Lao PDR is an economy which strongly depends on agricultural production. Most of its population is living in the country side especially in forest area. Forests are the economic base for rural communities, which provide local households with food, fuel and construction material, land and employment to sustain their livelihoods. Therefore, sustainable forest management is most important approach to generate sustainable flow of benefits to stakeholders and contribute to the achievement of the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES). The Forest Strategy 2021-2025 of Lao PDR aims to increase forest coverage from 62% to about 70% by 2025 to generate a sustainable supply of forest products, preserve unique and threatened habitats and promote environmental conservation and protection. The government of Lao PDR has given priority to improving forestland use planning, promoting restoration of degraded land, strengthening forest law enforcement to curb illegal logging and shifting cultivation, enhancing biodiversity conservation and initiating village forestry to increase participation of local communities in forest management to generate economic flow of benefits to communities. Luang Namtha (LNT), Oudomxay (ODX) and Bokeo (BK) Provinces are located in the northern part of Lao PDR, with 63%, 77%
and 80% of their total land area, respectively, classified as forestland and a forest cover of 37%, 32% and 42%, respectively. Most the population in the three provinces are poverty-stricken with 334 villages in 11 districts heavily depending on forests for food security, livelihoods and income by continuing their traditional way of shifting cultivation. Shifting cultivation and illegal logging contribute most to deforestation, forest degradation and as a result the decrease of forest cover in the three provinces is still going on. To address these problems, in 2015 APFNet signed an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to conduct the project “Sustainable Forest Management in Northern Provinces of Lao PDR” and recently extended the project beyond its original implementation period until February 2022. This project shows the best practices on forest restoration and rehabilitation. The three provinces had set the goal of restoring 7232 ha (LNT), 39845 ha (ODX) and 3000 ha (BK) of degraded forests by 2020. To achieve the above goal, the three provinces sought opportunities to explore, demonstrate and extend the effective and practical approaches and models for community forestry, restoration and rehabilitation of degraded forest and applicable mechanisms for biodiversity conservation.
Better approaches on forest restoration and rehabilitation for promoting sustainable forest management in northern part of Lao PDR are needed. This will be achieved by:
1) Exploring, testing and demonstrating effective approaches on forest restoration and forest management and responding mechanism to generate sustainable flow of benefits to closely related stakeholders.
2) Strengthening forest law enforcement and promoting cooperation on transboundary biodiversity conservation.
3) Sharing information and knowledge of best practices on forest restoration and rehabilitation.
To respond the actual needs, the project was proposed. The project is being implemented in Namtha District, Luang Namtha Province, Namor District, Oudomxay Province, Thonpheun District, Borkeo Province, Nam Ha National Protected Area of Lao PDR and Shanyong Nature Reserve, Yunna, China. Three villages, namely Houayhom, Nampheang and Donegneun, are selected in the three districts as pilot sites of the project.
In the middle of 2020, the consultation meetings were held at DAFO’s meeting rooms where the main related stakeholders were invited, including the representative from the district governor’s office, the planning office, the irrigation, and water supply office, the electricity office, the transportation office, and the district industry office. The main objective of the meeting was to finalize the draft of the FLUPs. Currently, the details and the structure of FLUPs of target provinces have already been agreed by the attendees during the meeting and it’s in the process of review by the governor of each target district. It’s expected to be officially endorsed within 2021.
Until now the project planted trees on overall 174 ha of land that were identified for restoration and rehabilitation demonstration. A. total of 12,300 seedlings were planted through enrichment planting on 90 ha in Namphaeng village (Oudomxay Province); 4,450 seedlings were used to reforest 54 ha of degraded land through enrichment and full afforestation depending on the presence of remaining vegetation in Houayhom village (Luangnamtha Province); and finally 5,000 seedlings were planted on 30 ha at Donngern Village (Bokeo Province). This activity was supported by the District Agriculture and Forestry Offices (DAFOs), the respective Province Agriculture and Forestry Office (PAFO) and the Central Project Management Office (CPMO). A variety of species were used, namely Afzelia xylocarpa, Xylia xylocarpa, Pterocarpus macrocarpus, Dalbergia cochinensis, and Pommetia pinnata.
At the same time, NTFPs were planted on around 53.49 ha total, which can be divided into each target province:
Þ Luangnamtha Province completed the planting of cardamom (23,000 seedlings) on 9.2 ha, macadamia (750 seedlings) on 2.1 ha (imported from China), and Boehmeria (7.500 seedlings) on 4.5 ha.
Þ Oudomxay Province completed the planting of cardamom (49,000 seedlings) on 14.6 ha, macadamia (700 seedlings) on 1.59 ha, agarwood (450 seedlings) on 0.7 ha and Machilus kurzii (3,000 seedlings) on 2 ha.
Þ Bokeo Province, completed the planting of cardamom (18,000 seedlings) on 6 ha, macadamia (1,050 seedlings) on 2.3 ha, in addition, the project also supported to plant more sugar palm (3,000 seedlings) on 3.5 ha, and Rattan (6,500 seedlings) on 7 ha.
Until now the Forest Law Enforcement Action Plan (FLEAP) has been completed for 3 target provinces but the Department of Forest Inspection asks for the official approval by the PAFOs of each target province. Up to now, only the FLEAP of Oudomxay province has agreed by DOFI, for the remaining provinces (Luangnamtha and Bokeo Province) they are expected to be agreed and the FLEAP of three provinces will be approved within 2021 and then the FLEAP will be translated into English for the international audience.
Patrolling in the forest is the most important part of the monitoring carried out by the enforcement teams. Patrolling also helps in preventing illegal activities as the visible presence of enforcement rangers in the forest acts as a strong deterrent to those involved.
The PoFI, DoFI and the villagers have conducted a patrolling to serve their responsibility on protecting natural forest resources within the village’s forest area. The village forest inspection route has been developed and designed to conduct the patrolling 9 times for a year. In 2021, Bokeo has already completed this activity, LNT completed 5 times and ODX completed 4 times. During patrols, LNT caught two crimes, ODX one crime and no crimes in Bokeo. The crimes are trees cutting and hunting, they confiscated woods, chainsaws, guns and punish them by the regulations of the forest law, some cases the staffs confiscated and the culprits have to pay some fine based on forest law identified.
The forest fire monitoring systems in Kiu Lom, Nam Ha National Protected Area, Sing district, Louangnamtha Province have been established. The system includes a forest fire monitoring command center and two forest watcher towers to detect the forest fire smoke within 15 km around the tower; established camera traps to track wild elephants along the border and 20 camera traps in Nam Ha National Protected Area for endangered and rare species’ survey; conducted joint patrolling along the border of protected areas between Nam Ha and Shang Yong in Yunnan, China; and conducted the plant survey in Nam Ha NPA for endangered and rare species.
Up to now there have been many activities for capacity building of provincial, district and villages conducted. One of them is a training on how to operate the forest fire monitoring system mentioned earlier. This training was held in 2019 in China at the China Forestry Star Company building in Chanchun, Jilin.
In late 2021 more trainings are scheduled. One is on financial management, the main purpose of this training is to guide PPMOs on how to correctly prepare and submit financial documents for approval; and clearly explaining the format drafting of implementation plan, summarizing and reporting in accordance with financial management guidelines. The other training will be on the usage of GPS and GIS software for provincial and district use in Namor District, Oudomxay Province.
Contact:
Village forest and NTFPs Division
Department of Forestry
Thatdam, Chanthabuly, Vientiane Capital
Tel: +856-21-215000
tongphongsavath99@gmail.com
http://laoapfnet.maf.gov.la
Save The Children and Care International in Laos are partnering with Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang provincial health departments to improve nutrition in 10 target districts of the two provinces.
The project will cost 47 billion kip (US$5.4 million) to roll out in seven 
districts of Luang Prabang province and 16 billion kip (US$1.8 million) to implement in three districts of Luang Namtha province.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on nutrition improvement in the two provinces under the Sustainable Change Achieved through Linking Improved Nutrition and Governance (SCALING) project was signed in Vientiane yesterday.
The MOU was signed by the Country Director of Save the Children, Ms Deborah Leaver, Country Director of Care International in Laos, Mr Saad Karim, Director of the Luang Prabang provincial Health Department, Dr Amphone Phalammixay, and Director of the Luang Namtha provincial Health Department, Dr Khamchanh Inthongxay.
In Luang Prabang province the project will be carried out by Save the Children and in Luang Namtha province by Care International in Laos.
Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, Ms Leaver said child deprivation in Laos is among the most severe in the region, and stunting due to malnutrition affects 35 percent of children under the age of five.
Because of the dire need for assistance, she was particularly happy to sign the MOU and begin the SCALING project with partners.
“The SCALING project was initiated by Save the Children, CARE, Comité de Coopération avec le Laos (CCL) and ChildFund, and funded by the European Union (EU) through the umbrella initiative Partnership for Improved Nutrition in Laos,” Ms Leaver said.
She explained that the overall objective of the project is to improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and children under five years old in 14 districts in Luang Prabang, Luang Namtha, Phongsaly and Huaphan provinces.
The project operationalises the Lao government’s National Nutrition Strategy Action Plan and convergent approach and will continue until December 2021.
Dr Amphone said the project was crucial to improving nutrition for girls, pregnant women, and newborns in Luang Prabang province, and thanked project supporters and associated organisations.
The districts set to benefit from the project are Nan, Nambak, Pak-ou, Viengkham, Xiengngeun, Pakxaeng and the provincial capital Luang Prabang.
Dr Khamchanh thanked the EU and other entities for working to boost nutrition in Sing, Long and Namtha districts of Luang Namtha province, saying the project was very important to improve mother and child health.
An MOU on the SCALING project was also signed in Huaphan province last July, while an MOU for Phongsaly province was signed in November.
The total budget for the project is more than 108.6 billion kip (EUR 11,111,111). It runs from December 2017 to December 2021.
By Viengdavanh Banphahaksa
(Latest Update January 29, 2019)
