Click to enlarge

After a long period of field piloting and several rounds of revision, the official issuance in January 2008 of the Forest Protection and Development Regulations (FPDR) by the provincial authorities of Quang Binh has been a major milestone in achieving the indicators and objectives of the SMNR-CV project.

The aim of the guideline is to provide a comprehensive methodology and practical guidance for the development of FPDR in order to strengthen sustainable management of the existing forest resources in villages.

The guideline is written for staff of the Forest Protection Department (FPD) and commune staff to help villagers in developing effective FPDR that reflect the specific conditions of the local situation.

The establishment of FPDR is a first step towards sustainable forest management at the local level. They need to be developed with local participation of poor and rich, young and old, men and women in order to ensure support for the regulations at local level. Without this support, the FPDR will not be applied and implemented properly.

FPDR is based on the following principles:

• Fit within the legal and administrative framework, land use planning and local forest protection and development planning
• Be simple and easy to be implemented with the local available resources
• Be participatory and ensure that issues of all groups in the community are respected and taken into consideration
• Strengthen the sustainable management of forest land and mitigate negative impacts on the forest resources
• Reflect local people’s needs to access and use forest resources (and not merely focused on forbidding the extraction of forest products)

The development of FPDR involves six steps:

1. Preparation
2. Development of draft FPDR by a selected group of local villagers, with guidance from the FPU, communal forest extension worker and, where appropriate, the State Forest Enterprise (SFE).
3. A village meeting at which the proposed FPDR are presented and discussed with inhabitants of the village (at least one representative of each household should take part in this meeting).
4. Finalize FPDR document and submit for approval
5. Dissemination of FPDR at village level
6. Implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the regulations to ascertain whether or not they are being applied and/or need revision. This should involve a bi-annual village meeting.

The FPDR guideline has found widespread application. Its application at the local level is closely monitored by the field staff of the Forest Protection Department. Further details can be found in the download section.