Project News

On 24 November 2014, a kickoff meeting for the land and forest allocation (LFA) of the special use forest (SUF) in Pa Khoang Commune was held at the Commune People's Committee (CPC). Pa Khoang Commune is not a target commune of SUSFORM-NOW; however, the project has decided to support the LFA in Pa Khoang Commune in order to complete the allocation of SUF in neighboring Muong Phang Commune, which has to be done all at once. SUF in both communes are connected and should be allocated to a single entity, namely Muong Phang Special Use Forest Management Board (MPSUFMB).

The participants of the meeting included the chairman of Pa Khoang CPC, the head of Dien Bien District Forest Protection Division, the representatives of Dien Bien District Agriculture and Rural Development Division and Natural Resources and Environment Division, the head of MPSUFMB, and village heads in the commune.

At the beginning, the vice director of the Center for Agriculture and Forestry Planning and Design (CAFPD), the consultant agency selected for the LFA work, explained the objectives of the LFA work in Pa Khoang Commune. The objectives of the LFA for Pa Khoang are to allocate the forestland and forest (SUF) to MPSUFMB and to manage them properly. For better and more effective management of these forests, MPSUFMB would sign a forest protection contract with villages or groups of households.

Pa Khoang Commune is characterized by the large lake surrounded by natural forest; therefore, forest management contributing to tourism is expected. Another objective of the LFA is to effect the Payment for Forest Environmental Service (PFES)^[1] because it will be paid based on the forest allocation. It is expected that PFES will be used effectively for forest management to promote tourism in Pa Khoang Commune, which would in turn contribute to villagers' livelihood development in the future.

According to the announcement from an officer from CAFPD, the LFA field survey for Pa Khoang would be completed by the middle of December 2014.

Vice director of CAFPD is explaining the objective of the LFA work

Natural forest around the Pa Khong Lake