Project News

On December 17, under the chairpersonship of Mr. Thon, Director General of the Management Board for Forestry Projects (MBFPs) under Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the annual review meeting of SNRM project was held in Dien Bien Province to discuss the activity progress, implementation challenges and the annual action plan for 2020.

Just as last year, the meeting was held with more than 50 participants, including MBFPs, the Central Project Management Unit (CPMU) and the Provincial Project Management Units (PPMUs) from 5 participating provinces (Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Lam Dong).

At the start, Mr. Thang, Vice Director of CPMU, presented the progress of project activities in 2019 and activity plan for 2020. Each PPMU further shared detailed information on activity monitoring results and challenges in their provinces.

Regarding project delivery in 2019, many key activities during project implementation were shared, including dissemination of the new forestry law that entered into force in January under Component 1; monitoring of bee keeping and vegetable cultivation, and improvement of Provincial Forest Monitoring System (PFMS) under Component 2; detection of precious species including a new snake species through biodiversity monitoring survey under Component 3.

In particular, toward the termination of the project in August 2020, participants repeatedly mentioned that detailed review and assessment of project outcomes would be crucial for sustainability of project achievements, and wider replication of its lesson-learnt.

After the meeting, a field trip was organized to May Cha bamboo forest regeneration site, forest planting site and a fruit farm in Pa Khoang Commune, Dien Bien Province.

Regarding May Cha bamboo development, a Japanese company has been working on trial planting and transfer of preliminary processing skills to local residents with JICA's support under SDGs Business Survey^[1] . Many participants showed interest in introduction of May Cha bamboo in their provinces following the project's explanation on its characteristics and high productivity potential.

The meeting was a great opportunity to review and to share project achievements and plan for actions towards its termination in only eight months, including further documentation of the outcomes of project activities.

The project will keep on these actions in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

Annual review meeting

Mr. Yamazaki, Executive Technical Advisor of JICA Headquarters, delivering opening remarks.

Mr. Thon, Director General of MBFPs, wrapping up the meeting

Group photo

Natural May Cha bamboo can be harvested every 3 years and processed at a local factory before exports to Japan.

Visit to improved stove model that has been adopted in a wider scale even by those not supported by the project thanks to its convenience.