Disadvantaged groups are not benefiting from
the new Law on Forest and Development, experts said at a conference on April
19th in Hà Nội on amendments to the fifth draft of the Law on Forest and
Development. Although altered five times, the draft has not regulated the
rights of disadvantaged groups to own and use forests, especially of the ethnic
minorities who will be most affected by the law, said Lương Thị Trường,
director of the Centre for Sustainable Development of Mountainous Areas (CSDM).
Her opinion was supported by Nguyễn Thế Dũng, a project coordinator from the
Mekong River basin. “None of the draft law’s articles have clarified how they
would protect disadvantaged groups’ access to forest resources,” he said. The
draft law only regulates forest ownership of households and communities that
have been given forest areas by the Government, meaning only two million of 18
million people who live in or near forests and make their living out of them. How
to ensure the rights to own and use forests for the remaining 16 million people
should be considered when making amendments to the law, he said. His opinions
touch on Article 257 of the 2015 Civil Code that came into effect on January 1st,
regulating the right to exploit and enjoy benefits of assets owned by others
for three years, he said.
Community
forestry
Statistics from the Centre for People and
Forests (RECOFTC) show that some 1.5 million households and individuals in the
country have received forest areas from the Government, as well as some 600
organisations and 10,000 communities. The forest area managed by households and
residential communities accounts for some 46 per cent of the country’s total. However,
as of March 2017, only 0.35 per cent of this forest area was certified by the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), meaning that the majority of households and
communities have not received proper support and incentives from the Government
and enterprises for better forestry production, said Lương Quang Hùng, a
RECOFTC representative. The notion of community forestry has only appeared in
pilot projects and has not been legalised in any legal document, said Nguyễn
Quang Tân, another RECOFTC representative. The significance of community
forestry has not been realised since knowledge on the subject is limited, he
added. On the other hand, traditional forest management methods should be
legalised to encourage residents’ participation in forest management and
community forestry, he added.
Viet
Nam News – April 21 - http://vietnamnews.vn/politics-laws/375067/new-forest-law-excludes-disadvantaged-groups.html#OVJAl96vSDgqYSZE.99
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