Promoting the role of the community in forest management and protection

The Forest Restoration Support Project in Truong Son Commune is led by the Vietnam Nature Conservation Center and the People's Committee of Truong Son Commune is the main partner with the goal of supporting the implementation of solutions to conserve and restore natural forests associated with improving sustainable livelihoods for the community.

Conference scene - Photo: BN

In June 2025, the project established a community research team consisting of 12 members who are local people in Hang Chuon-Na Lam, Co Trang, PLoang and Rin Rin villages to conduct field surveys of natural forests managed by residential communities. Accordingly, after more than 10 years of allocating land and forests to residential communities in Truong Son commune for management and protection, the area of natural forests increased by more than 140 hectares; the average forest reserve increased by 1.5% per year; many rare animal species, such as Siki Gibbons and Red-shanked Doucs reappeared.

To date, 14 communities and 52 households have contracted to protect over 32,600 hectares of natural forests, with an average income of about 10 million VND/person/month. Sustainable livelihood models, such as: Planting large-sized acacia, high-quality hybrid acacia, forestry service cooperatives and forest management certificates have brought about economic efficiency and created regular jobs for people.

The research report also pointed out the main difficulties and challenges in community-based forest management, such as: slow payment of funds, lack of technical training, limited policy information and risk of natural disasters.

Delegates attending the conference - Photo: BN

However, many opportunities have been opened up from the State's support programs and non- governmental projects in protecting and developing sustainable forests. Promoting community resources, combining indigenous knowledge with technical support from experts is becoming an important foundation for Truong Son commune to proactively protect and develop forests. This is also a sustainable direction for the locality, contributing to preserving biodiversity, improving livelihoods and effectively adapting to climate change.