Sung village in Hoa Binh Province has traditionally managed 367 hectares of protection forest for over 500 years. The village divides the forest area among 44 households and manages exploitation according to customary rules. A new co-management model between the village, the forest management board, and local government aims to strengthen customary tenure rights and improve livelihoods through developing a Shan tea value chain. Expected results include enhancing people's rights and roles in forest governance, improving capacity in forest and tea management, and increasing community incomes and responsibility over the forest area. The model has potential to be scaled up across other communes given support from relevant laws and policies and the forest management board's plans.

1. Strengthening Customary Tenure in Forests Through
Co-management Collaboration:
Experience from Sung village in Da Bac District, Hoa Binh Province
Breakout Group Discussion, Session 1
Presented by: Le Ven Hai (RIC)

2. Current status of CT on forest
• Sung village: 75 households, 380 people, 185 women, 100% Dao, established 500 years ago.
Division and management of protection forest area:
✓Management area: 367 ha, named by 44 households based on history of reclamation and
civilization, left by their forefathers, and the boundaries of management area are self-
determined.
✓Forest product exploitation: Before 2016 according to the village's convention through word of
mouth (1 household needs wood to build a house, will report to the village elder, village head,
reputable person - approve volume of harvested timber).
✓From 2016 according to the regulation of the Commune People's Committee (PC).
Shan tea determination:
✓ The first discovery of ancient tea by the forefathers who went to the fields will mark the
affirmation of ownership (the tea of ​​one family may be on the forest land of another) and pass it
on to descendants.
✓ Households have a common convention, self-determination of farming boundaries, no one
infringes anyone’s.
✓ If there is a dispute, the village elder, village head stand to solve it.

3. Model of forest co- management and
community-based livelihoods
Background:
• The Da River Protection Forest Management Board
(DFMB) has been allocated 18,800 ha of protection forest
in 3 districts of Da Bac, Tan Lac and Cao Phong;
• Da Bac district: 16,000 ha, Cao Son commune: 806 ha,
Sung village: 367 ha;
• Sung village has 50 hectares of ancient Shan tea;
• Parties wish to cooperate in forest co-management;
• RIC proposed the model “Promoting sustainable forest co-
management and improving people's livelihoods through
value chain Shan tea model by the approach of community
self-governance.
The Da River
Protection Forest
Management
Board
Sung village
community
Local
government

4. Expected Results – Changes
• People's rights and obligations are enhanced
• The community is one of 3 main actors in forest management
through a signed and developed forest co-management
agreement;
• People's capacity in forest management, protection and
development, development of Shan tea model along the value
chain has been improved;
• Women and the poor are actively involved in the decision-
making process: formulating and consulting draft agreement,
tea cooperatives
• Forest co-management associated with livelihoods helps
people improve their income (non-timber products, forest
environmental services), increase attachment, raise
awareness and responsibility to the forest.

5. A Highly Scalable Model
Legal Basis at the Central Government Level:
✓ Forestry Development Strategy 2006-2020: Testing and scaling up
community forest management models;
✓ Forest Protection and Development Plan 2011-2020 (Decision No.
57/QD-TTg in 2012): The related agencies implement the co-
economic mechanism, social organizations and people participate in
forest protection;
Legal Basis at the Local Government Level:
✓Official Dispatch 1343/UBND-NNTN of Hoa Binh Provincial PC on land
and forest allocation to Da River Protection Forest Management Board
(DFMB);
✓The scheme to support the DFMB to identify landmarks and measure
forest areas in 3 districts;
✓Forest co-management is a need of local authorities and people,
especially with the forest area being managed by the Commune PC;
✓DFMB plans to replicate the model to 15 other communes in 3
districts.

6. Discussion Questions
1. What are some of the biggest issues communities who practice
customary tenure face in protected forests in Vietnam?
2. Based on this case in Hoa Binh Province, how can other
communities and organisations best learn from the experience of
RIC and what sort of support would be needed to do this? Where
do we see particular opportunities that could be scaled up
effectively?
3. Which laws or policies (or specific articles in them) provide the
strongest forest rights protections for communities, and where do
we see specific gaps that need to be addressed? What would be
an appropriate political strategy for addressing these gaps, and
what new partnerships might we need?
4. Are current coordination mechanisms between like-minded
organizations sufficient to effectively address policy advocacy and,
if not, what might be done to improve coordination and joint
actions?