped rice paddy and forest in Sung Hoang, Phin Ngan.
Most villagers don’t have official land use rights, cultivating on land
managed by protected forest management boards

4. LISO first step when coming to a community is to invite everyone to meet.
Here we ask villagers in Sung Hoang to discuss issues and problems they
are facing

5. Without villagers participation and agreement, land allocation cannot work.
Sung Hoang villagers ask LISO to facilitate an allocation process for household
and community rights.

6. LISO trains communities to understand and map the land use in their
commune.With their help villagers draw a cross sectional land use map of
Sai Duan and Sung Duan

7. Participation and consultation is the key to conflict resolution – LISO’s
methods rely heavily on community involvement in every step of the forest
land allocation process

8. Sai Duan villagers explain the rules and management of sacred forest
Research is essential to understand sacred forest worship and how it and other
management methods help ethnic minority communities protect their forests

9. Most important in the minds of ethnic minority people is the preservation of
sacred forest. Community members complete a map of the sacred forest of
Sai Duan village with accompanying management regulations

10. Natural forest products are very important for Red Dzao women. Mrs. Chan, a
member of the women’s union and village elder is actively involved in the
allocation process. Here she prepares forest vines for embroidery.

11. Forest land conflicts are commonly a result of unclear and overlapping
boundaries of current land use
As a first step in the forest land allocation process, villagers map the commune

12. The next step is mapping current land use in each village.
This community designed land use map of Sung Hoang village shows
locations of sacred forest and other land uses and ownership

13. As well as working closely with farmers, LISO has good relationships with local
authorities who have the power to allocate land. Here we are sharing information
in Bat Xat district office on the land and forest situation in Phin Ngan

14. Finally, at a ceremony in the forest, village representatives receive ‘red books’,
official land use rights over communal managed forest

15. After allocation come management, improving the quality of the forest and
deriving improved incomes. Dzao women cultivating cardamon under
regenerating forest

16. Rice paddies surrounded by newly allocated communal protected forest in
Sung Hoang. Improved water supply, more NTFPs and secure sacred forest
will result from this allocation process

17. In the distance, Phin Ngan community forest, now under strong protection