Project News

The Provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP) for Dien Bien Province stipulates the establishment of forest regeneration area is among the key activities for forest management. Apart from protecting existing forests, it is also important to enhance forest resources through forest regeneration and reforestation under the PRAP.

In order to set up forest regeneration areas, the project facilitated a series of village meetings to introduce the idea and obtain agreement from the villagers. So far, seven out of twenty five target villages in Muong Phang Commune have agreed to establish their forest regeneration areas in their villages.

In these village meetings, villagers first discussed which area(s) could be designated for different forest management activities, i.e., forest protection, forest regeneration, and reforestation, based on facilitators' explanation on current land use status using a satellite image map. Upon discussion at these village meetings, participants actually went to the location(s) to check and reconfirmed the area for its geographical position and vegetation status before final agreement.

In coming months, the project plans to install signboards and benchmarks in these forest regeneration areas and develop a forest regeneration site management plan and an internal regulation with these villages.

The establishment of forest regeneration areas still faces several challenges. The main problem is the fact that the establishment of forest regeneration areas will inevitably reduce the land available for the villagers' cultivation. They thus need not only technical support but also financial one from the provincial authority, which is currently not available in the project pilot sites. SUSFORM-NOW will continue working with both local villages and authorities further to expand forest regeneration areas in the project pilot sites.

Village meeting

Satellite image map

Planned forest regeneration area

Village head signing the agreement on forest regeneration area