Project News

Aiming to strengthen management of protection forest in Luang Prabang Province, F-REDD has been providing support for pilot activities in the Phou Pheung-Phou Pha Thoun-Tat Kuang Si Provincial Protection Forest Area (PPT-PPTA) located within the province (see vol. 8) and in May completed a survey to delineate the boundaries of protection forest.

Various issues have emerged, including failure by local villages to grasp the existing boundaries of the PPT-PPTA and failure by the boundaries in certain cases to reflect actual land use, topography, or other conditions. These factors and ambiguity concerning the status of these lands have rendered it difficult to implement management of the protection forest. Accordingly, consultation meetings were held in nearby villages to confirm and revise existing protection forest boundaries. In addition, field surveys have been done to revise portions of the boundaries, and GPS coordinates have been obtained to record the boundaries on maps.

Protection forest boundaries agreed to with the villages were confirmed in the form of an MOU concluded between each village and the Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office (PAFO) in Luang Prabang. Beyond this, the participation of central government forestry officials in the survey facilitated the smooth submission of survey results to the central government. These boundaries are expected to be approved as official protection forest boundaries in the future when the relevant formal procedures are completed.

Consultation meeting with villagers to confirm and revise protection forest boundaries

The boundaries of the protection forest were confirmed, and their GPS coordinate data recorded