Livelihoods of People in the Buffer Zone of Cat Tien ... nghien cuu/Master thesis-L… · Đề tài này tìm hiểu về thực trạng bảo vệ rừng ở vườn quốc gia

Forest Protection and Sustainable Livelihoods of People in the Buffer Zone of Cat Tien National Park, VietnamCase study Village 4, Ta Lai Commune, Tan Phu District, Dong Nai Province

Mr. Tran Duc Luan, Nong Lam University - Ho Chi Minh City (NLU), Vietnam

Master Thesis No 33

Master Thesis in Rural Development with Specialization in Livelihood and Natural Resource Management

Department of Urban and Rural Development Swedish University of Agricultural Sciencesm

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Forest Protection and Sustainable Livelihoods of People in the Buffer Zone of Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam C a s e s t u dy

V i l l a g e 4 , T a L a i Co m mu n e , T a n Ph u D i s t r i c t , D o n g N a i P r o v i n c e

Mr. Tran Duc Luan, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City (NLU), Vietnam

Master Thesis in Rural Development with Specialization in Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management

Master Thesis No 33 | Hue City, Vietnam | September 2006 | ISSN: 1403 7998

Department of Urban and Rural Development | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

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ABSTRACT

This study aims to understand the current situation of forest protection in Cat Tien National Park and the livelihoods of the people in village 4, Ta Lai commune, Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province. To achieve this objective, methods were drawn from Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), in-depth interview, and observation to collect data. This was complemented with a household survey covering a sample size of 150 households (50: Kinh; 50: Stieng; 50: Chau Ma) with the objective of identifying the relationship between Cat Tien National Park and the livelihoods of the people. Besides, discussions with stakeholders involved with the park were conducted to elicit their views and concerns on forest protection and conservation.

The results of the study show that forest protection and conservation of Cat Tien National Park is indeed a difficult issue because of the poverty of people in the buffer zone. The balancing conservation and livelihoods remains an ardent process. It was found that there are major differences between people groups in the study site related to ethnicity. The indigenous people (Chau Ma and Stieng) were found to enter the park more often than the Kinh people as livelihood still largely depends on the natural resources of the park. The education level of indigenous people remains low, so the training on production technology to develop the agricultural sector is not effective. In addition, subsidies to indigenous people have created the psychological effect of “heavy reliance to others” behaviour, and this should be viewed as a big barrier for poverty reduction.

This study also found that to maintain the value of biodiversity in Cat Tien National Park requires the co-operation of stakeholders, especially the co-operation between local people and staff of the park at all stages in the management process. In addition, the integrated conservation and development project aimed to improve local people’s livelihoods in the buffer zone is considered the way to share benefits and reduce the conflict of interests between stakeholders. Interestingly, local people would like to get involved in sustainable use of forest products in the park. Lastly, it was found that initially local communities need some external support to develop the internal factors, but later, that must be translated into strengths for them to find the best way out of poverty and to achieve sustainable livelihoods in the near future.

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TÓM TǍT

(Abstract in Vietnamese Language)

Đề tài này tìm hiểu về thực trạng bảo vệ rừng ở vườn quốc gia Cát Tiên và sinh kế của người dân tại ấp 4, xã Tà Lài, huyện Tân Phú, tỉnh Đồng Nai. Để đạt được mục tiêu trên, các phương pháp nghiên cứu được áp dụng để thu thập dữ liệu như: đánh giá nông thôn có sự tham gia (PRA), phỏng vấn sâu và quan sát thực địa. Dữ liệu còn được bổ sung bởi một cuộc điều tra nông hộ với số mẫu là 150, (bao gồm 50 hộ người Kinh; 50 hộ người Stiêng; 50 hộ người Châu Mạ), tập trung vào việc xác định mối quan hệ giữa vườn quốc gia Cát Tiên và sinh kế của người dân. Bên cạnh đó, những buổi thảo luận với các tổ chức/nhóm liên quan với vườn quốc gia được thực hiện nhằm gợi ra những quan điểm và mối quan tâm của họ về vấn đề bảo tồn và bảo vệ rừng.

Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy, công tác bảo tồn và bảo vệ rừng của Vườn quốc gia Cát Tiên thật sự là một vấn đề khó khăn do sự nghèo đói của người dân vùng đệm. Sự cân bằng về bảo tồn và sinh kế vẫn đang là một vấn đề nóng bỏng. Liên quan đến vấn đề dân tộc, đề tài đã phát hiện những khác biệt quan trọng giữa các nhóm người trên địa bàn nghiên cứu. Người dân tộc bản địa (Châu Mạ và Stiêng) vào rừng thường xuyên hơn so với người Kinh vì sinh kế của họ phụ thuộc nhiều vào tài nguyên thiên nhiên trong vườn. Trình độ giáo dục của những gười dân bản địa còn thấp nên việc chuyển giao kỹ thuật sản xuất để phát triển khu vực nông nghiệp không đạt được hiệu quả. Ngoài ra, các khoản trợ cấp và hỗ trợ cho đồng bào bản địa đã tạo cho họ tâm lý trông chờ vào sự giúp đỡ, và điều này được xem như là rào cản lớn cho việc giảm nghèo.

Nghiên cứu cũng đã nhận ra rằng, để duy trì giá trị đa dạng sinh học trong vườn quốc gia Cát Tiên, thì cần phải có sự hợp tác giữa các bên có liên quan, đặc biệt là sự phối hợp giữa người dân địa phương và nhân viên của vườn ở tất cả các khâu hay giai đoạn trong quá trình quản lý. Thêm vào đó, sự gắn kết giữa hoạt động bảo tồn và các dự án phát triển nhằm nâng cao sinh kế của người dân địa phương ở vùng đệm được xem như là phương cách chia sẽ lợi ích và giảm bớt mâu thuẫn về lợi ích giữa các bên liên quan. Điều lý thú của nghiên cứu này là việc người dân địa phương muốn sử dụng một cách bền vững các lâm sản từ vườn quốc gia. Cuối cùng, nghiên cứu nhận thấy, ở thời điểm ban đầu, cộng đồng địa phương cần sự hỗ trợ từ bên ngoài để phát triển các yếu tố nội lực, nhưng sau đó, những yếu tố cần phải được chuyển thành sức mạnh để giúp cho họ tìm ra con đường thoát khỏi sự nghèo khổ và tiến đến sinh kế bền vững trong tương lai.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Neil Powell (SLU) and Dr. Tran Dac Dan (NLU) for their valuable comments and useful recommendations in shaping the structure of this study. Thank you very much!

Further gratitude is extended to Dr. Britta Ogle (SLU), Asso. Prof. Le Duc Ngoan (HUAF), Ms Huynh Anh Phuong (HUAF), Dr. Pham Thanh Binh (NLU), and Dr. Le Quang Thong (NLU) for helping me complete the Master Course on Rural development in Hue City, Vietnam.

Special mention is accorded to Dr Tran Thi Ut (The former dean of the department of rural development-NLU) for her encouragement to study in Hue City and whose mentoring efforts made research work possible for me.

For the fieldwork activities, I acknowledge the efforts of Mr. Nguyen Huynh Thuat (Cat Tien National Park Staff), Ms. Pham Thi Nhien (NLU), Ms. Do Minh Hoang, (NLU), Mr. Duong Xuan Dung (Former Student of NLU), and 16 students of NLU who helped me carry out the field study. Additional gratitude and sincere appreciation goes to the Cat Tien National Park Management Board, the authorities of Ta Lai commune, and the village 4, for the support of my data collection.

Endless gratitude is accorded to my ever-supportive father Tran Van Lich, my loving mother Huynh Thi Hai, and my equally gentle young brother - for their love and encouragement all throughout the struggles I went through to complete the MSc program in Rural Development and this thesis study, most specially.

Finally, I am very grateful to all my classmates in the MSc course who generously shared their knowledge and experience with me in my study and stay in Hue City, a cultural heritage city in the world.

Tran Duc Luan

Vietnam, 2006

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LIST OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT TÓM TẮT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................................8 1.1 Why research.......................................................................................................................................................................................8 1.2 Structure of the study...................................................................................................................................................................8 1.3 Scope and limitation of the study........................................................................................................................................8

2 BACKGROUND..................................................................................................................................................................10 2.1 Country background information.....................................................................................................................................10 2.2 Buffer zones approach vs. Co-management approach ...............................................................................10 2.3 Overview national parks in the world............................................................................................................................13 2.4 Overview on National Parks in Vietnam.....................................................................................................................14

2.4.1 Political background ......................................................................................................................................................14 2.4.2 The profile of National Parks..................................................................................................................................14 2.4.3 People in the buffer zone ..........................................................................................................................................15

2.5 Problem statement......................................................................................................................................................................15 2.6 Objective and Research Questions ...............................................................................................................................16

2.6.1 Objectives...............................................................................................................................................................................16 2.6.2 Research questions........................................................................................................................................................16

3 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE..............................................................................................................17 3.1 Basic Concepts and Theories............................................................................................................................................17

3.1.1 Livelihood and sustainable livelihood...............................................................................................................17 3.1.2 Vulnerability...........................................................................................................................................................................17 3.1.3 Protected areas .................................................................................................................................................................17

3.2 Conservation vs. economic development..................................................................................................................18 3.3 Protected area management approaches in the world .................................................................................18 3.4 Forest and poverty in Vietnam...........................................................................................................................................20 3.5 Livelihoods of people in buffer zones of national parks in Vietnam ...................................................20

4 METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................................................................. 22 4.1 Methodological approach ......................................................................................................................................................22 4.2 Conceptual Framework...........................................................................................................................................................22 4.3 Site selection ...................................................................................................................................................................................23 4.4 Data collection method ...........................................................................................................................................................23

4.4.1 Secondary data ..................................................................................................................................................................24 4.4.2 Primary data..........................................................................................................................................................................24 4.4.3 Household survey ............................................................................................................................................................24 4.4.4 In-depth interviewing.....................................................................................................................................................25

4.5 Data analysis method ...............................................................................................................................................................25 5 EVIDENCE AND INTERPRETATION.............................................................................................................. 27

5.1 Cat Tien National Park.............................................................................................................................................................27 5.1.1 History of Cat Tien National Park.......................................................................................................................27 5.1.2 Characteristic of Cat Tien National Park ......................................................................................................27 5.1.3 Forest protection activities in Cat Tien National Park........................................................................28 5.1.4 The trend of forest law violation in Cat Tien National Park ...........................................................28 5.1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of forest protection and conservation management29

5.2 Study site ............................................................................................................................................................................................30 5.2.1 Natural context...................................................................................................................................................................30 5.2.2 Socio-economic aspect...............................................................................................................................................31

5.3 The people in the buffer zone............................................................................................................................................32

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5.3.1 History of people groups............................................................................................................................................32 5.3.2 General information of surveyed household ..............................................................................................33 5.3.3 Five assets of households.........................................................................................................................................34 5.3.4 People’s livelihood activities ....................................................................................................................................36 5.3.5 Relationship between households and Cat Tien National Park .................................................40 5.3.6 Household’s view about forest protection activities in Cat Tien National Park. ............47 5.3.7 Advantages and disadvantages of people’s livelihoods....................................................................50

5.4 Stakeholders of Cat Tien National Park....................................................................................................................51 5.5 Solutions for forest protection...........................................................................................................................................54

6 GENERAL DISCUSSION.......................................................................................................................................... 56 6.1 Sustainable livelihoods.............................................................................................................................................................56 6.2 Forest protection, conservation and people’s livelihoods ............................................................................56

7 CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................. 59 7.1 Summary of findings..................................................................................................................................................................59 7.2 Lessons learnt when conducting the study............................................................................................................60 7.3 Further research ...........................................................................................................................................................................60

8 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................................................................61 9 APPENDICES..................................................................................................................................................................... 65

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND BOXES

TABLES

Table 1: Forest law violation in Cat Tien National Park from 2000 to 2005 .............................29 Table 2: General Information of households in 2005................................................................33 Table 3: Asset value and cultivated area of surveyed households ...............................................35 Table 4: Occupation of surveyed households ...........................................................................37 Table 5: Income per capita per month of the surveyed household in 2005................................39 Table 6: Forest law violation of people in village 4 from 1999 to 2004 .....................................40 Table 7. The proportion of surveyed households collected and used forest products .................45 Table 8. Perception of households on Cat Tien National Park forest protection activity ...........48 FIGURES

Figure 1: Scenarios of protected areas (Source: Martino, 2001).................................................11 Figure 2: Stakeholder categories and co-management (Source: The World Bank, 1999) ...........12 Figure 3: Location of study site ................................................................................................23 Figure 4: Data analysis framework............................................................................................25 Figure 5: Resource Map in Village 4, Ta Lai commune ...........................................................31 Figure 6: The proportion of surveyed households entering to the park for forest product

collection.............................................................................................................41 Figure 7: Relationship between households and forest products before 2000 ............................43 Figure 8: Relationship between households and forest products in 2005...................................43 Figure 9: Relationship between household’s income and forest product categories in 2005 by

three groups ........................................................................................................45 Figure 10: Depiction of the conservation activities in Cat Tien National Park ..........................52 BOXES

Box 1. Why do Kinh people not enter the park for forest product collection? ..........................38 Box 2: Why do Stieng and Chau Ma people still enter the park? ..............................................44 Box 3: A simple estimate on human pressure of the buffer zone upon the Park.........................46 Box 4: How can forest guards manage the park well? ...............................................................49 Box 5: The solutions for forest protection by key informants ...................................................54 Box 6. The failure of national park management in Uganda .....................................................57 Box 7. The success of protected area management in Sarawak..................................................58

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Why research

Vietnam has about two-third of total natural areas as upland and mountains where there exists rich biodiversity in the remaining forests but natural resource degradation and poverty are still two main problems for rural development, especially in communities that depended on forest resources (Vo Quy & Le Thac Can, 1994). Forest, land, and water resources have been degrading and natural resources face threats from human pressure. A question is raised whether the poor are agents or victims of natural resource degradation. Kumar and Hotchkiss (1998) asserted that the degradation of natural resources can decrease agricultural productivity and affect human health. Even those people who are recorded to be in a healthy state, their labour productivity has remained low because they take much time to find fuel-wood in the degraded forest. Meanwhile, Duraiappah (1996) believes that poverty leads to environment and natural resource degradation hence the poor seems to be both agents and victims of natural resource degradation because of the interactive influence between people and the environment.

The primary goal of protected areas is to conserve biological diversity and provide ecosystem services, and, currently the linkages between the protected area management and poverty issues have become a necessity (Sherl et al., 2004). Although the inter-dependence of human welfare and the conservation of natural resources are highlighted on the Millennium Development Goals (Roe, No date), protected areas are continually denying local people’s access to natural resources (Vo Quy, 2002; Ghimire & Pimbert, 1997). Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam is one of them. This is the main reason why this research should be conducted in order to study how Cat Tien national park can contribute to local people’s livelihoods and achieve poverty reduction. At the same time building an understanding how local people in the buffer zone can support or influence Cat Tien national park in their conservation activities. These concerns will be discussed in this research.

1.2 Structure of the study

This thesis is organized in six chapters. Chapter one explains the motivation of the research, the scope and limitation of the study. Chapter two highlights the country information background, the profile of national parks, the problem statement, the research objectives and research questions. Chapter three reviews the basic concepts includes a literature review. Chapter four presents the methodology of the study. Chapter five focuses on the evidence and interpretation in a results and discussion section. Chapter six sum up the general discussion. Finally, chapter seven marks the conclusions with the summary of findings, the lessons learnt in the conduct of the study, and the identification of areas for further studies.

1.3 Scope and limitation of the study

At the onset, the researcher wanted to choose one village inside Cat Tien National Park and one village outside the park (buffer zone) to have a rich picture of local people’s

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livelihoods and conservation activities. However, due to time constraints the research was conducted at only one village in the buffer zone, namely village 4, Ta Lai commune, Tan Phu district, and Dong Nai province. Another limitation relates to the background of the researcher who is an agricultural economist, thus the technical aspects such as forestry, biology and ecosystem will not be analyzed by the study.

Some indigenous people can not speak Vietnamese language, especially old people, so it is difficult for the researcher to directly discuss with them. Besides, the issue of “illegal behaviour” related to forest product collection was found sensitive therefore data on income generated from Cat Tien national park forest product collection activities can not be gathered.

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2 BACKGROUND

2.1 Country background information

Vietnam is a relatively narrow strip running North-South along the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula. The total land area of Vietnam is about 332,000 square km. Mountain ranges extend along Vietnam’s border with the People’s Republic of China in the north, and along the borders with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia in the west. The total population in Vietnam (July 2005) is about 84 million with a unified nation comprising 54 ethnic communities in which the majority Vietnamese (the Kinh), making up 87 percent of the population, live mainly in the lowlands while 53 other minority groups commonly referred to as ethnic communities, live mainly in the mountainous areas and highlands. The ethnic communities often cohabit and there is no separate geographical area for any ethnic group. Vietnam is a densely populated country, 251 people per square kilometre on average, with a population growth rate of 1.35 percent per year. The rural population density is highest in the irrigated lowlands, especially the deltas of the Red River and the Mekong River. This pattern of distribution has had important implications for Protected Areas, especially national parks in Vietnam.

After the American war, Vietnam was one of the most poverty-stricken countries in the world. In 1988, through “Doimoi” (Renovation) policies, the government ended collectivized agriculture and distributed farmland to individual households (Irvin, 1995). The reforms increased the relative prices of rice and other agricultural products and provided strong incentives for rural producers with land and agricultural knowledge. The success in the early period can be explained by the distribution of land to agriculture households and the creation of economic incentives for increased farm production. Moreover, the achievement can be also explained by increased employment in the private sector and increased integration of agriculture into the market economy. The poverty alleviation is commendable but much remains to be done. The forest area in Vietnam was estimated to be 55 percent of the total land area in the late 1960s and 17 percent of total in the late 1980s, (Collins et al., 1991; De Koninck, 1999). From the 1990s until today, the Vietnamese government has attempted to reforest with increasing success. In terms of biodiversity of protected areas, Viet Nam has some 1,534 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Viet Nam is home to at least 10,500 species of vascular plants, of which 12 percent are endemic, 3.4 percent of Viet Nam is protected under IUCN categories. Most of the species exist and are conserved in forests, especially national parks.

2.2 Buffer zones approach vs. Co-management approach

First of all, the research will explain the term “National parks” and “Buffer zone” in order to make clear the meaning of those. According to the wikipedia website, a national park is defined as a reserve of land, usually owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. National parks are as a protected area of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). In the Vietnam context, the term of national parks was defined through Decision No.62 -2005/QD-BNN (Ministry of agriculture and rural development), promulgating the regulation on criteria

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for classification of special-use forests. The definition is “National parks are a natural area on the mainland or on the mainland with some submerged-lands, or sea areas. They are large enough for the conservation of one or more typical or representative ecosystems. It shall not be affected or be affected to the conservation of endemic or endangered species of present and future generations. National parks serve as a basis for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreation and eco-tourist activities which are controlled and have less negative impacts”. On the other hand, the definition of “Buffer zone” in the wikipedia website is: “A buffer zone is any area that serves the purpose of keeping two or more other areas distant from one another, for whatever reason”. However, related to national parks, this definition is unclear. According to Gilmour and Nguyen Van San (1999), a buffer zone is an area identified by a clear boundary and it is located outside the boundaries of the protected area. Decision No. 09/2001/QD-BNN-TCCB of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development of Vietnam found that a buffer zone is a forest area, land area, or wetland area located close/nearby to national parks or natural protected zone.

Related to buffer zones, Martino (2001) had used a wide range of literature with fifty-three articles to study. He found that there is no agreement among conservationists regarding to the definitions of buffer zones. Although the objective of buffer zones is to protect the biodiversity of the park, this protection has to be harmonized with the creation of benefits to local people.

Figure 1: Scenarios of protected areas (Source: Martino, 2001)

Martino (2001) made three scenarios for a buffer zone approach. Scenario A represents the original protected area which requires the establishment of a buffer zone (Figure 1). So the solution proposed is to establish the buffer zone as scenario B shows. But if only the biological or ecological elements were considered, would not scenario C be the preferable scenario? It is evident that having an extended protected area will accomplish the biological goals set for the buffer zone. So why have buffer zones at all? Martino (2001) concluded that there has to be a difference between the management and goals of the buffer zone and the management of the protected area, if not, there would be no logical reason for buffer zones to exist.

The reasoning behind the establishment of buffer zones is generally a need to protect the park from encroachment from local population and from the destructive activities that

Protected

Area

Protected Area

Protected

Area (Core zone)

A B C

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take place outside the park but that affect conservation inside. However, there is recognition of the legitimate needs of the local population. Martino (2001) revealed that many authors of these articles believe providing benefits in the buffer zone will create an incentive for local people and provide for their needs, and the result will be that local people will not extract resources from the park anymore. In addition, Rustagi and Garcia (2005) asserted that creation of the buffer zone around protected areas assists in the optimization of the ecological, economic and socio-cultural values of protected area, through extension and social buffering of the protected area. Martino (2001) argued the inclusion of local people in development projects that take place either in the buffer zones or near the protected areas is aimed to protect those areas from local peoples' discontent rather than to integrate local peoples' need to access the protected area for resources. This is a crucial point that comes from the very definitions of buffer zones and that has many scientists convinced that buffer zones are failing and many others wondering what should be the role of buffer zones. This research will not discuss further on the definition of “national parks” and “buffer zone”, but its definition for the purpose of this research as reflected above.

Beside a buffer zone approach, the co-management arrangements have also been considered due to the complicated interest of stakeholders on natural resource use. The World Bank (1999) has defined co-management as “The sharing of responsibilities, rights and duties between the primary stakeholders, in particular, local communities and the nation state; a decentralized approach to decision-making that involves the local users in the decision-making process as equals with the nation-state”.

Figure 2: Stakeholder categories and co-management (Source: The World Bank, 1999)

In essence this is the same definition as the one adopted by the World Conservation Congress: “A partnership in which government agencies, local communities and resource users, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders negotiate, as appropriate to

Central Government

Local Government

Private Sector; Other stakeholders

Local Communities

Co-management

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each context, the authority and responsibility for the management of a specific area or set of resources” (IUCN, 1996). Based on these definitions, this research will investigate the co-management among stakeholders to reflect on the evidence in the study site.

2.3 Overview national parks in the world

Globally, there are many national parks protecting tropical forests. Tropical forests provide a haven for flora and fauna. The biodiversity also increases from the two poles of earth towards the equator. It is clear that, flora and fauna can be found everywhere but biodiversity is not equally distributed. For example, biodiversity diminishes with increasing altitude. The same pattern also applies to decreasing rainfall. Further, the intense sunlight in tropical regions makes ecosystems in equatorial more productive. The tropical forests make up more than a half of the species in the world even if the area of tropical forests is only seven percent of earth surface area. For instance, the tropical and semi-waterless areas in Africa have about 30,000 species of flora; and similar to Madagascar (8,200 species), Asia tropical region including New Guinea and Australia (45,000 species).

The world’s first national park, Yellowstone, was created by an act of Congress in 1872 and signed by the President of United State namely Ulysses Grant”. Yellowstone National Park had about 2.2 million acres of wilderness was "set apart as a public park or are the area reserved for the benefit and enjoyment of people". This national park is now very famous for ecotourism activities. In Tanzania, numerous national parks form the core of a much larger protected ecosystem, and have been set aside to preserve the country’s rich natural heritage, and to provide secure breeding grounds where its fauna and flora can thrive, safe from the conflicting interest of a growing human population. The existing park system protects a number of internationally recognized bastions of biodiversity and world heritage sites, thereby redressing the balance for those areas of the country affected by deforestation, agriculture and urbanization. In South Africa, most national parks are maintained by the government while the parks in KwaZulu-Natal are managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (an amalgamation of the former Natal Parks Board and KwaZulu Directorate of Nature Conservation). A number of national parks have become Peace parks and changed their names. Private Parks are starting to have a huge impact on the conservation scene. In Southeast Asia, four countries including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam have established among the largest protected area systems in the world as proportions of national territory. Many are national parks or national protected areas as they are called in Lao PDR, and nature and wildlife reserves in which no exploitative uses are permitted. These restrictive national policies are coming under increasing strain faced with growing populations, especially the needs of poor communities living in and around protected areas (ICEM, 2003).

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2.4 Overview on National Parks in Vietnam

2.4.1 Political background

In Vietnam, forestland is divided into three categories, namely production, protection and special-use forests. Production forests are earmarked for exploitation in compliance with approved management plans while protection forests are designated to protect land and water sources in critical areas (Nguyen Van San et al., 1999) and their exploitation is restricted to mainly non-timber forest products in natural forests. Special-use forests are designated based on their importance for the conservation of Vietnam’s biodiversity, science, tourism or cultural and historical heritage. In January 2001, Decision No. 08/QD-TTg, classified special-use forests into the following categories: (1) National parks; (2) Nature reserves, this was further divided into two sub-categories: nature reserves and habitat/species management areas; and (3) Cultural, Historical and Environmental sites (Landscape conservation areas).

The history of national parks in Vietnam is summarized as follows: In 1960, President Ho Chi Minh announced Ordinance No. 18/LCT: ‘Law on Organization of the Government Council of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’. This ordinance included a proposal to establish the General Department of Forestry. Vietnam government had carried out the first actions to preserve natural resources through promulgating degree on forest protection. In 1962, Cuc Phuong Protected Forest established the first protected area, and up to year 1966, it became the first national park in Vietnam. In 1986, decision No. 194/CT decreed the establishment of a further 73 Special-use Forests nationwide. These Special-use Forests comprised two national parks, 46 nature reserves, and 25 cultural and historical sites. In 1994, the biodiversity action plan for Vietnam recommends the strengthening of the national parks and the protected areas system. In 1992, Prime Minister announced Decision No. 08/CT the establishment Cat Tien National Park. Up to now, there are 26 national parks extending in Vietnam.

2.4.2 The profile of National Parks

In Vietnam, the natural conservation zones and national parks were established at the area where the natural resources were not much devastated (Vo Quy, 2002). The average size of a national park in Vietnam is about 34,832 ha; Yok Don national park has a largest area with 115,545 ha; and Xuan Thuy is a smallest park with 7,100 ha. The average size of national parks in the south is higher than the north approximately 9,200 ha; and the standard deviation in size of 26 national parks in Vietnam is about 29,467 ha. In general, the purpose of national parks in Viet Nam is the same. These are to conserve valuable and rare genes of flora and fauna; to protect the representative ecosystem of tropical forest; to maintain the protective forests; to provide a platform for environmental education and scientific research; to develop the ecotourism activities; and to create the jobs for people around the parks. Further, the national parks fall under a master plan to combine ecotourism and historical tourism in order to attract domestic and foreign tourists. In Vietnam, national parks also have the support from the donors and Non Government Organizations such as IUCN (The World Conservation Union), WWF (World Wildlife Fund), GEF (Global Environment Agency) and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) on natural resources management and conservation.

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2.4.3 People in the buffer zone

According to Vo Quy (2002), many people live in the buffer zones of the natural conservation zones and national parks. Most people are poor and low education. Their subsistence depends on forest products or the related ecosystem. They are generally indigenous peoples or resettled people. About 90 percent of cases hunting and collecting forest products are carried out by people in the buffer zone. Farming practices also tend to employ a low level of technology, have low agricultural productivity, and a high poverty rate (Nguyen Ba Thu, 2002).

2.5 Problem statement

In global context, forests are the most important terrestrial reservoir of biological diversity, containing as much as two-thirds of all plant and animal species, and represent ecological, economic, cultural, spiritual and recreational values (WWF, 2002). However, the Millennium Development Goal Report of the United Nations in 2005 shows that plant and animal species are disappearing at record rate. One of the underlying causes of this problem is poverty. The poor are most immediately affected and their livelihoods more often depend on the natural resources of forests around them (UN, 2005). The conservation of natural and gene resources for the next generation is recognized as instruction of ethic and reality and it needs to find the way to implement this instruction (FAO, 1994).

In Vietnam, Cat Tien National Park is part of a lowland rainforest complex, which is one of the last remaining in southern Vietnam. The Park has considerable biological value because it is one of the last refuges for a number of significant species and because of its rich biological diversity. The diversity of the Park has been recognized by its inclusion in both terrestrial and freshwater Global 200 Eco-regions selected by WWF for outstanding biodiversity of global significance (Cat Tien National Park, 2002:8). Nevertheless, after establishing it in 1992, the government has a policy to assign the management of national parks to state-run organizations. Strict protection has resulted in limited access for local people to forest products and limited opportunities for income generation. Thus, the Park has led to a loss of income source from forest, especially the poor (Ton Tu Anh, 2002:253). Furthermore, poverty and rapid population growth in the buffer zones threaten the objectives of conservation zones (Vo Quy, 2002:45). Conservationists believe that investment in the buffer zones to enhance people’s living condition and awareness will decrease the pressure in protected areas and help conservation activities be more effective (Nguyen Ba Thu, 2002:51). In practice, Vietnam has integration projects and conservation as support for people in the buffer zone with the initial results, but the complexity of buffer zones requires a flexible approach that can be adapted to specific contexts (Vo Quy, 2002:46). It is clear that conservation management is a great problem for all national parks in Vietnam and Cat Tien National Park is not an exception. Moreover, it is very important for conservationists and policy makers responsible for conservation to understand the needs and perceptions of the people’s buffer zones in order to achieve a sustainable conservation process (Vo Quy, 2002:48). However, there is lack of studies on forest protection approaches and insufficient understanding of people’s livelihood activities and the perceptions of people in buffer zones. The author considers this to pose a serious constraint to the Cat Tien National Park Management Board in achieving its conservation goals.

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2.6 Objective and Research Questions

2.6.1 Objectives

This study looks into the social economic aspects of forest protection, in particular to learn about people’s livelihood activities in the buffer zone and their relations to the Park. This study also examines the relevance of alternative forest protection approaches in Cat Tien, which may better meet the needs of people livelihoods and at the same time ensure the park maintains its high conservation status.

2.6.2 Research questions

The main question: Has the forest protection/conservation approach in Cat Tien National Park led to more sustainable livelihoods?

The following sub questions emerge from this:

(a) What are the contextual characteristics of Cat Tien National Park? 1. Who are the stakeholders in Cat Tien National Park? 2. How is the forest in Cat Tien National Park presently protected? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of forest protection?

(b) What constitutes people’s livelihoods in the buffer zone of Cat Tien National Park? 1. What are people’s livelihoods in study site? 2. What do the projects/programs for local people implement in study site? 3. How do people’s activities relate to the use of forest resources?

(c) What is the people’s perception of protection Cat Tien National Park? 1. What are people’s views of forest protection activities in Cat Tien National Park? 2. In relation to the forest, are there different perceptions between indigenous ethnic and

migrant people groups? Why are their perceptions different? And how do they differ? 3. What are local inhabitant’s suggestions to protect sustainably the park?

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3 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this section, the study reviews basic concepts and related studies revolving around natural resource management (e.g. forest inside national park or protected areas) and sustainable livelihoods of people whom dependent on these resources. Comparing related studies, the research will clarify knowledge and ideas that have been established as well as the associated strengths and weaknesses found in each study.

3.1 Basic Concepts and Theories

3.1.1 Livelihood and sustainable livelihood

There are many definitions of livelihood used for poverty and rural development research in which a popular definition is provided by Chambers and Conway (1992): livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses, and shocks, maintain or enhance its capacities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base. The livelihood definition points at the links between assets and the options people possess in practice to pursue alternative activities that can generate the income level required for survival. According to Ellis (2000:7), several researchers such as Carswell (1997), Hussein and Nelson (1998), and Scoones (1998) have utilized this concept. Some case studies make use of the livelihoods approach which integrates natural resource management into a framework for analyzing how people use natural resources to make a living (Ashby, 2003)

3.1.2 Vulnerability

The concept of poverty is often defined in economic terms, against indicators such as income or consumption. Poverty is identified as the following problems: (1) Lack of assets and income; (2) Lack of opportunities to engage in productive activities that can sustain livelihoods; (3) Lack of voice and empowerment; (4) Lack of capacity to promote and defend community interests; and (5) Vulnerability. Vulnerability as defined by DFID (1999), stems from the negative external environment in which people exist such as shocks (e.g. floods, droughts, storms), trends (e.g. population, economic, resources), and seasonal shifts (e.g. employment opportunities, prices, and production). This research operationalises vulnerability as a concept because it is considered to have a direct influence in poor people, and because poor people are often on the forest frontier where they come into conflict with biodiversity objectives (Scherl et al., 2004).

3.1.3 Protected areas

IUCN defines protected areas as an area of land or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and management through legal or other effective means. According to Chape et al. (2003), protected areas include the six categories: (1) Strict Nature Reserve or Wilderness Area; (2) National Park managed mainly for ecosystem conservation and recreation; (3) Natural Monument managed mainly for conservation of specific features; (4) Habitat/Species Management Area managed mainly for conservation through management intervention; (5)

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Protected Landscape or Seascape managed mainly for landscape or seascape conservation and recreation; and (6) Managed Resource Protected Area managed mainly for sustainable use of natural ecosystems.

3.2 Conservation vs. economic development

Since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the human environment, the importance of biodiversity conservation and its linkage to global development issues has been recognized. At that time, many developing countries expressed their concerns about increasing environmental degradation as a possible constraint to their economic growth. However, the result of the Stockholm Conference revealed that natural resources are essential assets on which economic growth must be based, and conservation and development are inseparable (Holdgate, 1999). The fifth International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Congress in 2003 affirmed that biological diversity should be conserved for not only national values but also global values. Conservation has contributed to human well-being by maintaining ecosystems but it has also contributed to local poverty by denying the poor people control over and access to the natural resources that underpin their livelihoods (Fisher, 2005).

In terms of conservation and development issues, Cole and Neumayer (2005) also contributed their argument on the perception of “Economic development first”, whereby poverty alleviation should come first and then the environment or conservation should be addressed later. They think it seems a reasonable way for short-term but in long-term, the “Economic development first” is likely to be serious because it can not be achieved in isolation from achieving environmental stability and meeting social development goals. Moreover, the results of the first regional workshop of Protected Areas and Development (PAD) in the four countries of the Lower Mekong River Region including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (2002) emphasized that conservation of protected areas should be ensured as the first priority. In addition, it needs to have the link between conservation and economic benefits, especially intangible benefits should be recognized, for example, educational and cultural values more than only monetary value. Based on these results of studies and reports, this research suggests that although the objectives of conservation and economic development are still under discussion, the linkages between conservation and economic development should be interested. Fisher (2005) asserts the necessity of the integrated approaches to conservation and development and that approaches should be highlighted as significant conservation strategies in protected area. Related to the Vietnam context, this research corresponds with the perspective of Fisher (2005): poverty reduction and conservation should go hand in hand because there really is no other choice, neither ethically nor practically.

3.3 Protected area management approaches in the world

In general, natural resources management takes place in a complex human context. The decisions of natural resource management can affect a number of different stakeholders and may affect them differently, especially where resources are scarce or of high value. Therefore, to move from theory to practice, Ashby (2003) suggests that the trade-offs between different groups or stakeholders have to be taken into account, and the conflict resolution or agreement about the use of natural resources must be democratized by

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involving a broad set of stakeholders. This view is contrary the how the first national park in the world, Yellowstone, as established. Crow and Shoshone people were forced through coercion and violence to relocate their ancestral land. This pattern has been repeated in the establishment of many national parks. Previous inhabitants of these areas are prohibited from entering and accessing natural resources inside these parks. The consequence is the creation of a conflict of interest. Local communities in particular have their livelihoods undermined and the biodiversity management is threatening (Vo Quy, 1995). Other lesson learnt from the experiences with the population displacement strategy, Cernea and Schmidt-Soltau (No date) argue that this strategy has compromised the very cause of biodiversity and park conservation by inflicting aggravated poverty on countless people. In addition, they found that displacements should not and might not be counted upon any longer as a general and mainstream solution. However, the study of Barreto et al. (2006) emphasized that human pressure in protected areas is much smaller than un-protected areas. Therefore, since the 1980s, conservation organizations have been implementing approaches that aim to build support among local communities by sharing social and economic benefits from protected areas (Nguyen Ngoc Hoi, 2002). The goals of these initiatives include compensating local people for lack of access to protected areas and providing alternative income sources that would allow people to benefit economically from conservation while refraining from environmentally destructive practices.

The study of Scherl et al. (2004) has summarized the poverty reduction approaches in protected areas, which has been implementing in the world. These approaches are namely: (1) Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs); (2) Inclusive Management Approaches; and (3) Community Conservation Areas. Sherl et al. (2004) explains that an ICDP approach aims at building support among local communities by sharing social and economic benefits from protected areas. The goals of these initiatives include compensating local people for lack of access to protected areas and providing alternative income sources that would allow people to benefit economically from conservation while refraining from environmentally destructive practices. Sherl et al. (2004) argued that, in practice, experience has shown that the equitable distribution of financial and social benefits from protected areas can be problematic, for instance, it is often not enough to assume that community leaders will assure that benefits will accrue to the neediest people. However, in Africa, ICDPs has shown a success that accountability is improved if whole communities, including women, are involved in decision-making (Sherl et al., 2004).

Related to ICDPs, McShane and Wells (2004) have summarized the main shortcomings of ICDPs leading to lack of success in which there are the failure to identify, negotiate, and implement trade-offs between the interests and claims of multiple stakeholders; focus on activities of social programs and income creation through alternative livelihoods rather than impacts on biodiversity; and addressing local symptoms while ignoring underlying policy constraints or conversely dealing with macro-level issues while ignoring local realities. Tisen and Bennett (2000) cited in Sherl et al. (2004) explain “Inclusive Management Approaches” as a form of collaborative management between local communities and technical advisors to ensure that local communities have a major stake in decision-making and receive a major share of the benefits from protected areas. Luckett et al. (2003) cited in Sherl et al. (2004) suggests that the increased empowerments, skills and trust between local communities and technical advisors in Kwazula Natal of South Africa to prove the success of the approach but lack of evidence for the failure. Sherl et al. (2004) suggest that community conserved areas are managed by indigenous and local communities through customary laws or other effective means. Wishitemi (2000) and Okello et al. (2003) cited in Sherl et al. (2004) found that in Kenya and Tanzania, local

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communities can gain benefits and participate at all levels of management in a range of conservation and ecotourism enterprises. However, McShane and Wells (2004) cited in Sherl et al. (2004) assert that community conservation initiatives can only work when they are supported by national policy and a legislative environment that enable devolution of meaningful authority and responsibility for natural resources. Sherl et al. (2004) note critically in terms of the above approaches that: they may contribute towards reducing poverty through social empowerment and provision of financial benefits to communities in and around protected areas, but they are rarely enough to achieve significant poverty reduction.

3.4 Forest and poverty in Vietnam

The study of Sunderlin and Huynh Thu Ba (2005) has drawn a rich picture on forests and poverty in Vietnam through secondary literature. They found that there is a high incidence of poverty in the remaining stands of natural forest, and forest resources still have played an important role for millions of people in assisting the process of poverty alleviation. They believe that forest resources’ can continue to serve a useful role in poverty alleviation in the future. However, they lack evidence to explain how forest resources can contribute to income of these millions of people. Besides, Sunderlin and Huynh Thu Ba (2005) show that forest protection contracts have a degree of success in some places but have failed in many others, and they also have no evidence to explain this difference. The research on forestry, poverty reduction and rural livelihoods in Vietnam of Dinh Duc Thuan (2005) had similar results as Sunderlin and Huynh Thu Ba (2005) of high poverty rate of local communities who depended on forests. However, the research findings of Dinh Duc Thuan (2005) asserted it has a conflict between forest protection and biodiversity conservation and people’s living improvement. In his research, this finding based on ranking and drawing on 76 group discussions but it does not show details what conflicts emerged.

3.5 Livelihoods of people in buffer zones of national parks in Vietnam

Buffer zones are designed to filter out negative external influences upon core zones of protected areas. Buffer zones can help isolate the core zones from surrounding agriculture, diseases, and noise, air, and soil pollution (IUCN, 2003). The complexity associated with buffer zones was a main motivation for hosting the international conference on the buffer zones of protected areas in Vietnam. The summary record of the conference (published in 2002) is considered as literature for arguments. On that summary record, Vo Quy (2002) overviewed the problems of buffer zone management including the human complex, poverty, low education, and the dependence of people on forest. He also argued local people must participate in the projects which are implemented in the buffer zones. Pham Binh Quyen et al. (2002) found that to achieve the objectives of national parks and natural reservation zones, managers should not create the conflicts between conservation and local communities. In addition, Neefies et al. (2002) revealed that the poor lead to natural resource degradation and believed that projects and programs support for people’s living condition will reduce the human pressure to protected areas.

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The study in the buffer zone of Tam Dao National park of Do Thi Ha (2003) found that the establishment and subsequent extension the parks caused a loss of productive land for the local people. Local people living nearby can not access the parks to collect forest products for household consumption. People also lost their grazing lands, and in some cases they were forced to illegally exploit timber for construction, firewood and for coffins. They did not have any legal sources to satisfy their basic needs. The research in Bach Ma National Park of Le Van Lan et al. (2002) found that forest products play an important role for supporting the livelihoods of marginal and poor households. The majority of local people appreciate the benefits of biodiversity conservation in terms of water storage, erosion control and, to a lower extent, also biodiversity conservation. However, it seems that Le Van Lan et al. (2002) have not enough evidence to prove the park has opportunities to shift from the protective conservation policy towards encouraging sustainable systems for production of livelihoods benefits for the local population. The study also lacks an analysis of the needs of on multi-stakeholders in relation to the conservation objectives.

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4 METHODOLOGY

4.1 Methodological approach

This research used the sustainable livelihoods approach of Department for International Development (DFID) to find out the relationship between people in the buffer zone and Cat Tien National Park. The core sustainable livelihood principles adopted by DFID are: people centred; responsive and participatory; multi-level; conducted in partnership; sustainable and dynamic (DFID, 1999). This approach helps to show the rationale to dealing with the problems of poor people. In particular, it tends to focus on the issues identified by poor people and the multiple factors that impinge on their lives. For the purposes of this research, livelihoods are seen as sustainable when they are resilient in the face of external shocks and stresses; are not dependent upon external support; maintain the long-term productivity of natural resources; and do not undermine the livelihoods of others. This research will examine the gap between the real situation of livelihoods in the study site and the theory of sustainable livelihoods. In fact, the scope and methods of livelihood analysis are varied thus after local people have identified the livelihood issues, this research will try to help them explore the links between livelihood activities and natural resources of the park.

4.2 Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework (Appendix Figure 2) was applied for this study using the vulnerability context and the process of forest protection as the points of departure. The context of vulnerability comes from different issues, for example, shocks (internal and external factors), trends, seasonal and even the changed policies. The objects of vulnerability are mentioned in the research as people in the buffer zone and Cat Tien national park. It could even be expressed as the relationship between the forest protection policy and people’s livelihoods. The framework identifies five assets which can be used to sustain people’s livelihoods. Livelihood assets are tangible and intangible assets help people to meet their needs. In particular, these assets include: (1) Natural: farming land, forests in buffer zone, water resources; (2) Social: community, family, social organizations, organizational networks; (3) Financial: wage employment, savings, credit, investments; (4) Human: education, health, jobs, training; (5) Physical: roads, electricity, schools, markets, clinics, bridges.

Analyzing livelihood strategies involves understanding how people use and combine their resources to meet short- and longer-term needs. It also involves understanding how people cope in times of stress and shocks. It is important to note that the livelihood priorities between indigenous ethnic minorities (Chau Ma and Stieng people) and Kinh people will differ given existing cultural norms and differing access to and control over livelihood capitals and resources. An understanding of the livelihood strategies of every people group allows planners/policy makers identify activities of program to improve livelihoods by increasing alternatives and options, and reducing risks. Strategies can include combinations of activities, including market-oriented activities and subsistence production activities. People adapt their livelihood strategies over time and from one season to another in order to adapt to changing needs and capital status.

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4.3 Site selection

The research was undertaken in one of the 36 communes and towns located in the buffer zone of Cat Tien National Park. The commune was selected based in the following criteria: (1) Must be a buffer zone commune of Cat Tien National Park; (2) Must be considered as a poor commune on the basis of the poverty criteria setup by the Vietnam Government; (3) Must be a commune of indigenous ethnics and new-comers; and (4) Must be a commune with the pressure of population to the Park. With these criteria, Ta Lai commune was chosen as the case. Ta Lai commune falls under Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province with seven villages. Among these villages, village 4 also satisfies the four criteria thus it was chosen as study site of this research.

Figure 3: Location of study site

4.4 Data collection method

The data used for this study were collected during the fieldwork. The primary data were gathered in four steps. The first step, general information gained by way of key informants and group discussions with Management Board of the Park and Ta Lai commune People’s committee. In this step, the available documents in study site were also useful in reference to the history of the area and pathing the way for the next step. In the second step three

Vietnam Ta Lai Commune

Village 4

Cat Tien National Park

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groups, Kinh, Stieng and Chau Ma, were invited to work with Participatory Rural Appraisal Methods (PRA). Related to PRA exercise, each group had eight to twelve respondents (70%: male; 30%: female). Thereafter, household interviews by questionnaire undertaken in the third step. Finally, the fourth step was an in-depth interview which used a reference checklist.

4.4.1 Secondary data

The secondary data was elicited from the different authorities, Cat Tien National Park Management Board as well as other sources of literature.

4.4.2 Primary data

Mapping: A map was used to identify the comparative location and importance of different resources within an area. It provided a framework for the invited local people to discuss and highlight resources of importance; and to analyze the current status or condition of a location. Moreover, this map was useful to identify the strengths or weaknesses of specific areas in the study site such as rich soil, poor soil or waterless field. The comparative location among Cat Tien National Park, the fields and people’s house was also mentioned on the map.

Time line: A time line tool was used to record changes over time of the historical development of Cat Tien national park and the history of local community. It was used with group of key informants and older members of the community.

Seasonal calendar: Livelihood related activities such as employment, production, health, cost, and calamity. This tool focused on people’s activities involving to the forest and cultivation.

SWOT: it served as a planning exercise to help the respondents become accustomed to thinking about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in their commune and village. The participants were guided to brainstorm and wrote down their ideas on the strengths/weakness of the internal factors and the opportunities/threats of the external factors. Thereafter, all participants decided and voted on important issues. Finally, the researcher facilitated a process enabling the respondents to combine these issues of SWOT to identify their own solutions.

4.4.3 Household survey

To conduct household survey, the 16 interviewers were trained at Nong Lam University (NLU). All interviewers were final-year students of Department of Rural Development of NLU. Their performance and skills were also reviewed in the field site. Before collecting data, one meeting between local leaders and interviewers was organized to help all participants share general information relating to research objectives.

In village 4, the population is 1,467 persons in 330 households that including eight people groups. Kinh, Stieng and Chau Ma are the main groups of the village. Therefore, the selected sample size was 150 households by random sampling from these main groups. A sample of 50 households was equally divided for every group. Data were collected through the questionnaire, primarily designed in Ho Chi Minh City and modified after pre-testing in the field. The questionnaire included questions about the general information of households (household size, education, age and job); and explored the five

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capitals of livelihoods. The questionnaire contained both open-ended and closed questions in order to understand the respondents’ views and behaviour related to forest protection.

4.4.4 In-depth interviewing

After the PRA exercise and household survey, the research identified the main issues needed to be studied in more depth. This tool used the checklist focusing on forest protection activities of the park, and the contract between indigenous households and Cat Tien national park management board. The respondents were Cat Tien National Park Management Board, Staff of Ta Lai Forest Station and the households having a contract with the park.

4.5 Data analysis method

The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the collected data. The results were presented by tables, figures and boxes. Descriptive statistics and correspondence analysis were applied in this research to study relationship between household character, people’s livelihood, and the conservation of Cat Tien National Park. The process of data analysis was guided by Figure 2. The researcher crosschecked and combined information from group discussion, household survey, and in-depth interviews to find evidence relating to forest protection and people’s livelihoods in study site. Moreover, the study integrated the evidence in the study site with the lessons learnt from other literature in Vietnam and the world to have an overall analysis.

Figure 4: Data analysis framework Source: Tran Duc Luan, 2006.

Final results and findings

Analyzing data from household

survey

Analyzing data from in-depth

interviews

Analyzing data from group discussion &

PRA exercise

Overall analysis

+

Lessons learnt from other

countries on forest protection and

livelihoods

Lessons learnt from previous

studies in Vietnam

Lessons learnt from Cat Tien National Park Management Board

Lessons learnt from local people’s view in study site

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Besides, CATWOE, a soft systems stakeholder analysis tool that was developed by Peter Checkland for the purpose to trace problems and its associated issues, was used to identify the problem situation and who were the stakeholders of forest protection. Applied to conservation activities in Cat Tien national park, it resulted in the identification of six components as follows: (1) Clients are the stakeholders considered to be victims or beneficiaries of conservation activities; (2) Actors are the stakeholders who implemented the conservation activities; (3) Transformation refers to the nature of the conservation activities that have been carried out. The activities and objectives of conservation are highlighted in the discussion; (4) Worldview is the view that makes the conservation activities meaningful in Cat Tien National Park context; (5) Owners are those stakeholders who could stop the conservation activities; and (6) Environment is the broader constraints and limits on conservation activities.

Finally, the software used for analyzing data including SPSS 13.0, Excel, and Minjet Mind Manager Pro 6.0.

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5 EVIDENCE AND INTERPRETATION

5.1 Cat Tien National Park

This part discusses the historical background of Cat Tien National Park with its salient events. The main characteristics and forest protection activities of Cat Tien National Park are described while the trends of forest law violation in the park are discussed. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of forest protection and conservation are explored through secondary data and information from in-depth interviews.

5.1.1 History of Cat Tien National Park

Historically, Cat Tien connects closely to the key decisions of Vietnamese Government in particular and the world in general. After Vietnam War, Cat Tien National Park had been managing in turn by different organisations such as Vietnamese Military, the three provincial people’s committee (Dong Nai, Lam Dong, and Binh Phuoc), and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to authorize a management board to manage. One interesting issue of the history is the park was gradually winning recognition as from the nature conservation, national park, to the 411th biosphere reserve, and even the 1499th Ramsar Site. Therefore, Cat Tien is considered as a valuable national park and recognized by not only Vietnam but also the world.

5.1.2 Characteristic of Cat Tien National Park

a. Location and topography: Cat Tien National Park is located in the south of Vietnam with the distance of 150 km to Ho Chi Minh City. The total area is about 73,878 ha and consists of three sectors of three provinces: Nam Cat Tien in Dong Nai province with an area of 38,100 ha; Tay Cat Tien in Binh Phuoc province with an area of 5,143 ha and Cat Loc in Lam Dong province with an area of 30,365 ha. Moreover, the area of buffer zone is approximately 138,479 ha (Cat Tien National Park, 2003:10). The topography of the park varies greatly. In particular, the topography is steep in Cat Loc, low and gentle hills in Nam Cat Tien and Tay Cat Tien. Thus, lots of flora and fauna in terms of biodiversity thrives in Cat Tien National Park.

b. Climate: Cat Tien falls under a tropical climate with two different seasons. The rainy season is from April to October with the humid air of the southwest monsoon carrying rain to the park. From November to March, the dry air of the northeast monsoon causes high temperature in this area. In general, it is an area of relatively high rainfall. The annual average rainfall is 2,894 mm, its maximum at 627 mm on August. Total number of rainy days is estimated to be about 224 days per year.

c. Biodiversity: About 1,610 plant species have been recorded in Cat Tien National Park, which is approximately 6 percent of the total species found in Vietnam where it has 34 plant species found in the IUCN red book (Cat Tien National Park, 2003:12). Regarding fauna, as of 2003 a total of 76 mammals, 320 birds, 74 reptiles, 35 amphibians, 99 fresh water fish and 435 butterflies were recorded. The number of species in Cat Tien is estimated to be between 21 and 43 percent of the total found in Vietnam. About 40

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fauna species are IUCN red listed. The key species are: Asian elephant (Elephas Mamimus), Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Sondaicus Annamiticus), and Black-shanked douc langur (Pygathrix Nigripes). Cat Tien is also a dwelling place for Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus Siamensis), which was extinct locally, but has been revived through the plan of Cat Tien national park.

d. Demographic Characteristics of the People: According to Tran Van Mui (2006), there are currently 170,000 people living in the buffer zone of Cat Tien national park. The buffer zone has 36 communes and towns of the four provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc, Lam Dong and Dak Lak. A total of 3,947 people live inside the core zone of the park. The reason for population increase was mainly due to free migration. The majority of the people who settled inside the park after the American war were immigrants from all over Vietnam (Cat Tien National Park, 2003). The Chau Ma and Stieng people are indigenous ethnic minorities who have lived in the region of the park for several centuries while some ethnic minorities of the north of Vietnam, in particular Tay, Nung, Dao people have been migrating to the park only in recent decades. The changes of human population and its associated human pressure affects the socio public order that are challenges to management, protection and conservation efforts of the natural resources in the park. Inside the park, there are three groups of people: (1) Kinh people (lowland people); (2) Stieng and Chau Ma people (indigenous ethnic minority); (3) Tay, Nung, Hoa, HMong, Dao, (migrant ethnic minorities) who came from the northern provinces of Vietnam.

e. Historical and cultural value of the park: Other than bio-diversity value, Cat Tien national park still has the intangible benefit/value of its rich history and culture. In the past, the Vietnamese people waged a war of resistance against the French colonials, and in this time, the park was well-know for the Ta Lai prison. During the time of American war, the park was a military base of the Vietnamese and the leaders who guided directly the people to fight the enemy. In terms of culture, the park preserves the archaeological site of Oc Eo culture. This cultural heritage used to be a sophisticated country in the Mekong Valley of Vietnam, occupied sometime in 250 AD and was excavated by Louis Malleret. Oc Eo covered some 1,100 acres and has an extensive canal system and brick foundations. Thus, it is really a valuable cultural heritage in the park.

5.1.3 Forest protection activities in Cat Tien National Park

Among 175 members of staff, the park currently has 120 forest guards. The major protection activity implemented by forest protection department is patrolling and dealing with violators. Forest guards have a co-operation with some indigenous households to protect the park. Moreover, forest guards also maintain regular contact with the communities living within their area of protection and conservation education activities, and make monthly reports to forest protection department for the trends in violation as well as crosscheck against the other.

5.1.4 The trend of forest law violation in Cat Tien National Park

The human pressure mainly comes from the increasing population in the buffer zone and the overpopulation inside the park (Cat Tien National Park, 2003). According to Cat Tien national park management board, in recent years, the violations have been complex in spite of the decreased number of cases of violations. The main reasons for this problem are from human pressure and the demand for forest products. People entered the park to collect forest products for their daily needs such as food, fire wood, construction, and even

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trading to get cash income. In 2000 - 2005, nearly 39 percent of violators created these activities, and they often act all year round (Table 1).

Table 1: Forest law violation in Cat Tien National Park from 2000 to 2005 Years Items

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Annual Average

Rate* (%)

1. Cases of law violation 486 498 519 367 351 254 413 100

+ Hunting 48 69 80 51 71 40 60 16

+ Fishing 124 126 79 67 58 29 81 11

+ Wood 27 20 49 15 23 10 24 4

+ Other forest products 119 148 171 127 106 97 128 38

+ Other forms of violation 168 135 140 107 93 78 120 31

2. Number of violators 802 906 915 580 524 387 686 100

+ Hunting 65 111 127 68 72 46 82 12

+ Fishing 159 212 121 99 95 39 121 18

+ Logging 36 41 88 30 40 9 41 6

+ Other Forest Products 239 324 369 239 202 211 264 39

+ Other forms of violation 303 218 210 144 115 82 179 26

Source: Calculation from the data of Cat Tien National Park Management Board, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

Note: * The percentage of annual average

About 12 percent of violators were apprehended when they entered the park for hunting, and 18 percent of violators were arrested because of fishing. The majority of these violators live around the park. Some of them sell the collected forest products to generate income. In fact, many restaurants in Vietnam offer wild meat. With increasing income there is a growing demand for wild meat as luxurious dish (Cat Tien National Park, 2003). Forest guards have been co-operating with the police and local authorities of the buffer zone to patrol and handle the violators. However, lots of violators have been arrested yet they still commit the same violation. Why is this so? Because they are mostly marginalized minorities who need to enter the park to collect fish, bamboo shoot, mushroom, and other forest products for survival.

5.1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of forest protection and conservation management

Advantages: Results of in-depth interviews with key-informants in Cat Tien National Park reveals that there are three main issues subsumed as advantages of forest protection and conservation management. Firstly, Cat Tien is supported and given considerable attention

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by Vietnam Government and Non Government Organizations. For example, the Cat Tien National Park Conservation Project was supported by the Netherland and Vietnam Government in 1998-2004, the objectives of which was aimed at preserving bio-diversity, its rare and endangered flora and fauna (e.g. Dalbergia Bariensis, Aquilaria Crassna, and Rhinoceros Sondaicus). Project for Forest Protection and Rural Development Project was funded by a loan from the World Bank and was implemented in the buffer zone in 1998-2005. Its main objective was to alleviate the poverty status of those living around the park. Secondly, scientists and researchers from national and international communities assisted the park through provision of documents, equipments, and facilities to enhance the conservation management skills of the staff. Finally, co-operation among the police, the provincial governments and the park created close coordination and supervision of forest protection activities.

Disadvantages: Discussion with the management board revealed that forest protection is really difficult and complex. The complexity is such due to the following reasons: (1) Most people are poor with unstable and limited income sources. The poor are mainly minority people who depended on cultivation facing constraints of infertile soil, low productivity, low education and technology, thus have no other means to earn money but to enter the park to collect forest products despite awareness that such actions are violations of the forest conservation regulation; (2) Animal traps exist and are hidden in tricky areas. These are made, traded and used by the communities around the park; (3) The violators have sophisticated strategies to collect forest products and avoid law enforcers; (4) Staff have to work in risk conditions inside the park because of dangerous animals and cruel violators. Staff get a low salary, not sufficient enough to cope with the cost of living.

5.2 Study site

5.2.1 Natural context

Ta Lai commune is located at the buffer zone of Cat Tien national park which is about 15 km from the centre of Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province. Total natural area of Ta Lai commune is about 2,619 ha which occupies 3.37 percent of total natural area of Tan Phu district. Ta Lai commune is relatively flat with Dong Nai river crossing.

There are seven villages in the commune in which village 4 is close to Cat Tien national park and located at the northwest band of Dong Nai River. Village 4 is divided into three separate areas: (1) Phuoc Sang zone where Kinh people live; (2) Bu Chap 1, Bu Chap 2 where Stieng people are; (3) Ta Lai zone where Chau Ma people are found. Among these areas, Ta Lai is nearest to the park (Figure 3).

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Figure 5: Resource Map in Village 4, Ta Lai commune Source: Used mapping tool of PRA exercise, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

5.2.2 Socio-economic aspect

Current statistics of Ta Lai people’s committee show that in 2005, the population of the commune is 8,027 persons in 1,670 households, estimating an average household size of 4.8. Village 5 has the lowest population with 883 persons while village 4 has the highest population with 1,467 persons in the commune. Agriculture is the main economic activity in Ta Lai commune. Industry is yet to be developed although few entities of small machinery to process agricultural products are present in the commune. The poverty rate of Ta Lai commune is about 15 percent of the total households in 2004 basing on the old poverty line of Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (130,000VND/person/month). Comparatively, village 4 has the highest poverty rate at 28 percent of the total households.

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5.3 The people in the buffer zone

This section will focus on the people of village 4 including the history of people groups, the general information of households, the five livelihood assets and people’s livelihood activities. From the vantage point of livelihood activities the research continues to explore the relationship between local people and Cat Tien National Park. The views of households about the park in terms of forest protection are considered. The advantages and disadvantages of people’s livelihoods are discussed. Also, the gap on sustainable livelihoods between theory and practice is explored to better understand the problems that constrain the local community.

5.3.1 History of people groups

Based on the timeline tool of PRA exercise and the secondary data, historical issues of each people group are described in detail as follows:

Indigenous ethnic minorities: Chau Ma and Stieng are indigenous people in Cat Tien national park and located in Lam Dong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Dak Lak province. Before the 20th century, they lived in the primeval forest with abundant flora and fauna. Their intimacy with the environment inside the forest and with the accumulation of knowledge about it, Chau Ma and Stieng have learned to create ways to adapt sustainably to their environment for life sustenance and human development. That said, the culture and indigenous knowledge of Chau Ma and Stieng reflects these experiences of adaptability (Nguyen Huynh Thuat, 2005). In 1976, Dong Nai Province People’ committee moved Chau Ma and Stieng people from forest to the settled agriculture and resident area located in village 4, Ta Lai commune. To ensure people’s living condition, the local government invested in houses and reclaimed farm areas. Up to now, they still live in the area with agricultural activities as their main sources of income and food source (Tan Phu District People’ committee, 2004).

Other migrants-minority: As mentioned above, many minority people from different provinces have freely migrated to Cat Tien National Park to look for alternative opportunities. However, these groups of migrants rarely enter into the buffer zone of village 4 thus they are not given focus in this study.

Kinh people (lowland Vietnam): In 1976, the government brought the people in Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City to Ta Lai commune for the program on new economic zone. This program was carried out three times with a total number of 100 households as beneficiaries. Every person was distributed 0.2 ha of cultivated land. During this time, the living condition was poor. People faced lots of difficulties that included lack of food and malaria. In 1978-1980, nearly half of households could not stand the difficulties so that they returned to Ho Chi Minh City. On the other hand, some households in Dinh Quan district, Dong Nai province came to settle and in 1982, some households from the north of Vietnam also migrated to the village. The complex and unstable population makes the social–public order difficult to control, conniving with minority people to enter the park. This problem is currently a hot issue for the forest guard station in village 4.

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5.3.2 General information of surveyed household

After studying the history of the people groups in village 4, the finding shows that there are differences in their lives. This part will go deeper into the detailed characteristics of the people. Household survey provides the data in this section.

Nearly half of Chau Ma and Stieng groups have five to six persons per household. Meanwhile, over half of the Kinh group have three to four persons per household. Therefore, household size of Chau Ma and Stieng groups is higher than its Kinh group (Appendix Table 1 shows the test for mean difference of household size). Besides, the sex ratio is not quite different from male and female. Table 2: General Information of households in 2005

People Groups (%) Items

Chau Ma (n=50)

Kinh (n=50)

Stieng (n=50)

Total sample (%) (N=150)

1. Sex (persons)

Male 53 49 46 50 Female 47 51 54 50 2. Grouping by household size (hh) <= 2 persons 0 10 4 5 3 - 4 persons 22 52 28 34 5 – 6 persons 48 32 46 42 7 – 8 persons 26 4 14 15 >= 9 persons 4 2 8 5 3. Education Preschool age 14 11 12 13 Primary school 44 37 55 46 Secondary school 20 35 10 21 High school 4 9 2 5 College 0 1 1 1 Illiterate 18 7 20 15 4. Occupation status Preschool age 14 11 12 13 Schooling age 26 23 26 25

Employment 50 63 56 56

Unemployment 10 3 6 6 Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006.

Note: Average household size (Chau Ma: 5.72; Kinh: 4.24; Stieng: 5.40; Total sample: 5.12 persons)

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One interesting point is the education rate of Kinh group which shows that the majority has reached secondary and high school level; double than the Chau Ma and Stieng group. On the contrary, the illiteracy rate of Chau Ma and Stieng groups is doubled compared with the Kinh group. In short, the education level of Kinh group is highest among the three surveyed groups. Beside, the proportion of employment is 56 percent of the total population of surveyed households. This employment force is pressured with family’s burden to support the dependents and unemployed household members in terms of earning income for daily living. The dependents include children at preschool age (13%), children at schooling age (25%), and the unhealthy, old and unemployed people (6%).

5.3.3 Five assets of households

The sustainable livelihoods (SL) framework of DFID suggests that there are five livelihood assets comprising human, physical, financial, natural and social assets. This part describes the main characteristic of livelihood assets and how people use them on their livelihood activities. The integrated analysis explores the relationship between these assets. The exercise of resource mapping and transect walk provided a description of the natural assets. Currently, people have enough cultivated land but the soil is infertile and they lack water for production. Table 3 shows that Chau Ma group’s productive assets have the highest average value. This could be due to the fact that Chau Ma group has been raising buffaloes for ploughing. Besides, inside Chau Ma group, the inequality of productive assets remains high. This inequality is a pattern in general because of also high for the other two groups. An indicator to measure the inequality of distribution is Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient that was developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini, is a measure of inequality of a distribution. It is often used to measure income inequality and also to measure wealth inequality. It is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds to total equality and 1 corresponds to perfect inequality. In this study, the Gini coefficient of productive assets of Chau Ma group is about 0.8 which means that only few households kept the lion’s share of the total value of these assets while there is high percentage of households that shares the smaller value of the total assets. Moreover, cultivated land area, value of productive assets, and value of assets for living of Stieng group is lower than the Chau Ma and Kinh groups. It was observed that the houses of Chau Ma and Stieng people contain relatively low value of assets for living (e.g. table, bed). Only few indigenous households have high value assets such as television and motorbike while the houses of Kinh people contain many assets for living such as table, chair and bed. Moreover, they have been using television, cassette player, motorbike and other electric equipments. Walking is the main mode of the indigenous people to go to the local market. Some households have bicycles to transport them out of the village.

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Table 3: Asset value and cultivated area of surveyed households Assets for living Productive Assets Cultivated Land AreaItems

Mean (000 vnd)

Gini Mean (000 vnd)

Gini Mean (m2)

Gini

1. People groups

Chau Ma 3,900 0.65 3,243 0.80 15,815 0.44

Kinh 6,573 0.58 2,284 0.67 13,088 0.48

Stieng 2,473 0.74 1,131 0.83 11,983 0.51

Total sample 4,315 0.67 2,219 0.79 13,629 0.48 2. Grouping by income per capita per month

The 1st quartile 1,749 0.68 1,467 0.82 11,973 0.42

The 2nd quartile 2,301 0.66 1,155 0.81 12,333 0.39

The 3rd quartile 4,528 0.65 2,467 0.79 13,614 0.46

The 4th quartile 8,621 0.48 3,776 0.70 16,552 0.55

Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006.

It was interesting to note that other aspects such as the amount of cultivated land area varies among the surveyed households (Gini = 0.48) but for the value of living and productive assets, there seems to be higher inequality in the total sample (Gini = 0.79 and 0.67).

The analysis on income per capita per month was sorted by ascension and then divided by four parts in quartile (Table 4) shows that income per capita per month is directly proportional to the value of living and productive assets as well as the cultivated land area. This is a general issue observed in most surveyed households. However, it is also evident that although people have large land areas and high value of productive assets, their income remains low. It was observed that Stieng people have a large rice area but rarely apply new technology to cultivate since they do not know exactly the right timing for fertilizer and chemical application. This is due to the fact that in the past, they were used to shifting cultivation, thus rice productivity is low. It was also observed that in the cashew field of Chau Ma people, there had been limited investment, thus productivity is only half in comparison to the cashew productivity of Kinh people. The limited investment may be on account that Chau Ma people cannot raise the initial capital needed to make the investment. Moreover, it was revealed that after covering the cost, Kinh people are able to earn income twice higher than what Chau Ma can generate in per ha of cashew production. Hence on the aspect of cultivation, productive assets and land area should be maximized fully by complementing it with the information on proper cultivation and use and this requires a strong link with the human assets.

Human assets as discussed previously show that Kinh people’s level of education is higher than that of Chau Ma and Stieng people. With higher educational level, this knowledge can be employed in the use of agricultural technology more efficiently and productive. Evidence for this has been drawn from information of group discussions. Accordingly, Kinh people can participate, discuss and easily learn new technology for cultivation. They can read the guide books and then apply the knowledge by themselves. For Chau Ma and Stieng people, these posed some great difficulty. According to some key

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informants in village 4, the local government conducted a course on agricultural training courses intended for indigenous people, but immediately after the courses, most of them forgot everything so they can not apply effectively in the field. Besides, social assets of Chau Ma and Stieng group are an interesting issue. They join to village meetings, training courses and share their traditional culture more than Kinh group. For example, they can learn from each other brocade weaving, make simple production equipments, distinguish types of flora and fauna in forest, and select cultivated land in the hills. In terms of financial assets, Kinh people have been anticipating the future so they save. The saving is manifested as money and rice storage. They use savings to deal with the internal and external shocks such as diseases, drought, and loss harvest. This is different from Chau Ma and Stieng people. Chau Ma and Stieng people do not save money for the future; they are willing to spend after selling agricultural products. For example, on cashew harvesting season, most of Chau Ma and Stieng people come to local wine-houses in order to eat and drink (high expenditure for beer and wine) and some households buy motorbikes not for as a means of transportation but for fun.

On vulnerability issues affecting livelihood assets

Due to low education of Chau Ma and Stieng people, there is difficulty in acquiring agricultural technology. This constraint in human assets was observed in their dependence on Government support as well as on other external help. On the other hand, Kinh people face the difficulty of lack of transportation for children going to school and thus it affects their quality of education. In terms of natural assets, infertile soil and limited irrigation are barriers for cultivation. Moreover, when the government drew a new boundary for the buffer zone in Ta Lai commune, 75 ha of rice area remained inside Cat Tien National Park which can not be cultivated anymore by the Chau Ma people. This situation created a conflict of interest between conservation managers and Chau Ma people. On the other hand, Kinh people buy cultivated land from indigenous people which also aggravate their already vulnerable state of life. After the sale of land, indigenous people fail to save, spending all that was earned. Hence, they have no other choice but to enter the park to collect forest products or find a new land area for cultivation. The cultivated land area however, which was bought by Kinh people, have been taken back by the local government in later years. The lack of savings among the Chau Ma and Stieng people get them into deeper debts from private lending individuals. The way forest protection and conservation management activity is done does not reflect an integrated effort between local communities and forest guards and thus much of the indigenous knowledge on natural resource management is not fully utilized (Nguyen Huynh Thuat, 2005). Recently, Chau Ma and Stieng people begun to adopt a similar lifestyle to the Kinh people however, their traditions while living in the forest seem to persist. The settled agriculture and residence program supported Chau Ma people with some living assets such as bed and wardrobe however, these assets were damaged and not put to use. On the other hand, Stieng people do not like to live in the concrete houses which were built by the government, rather they prefer to stay and live in the wooden houses on stilts.

5.3.4 People’s livelihood activities

The analysis herein focuses on the proportion of the main occupations of the interviewed households. Leones and Feldman (1998) divided income activities into three categories: (1) On-farm which means that income is generated from own-account farming; (2) Off-farm where wage or exchange labour on other farms within agriculture; (3) Non-farm: referring

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to non-agricultural income sources. Table 4 summarizes the details of employed labourers in surveyed households.

For on-farm activities there are about 73.3 percent of total labourers who have been working on agriculture in which 43.4 percent accounts for cultivation, 27.8 percent for cultivation and animal husbandry, and 2.1 percent for fishery. The types of crops cultivated are rice, fruit, cashew, cash crop, and forest tree. Rice remains the main crop cultivated in the village. Types of animal husbandry are cows, buffalos, pigs, and poultry. Animal husbandry is not developed because ploughing buffalos are replaced by tractors and poultry are used only for household consumption. Kinh people have raised pigs and cows through the support of projects and banks. Regarding 18.7 percent of total labourers have worked on off-farm activities, for example, clear of wild grass for cultivation, spray pesticide for plants or harvest rice for local farms. Besides, labourers have been to Binh Phuoc province for collecting cashew nut, special Stieng people. Meanwhile, on non-farm activities, only eight percent of labourers work on these. The specific activities are small businesses inside and in neighbouring villages, also include officers, bricklayers and brocade weavers.

Table 4: Occupation of surveyed households People Groups (%) Items

Chau Ma (n=50)

Kinh (n=50)

Stieng (n=50)

Total sample (%) (N=150)

1. On-farm 79.0 73.9 67.4 73.3

a. Cultivation 51.7 35.1 43.0 43.4

b. Cultivation & animal husbandry 23.8 37.3 23.1 27.8

c. Fishery 3.5 1.5 1.3 2.1

2. Off-farm 16.8 10.4 27.8 18.7

3. Non-farm 4.2 15.7 4.6 8.0

a. Small business 1.4 6.7 2.0 3.3

b. Worker/Officer 1.4 5.3 1.3 2.6

c. Others 1.4 3.7 1.3 2.1

Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

Discussion with key informants reveals that there is a difference in awareness between Kinh people and indigenous people in terms of their preference towards livelihood activities. For instance, Kinh people have a trend to concentrate on agricultural production to serve a market demand. They know to calculate the cost-benefit of their activities as well as have the knowledge to apply technology while Chau Ma and Stieng people are not clearly adept on these matters.

Kinh people: Group discussions indicate that average productivity of rice is about three tons per ha per crop. After cost production recovery of 4.5 million VND/ha/crop, income per ha per crop of rice is estimated to be 1.5 million VND. Most of the rice fields can only cultivate one crop per year due to lack of water on dry season. After harvests, people would sell their produce at about one-third of crop yield to pay expenditures while the remaining yield is stored for household consumption. Corn and bean areas are decreasing due to lack of water and pests. As a result, about 90 percent of surveyed

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households stopped cultivating these cash crops. For industrial tree, nearly two-thirds of cashew area had just been planted. The remaining cashew area appears to be susceptible to low productivity yield if people won’t invest in fertilizers and pesticides. This would be one ton per ha or two tons per ha which is short of expected estimated yield. In terms of animal husbandry, the people raise local white pigs on average two heads per household. By-products from agriculture are used as feeds for pigs. After six months, the average weight for selling is about 60 kg per head. Chicken and duck are just for household consumption. Cow production is strongly developed through the aid of Vietnam Bank for agriculture and rural development and Forest Protection and Rural Development Project.

Box 1. Why do Kinh people not enter the park for forest product collection?

One Kinh respondent said, “Most of the people in Phuoc Sang area were given a loan to raise cows according to production groups. Every group has seven to ten households. Every household was given ten million VND with interest rate of 0.45% and payback period of three years. The interest was to be paid after three months to the leader of the production group who in turn payment shall be remitted to the bank staff. Cost of breeding cow was about seven to eight million VND per head. Each cow is required to breed at least two cows or more. At present, the cows are healthy and strong. If this trend continues, three years later, the income from two bred calves will already cover the loan and the people can have a profit from the mother cow. This is one of reasons why we all concentrate to agricultural activities rather than enter Cat Tien National Park as was the case in the past”.

Source: In-depth interview, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

Stieng people: Stieng people cultivate two rice crops per year with water from Vam Ho dam. The average productivity of rice is about two tons per year. Only few households can achieve three tons per ha per crop as result of new technology application. Cashew have been planted on the hills without fertilizer with an average productivity of 1.25 tons per ha per year. In animal husbandry, cows are raised more commonly than buffaloes while chicken is raised for family or household consumption. On off-farm activities, people labour during rice harvesting season (70% of female labourers; 30% of male labourers) with a wage rate of 25 thousand VND coupled with a lunch meal per day per labour. The majority of male labourers spray pesticide and clear wild grass to prepare the land for cultivation. They are paid a wage of 30 thousand VND per day. The group discussion revealed that Stieng people often enter the park to collect bamboo shoots, rattans, medicinal trees and other forest products. Respondents said that sometimes Stieng people enter the park to hunt Java mouse deer and tortoise or come to Da Pan Stream to catch fish. Usually, it takes ten hours (from 7:00AM to 5:00PM) to complete the entire activity of entering the park and conduct its associated livelihood activities. According to the informants, Stieng people enter the park less than Chau Ma people. This finding has been crosschecked and validated in the household survey and in-depth interviewing with some key informants.

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Table 5: Income per capita per month of the surveyed household in 2005 Unit: 1000 VND

Groups

Chau Ma (n=50)

Kinh (n=50) Stieng (n=50)

Total sample (N=150)

Items

Mean Std. D Mean Std. D Mean Std. D Mean Std. D %

1. On-farm 135 94 166 155 155 119 151 58 58

2. Off-farm 38 58 35 64 52 77 42 67 16

3. Non-farm 63 110 131 158 12 21 68 121 26 4. Total income/capita/month (4) = (1) + (2) + (3)

236 120 332 170 219 95 260 140 100


Note: - Income on this table is not including income from forest products.

VND: Vietnamese Dong (used at US$1=VND 15,800)

Chau Ma people: They have been cultivating one variety of rice in a flat field and planting cashew in the garden house and hills. The rice yield is two tons per ha per crop. After covering its productive cost, 500 thousand VND per ha can be earned. Brocade weaving is a traditional handicraft for female Chau Ma people. However, the number of labourers who join this work is limited due to lack of market demand. People get loans or enter the park to collect forest products for food and firewood. The group discussion revealed that in the past, Chau Ma people often entered the park to collect bamboo shoots from July to August, especially women. Table 5 shows that income per capita per month of Kinh people is highest with 332 thousand VND, while Chau Ma people has on the average of 236 thousand VND and Stieng people with 219 thousand VND. The total income is the sum of all earnings from on-farm, off-farm and non-farm sources with on-farm activities bringing in the main income for all people which are estimated to be 58 percent of the total income.

The average income of Kinh group from on-farm sources is not different from the two remaining groups. Firstly, the distribution of income from rice production is not high despite the relative good productivity (in comparison to Chau Ma and Stieng people). Secondly, Chau Ma and Stieng’s cashew harvesting is on time with 1.5 times the area covered compared to the Kinh people. Thirdly, the majority of Kinh’s fruit and cashew area as well as its cow production are in its initial investment phase. Hence at present, income from on-farm source is equal among the three groups. However, in the next three years, there will be a wide disparity of income between groups as a result of increasing income that will favour the Kinh people. Stieng people compared with the other two groups have earned more money from off-farm activities due to a higher number of labourers working on these activities. On the other hand, Kinh people have high income from non-farm sources generated from small business, wage labour and remittance from relatives working outside.

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5.3.5 Relationship between households and Cat Tien National Park

This part continues to explore the relationship between people’s livelihood activities and Cat Tien national park. This relationship connects closely to history and living habits of people which have been found and discussed in the previous sections of this study. The relationship between people’s livelihood activities and Cat Tien national park focuses on three main issues: (1) violation of the forest law has been recorded in village 4 in recent years; (2) the categories of forest products which are collected and used by the local people; (3) other activities related to Cat Tien national park.

The violation from 1999 to 2004 is complex however due to lack of documented data violators are not accurately classified. It is interesting to note though that nearly 46 percent of people in village 4 had collected forest products (e.g. bamboo shoots, rattans, and mushrooms), 22 percent for trade, storage and transport forest products, 22 percent of hunting and fishing and nine percent for others such as forest land encroachment.

Table 6: Forest law violation of people in village 4 from 1999 to 2004

Year (case of violation) Violation

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Mean of cases

%

1. Forest product collection 5 8 12 30 17 16 15 47

2. Trade, Storage and transport forest products 5 1 2 6 18 10 7 22

3. Hunting and Fishing 5 7 5 8 10 8 7 22

4. Others 1 6 - 7 2 1 3 9

Total 16 22 19 51 47 35 32 100

Source: Calculation from the data of Cat Tien National Park Management Board, 2006

Table 6 presents only the cases of recorded violations after being treated with due process by the forest guard station and Cat Tien National Park Management Board. According to Ta Lai Forest Guard Station, there are many cases of violation but forest guards can not easily identify them due to a large area to cover by the protection management group. The household survey supplemented information on cases of violations. In particular, it generated ideas on people’s behaviour in terms of collection activity on forest products between two periods: before 2000 and in 2005. These two periods of reference have significance to the analysis. In 2000, a project for forest protection and rural development was implemented in village 4 where capital, agricultural materials, technology and infrastructure were provided to the local people. The project was a co-operation among World Bank, Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, local government, technological staff, and Cat Tien National Park. The project ended in 2005 thus there is an assumption that people’s behaviour has changed between 2000 and 2005.

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Figure 6: The proportion of surveyed households entering to the park for forest product collection Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

A high 82 percent of the 50 interviewed Chau Ma households entered the park before 2000 (Figure 6). The Stieng group accounts for 86 percent while nearly 22 percent is accounted for Kinh people. Overall, 63 percent of households entered the park to collect forest products. Comparatively, in 2005 the proportion of households who entered the park seems to have decreased. Chau Ma accounts for 74 percent, Stieng accounts for 64 percent while Kinh accounts only for two percent. Overall, 47 percent households entered the park to collect forest products. Results of group discussion and in-depth interview with some key informants suggest that the local people’s behaviour towards their motivation to enter the park. The majority of them get bamboo shoots, rattans, firewood and other forest products. Women and children also entered the park. A person can generate a papoose (a basket type container placed hanging at the back) of 20 kg bamboo shoot a day estimated at about 30 thousand VND. Because of its sensitivity as an issue, the research employed the indirect questioning method to explore the collection of forest products by the local people. They did not reveal the quantity and value of forest products but they disclosed the price of some products they know. It is interesting to note that local people exactly know the unit price of each product. For example, there are two kinds of bamboo shoots. The raw bamboo shoot costs 500 vnd/kg while the preliminary treatment bamboo shoot costs 1,500 vnd/kg; special weasel (80,000-90,000 vnd/kg); normal weasel (50,000-60,000 vnd/kg); Java mouse-deer (40,000 vnd/kg); varan (45,000 vnd/kg); porcupine (60,000 vnd/kg). Other prices of products such as wild boars, deer, monkeys and tortoises were also mentioned but local people do not know the price. A new issue

POINT OF TIME DECISION GROUPS PRIORITIES

Chau Ma 1. Forest Food2. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)

41 hhs 82%(*) 3. HuntingEnter the Park Kinh 1. Forest Food

2. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)95 hhs 63% 11 hhs 22%(*) 3. Hunting

Before 2000 Stieng 1. Forest Food## 2. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)

150 hhs 100% 43 hhs 86%(*) 3. Others (medicine, honey, etc.)Not enter the Park

Not use forest products55 hhs 37%

Chau Ma 1. Forest FoodComparison ## 2. Hunting

37 hhs 74%(*) 3. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)Enter the Park Kinh

Three categories71 hhs 47% 2 hhs 4%(*)

Year 2005 Stieng 1. Forest Food## 2. Hunting

150 hhs 100% 32 hhs 64%(*) 3. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)Not enter the Park

Not use forest products79 hhs 53%

Notes: (*) = (Number of households entering the park) / (50 households interviewed) * (100)hhs = householdsSample size = 150 households (50 hhs of Chau Ma People; 50 hhs of Kinh People; 50 hhs of Stieng People)Priorities = (1...3: Use much....not much of forest products)

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has emerged herein. Why do local people know the price? There is a suspicion that a secret market for forest products exist. And this seems to be an external threat for Cat Tien National Park.

There seems to be a strong evidence to substantiate the claim that there are varying behaviours exhibited between the three people groups in terms of their collection activities of forest products by using correspondence analysis. Correspondence analysis is simply a means for transforming numerical information into pictorial form (Greenacre, 1993). It has become very popular in areas of research where large tables of data are collected for which standard statistical methods are difficult to apply, for instance in sociology, marketing research, environmental science, psychology and archaeology. Correspondence analysis is intended to reveal structures in the data rather than to confirm or reject hypotheses about the underlying processes that generate the data by testing these hypotheses against an a priori given mathematical model (Greenacre & Blasius, 1994). In this research, the author explored the causal relations within a closed system of variables to map different people groups (Chau Ma, Stieng and Kinh) and how they are related to forest product categories. Based on correspondence analysis, the author can communicate a complex data to relatively easy interpretable graphics. This is why correspondence analysis is useful in the study.

The two variables for correspondence analysis are “Ethnic” and “Collection” with two periods - before 2000 and year 2005 as reference points. The “Ethnic” variable includes Kinh, Chau Ma and Stieng people (with the coding Kinh = 1; Stieng = 2, Chau Ma = 3) while the “Collection” variable is the number of forest product categories. The data form of “collection” variable is one or any of the combination of the following forest product categories:

a) Forest food of flora (e.g. bamboo shoot, rattan, mushroom, “lá nhiếp”); b) Materials (e.g. fire wood, timber); c) Wild animals and fish (e.g. deer, wild boar) d) Others (e.g. medicine, honey).

“Lá nhiếp” is a Vietnamese name of one type of forest plant. It is considered as vegetable.

When entering the park, people can collect or hunt one or any of the combination of the above mentioned forest product categories. For instance, a woman collects bamboo shoots (category a) and fire wood (category b). In this case, she has collected two categories of forest products. Further, a man collects bamboo shoots (category a), medicine (category d) and hunts a deer (category c). Again in this case, he has collected forest products in three categories. Succeeding analysis will show which group of people collect more categories of products and which group are least collecting these products. The analysis of Figure 7 generates a variety of plots that graphically illustrate the underlying relationships between “ethnic” variable and “collection_before_2000” variable. Likewise the relationship between “ethnic” variable and “collection_2005” variable are described. Figure 7 shows the scattered plots of the row and column scores for the two-dimensional solution. The second dimension separates Kinh people from Chau Ma and Stieng people, while the first separates “no collection” from “three and four categories”, with “one and two categories” in between. The symmetrical normalization makes it easy to examine the relationship between people and forest products. The evidence shows that Stieng people were near to the three categories and Chau Ma People were near to the four categories, while Kinh people were closest to “no collection”.

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Figure 7: Relationship between households and forest products before 2000 Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

Figure 8: Relationship between households and forest products in 2005 Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

44

Figure 8 shows that, in 2005, the first dimension separates “one, two, three and four categories” from “no collection”, with nothing in between. The analysis appears to suggest that Kinh people were no longer using forest products as compared with Chau Ma and Stieng who still uses the products until the period of the field research. The correspondence analysis proves that Chau Ma and Stieng people still enter the park. Why is this so? According to group discussions and the household survey, Chau Ma and Stieng people enter the park for different reasons. One is the fact that the park has abundance of bamboo shoots (30% of the surveyed household). The others are the desire for forest food (25%), lack of food for household consumption (20%), lack firewood (15%) for fuel use. Moreover, Chau Ma and Stieng people having lived in the forest for long are still used to their old ways of habits that young people are still highly influenced by their parents and ancestors manner of thinking and behaving towards the forest. This in turn requires time to change even if they are aware that entering the park is a gross violation.

Box 2: Why do Stieng and Chau Ma people still enter the park?

A Stieng respondent said: “The forest is the home of our ancestors. Hence, we often visit it if we need to”. The researcher explained that this was Cat Tien National Park forest law violation. “That is our right as indigenous people”, he asserted.


The desire for forest food as one of the main reasons for entering the park is an interesting finding of the study. Accordingly, Stieng people believe that “Lá nhiếp” is very delicious when cook for soup while Chau Ma people claimed that fish inside the park are large and have sweet meat. Group discussion with Ta Lai forest station guard, Stieng and Chau Ma people are familiar with the geographical situation of Cat Tien national park and thus some Kinh people take advantage of this geographical familiarity to abet Chau Ma and Stieng people to collect forest products and sell this for them. In turn, these products are transported to the secret market for money-making. Why do Kinh people rarely enter the park compared with other groups? The household survey revealed that the reason why most of Kinh people did not enter the park last year was that they were afraid of forest guards (34%), no time to enter because they were focused on crop cultivation (27%) and the remaining percent has reasons for health, unfamiliar terrain of the forest, fear for dangerous animals, and not care about forest for any purposes.

One interesting relationship between “above poverty line” group and forest products has emerged when the sample size was divided by a new poverty line of Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. The new poverty line has been applied in Vietnam from 2006 – 2010 with 200 thousand VND per capita per month for rural area. The households belonging to the “above poverty line” group also enter the park for collecting forest products (Figure 9). The four main categories of forest products mentioned on the above section were still used for this analysis.

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Note: - Total sample size: 150 households [85: above poverty line; 65: under poverty line] - Value [0, 1, 2, 3, ..] in the vertical axis is the quantity of forest product categories

Figure 9: Relationship between household’s income and forest product categories in 2005 by three groups Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006.

In particular, Figure 9 shows that the “above poverty line” group has 85 households in which 32 percent of Chau Ma households collecting 2.19 categories of forest products; 24 percent of Stieng households collected 1.4 categories of forest products; and 45 percent of Kinh households collected only 0.08 categories of forest products.

Table 7: The proportion of surveyed households that collected and used forest products

Above poverty line (n = 85)

Under poverty line (n = 65)

Total Sample (n=150)

Particulars

Ethnic Minorities(n = 47)

Kinh (n=38)

Ethnic Minorities (n=53)

Kinh (n=12)

Ethnic Minorities (n=100)

Kinh (n=50)

No collection/use 43% 97% 21% 92% 31% 96%

Collection/use 57% 3% 79% 8% 69% 4%


Note: Ethnic Minorities include Chau Ma and Stieng people.

Error Bars show 95.0% Cl of MeanDot/Lines show Means

Chau Ma Kinh StiengEthnic

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

Col

lect

ion_

2005

2.231.76%

0.144.71%

1.423.53%

n=85

Above Poverty Line Under Poverty Line

Chau Ma Kinh StiengEthnic

2.435.38%

0.318.46%

2.146.15%

n=65

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Although, the quantity of forest product categories collected by the “under poverty line” group seems to be higher than the “above poverty line” group, it is asserted that poverty is just one of the reasons that led people entering the park to collect forest products. According to Cat Tien national park management board, aside from collecting, hunting, fishing and trading forest products, other activities of people in buffer zone are also causing threats to natural and genetic resources of the park. On one hand the encroaching of forest land to transfer agricultural area and the pasturing of animal husbandry to the park affects the state of living conditions for wild animals while on the other hand some wild animals that come to the village destroy rice fields and other plants which cannot be controlled by the local people.

Box 3: A simple estimation of human pressure on Cat Tien National Park

According to Tran Van Mui (2006), there are over thirty people groups inside and offsite of Cat Tien National Park, in which Kinh (67.1%); Tay (11.1%); Nung (8.1%); Chau Ma (6.2%); Stieng (2.3%); HMong (1.1%); Dao (1.3%); Hoa (1.1%); Muong (0.7%); others (1.0%) constitute the population. The proportion of surveyed households is representative for village 4, but should the research considers a larger scale to get a better picture of the entire Park, it needs to increase the sample size, particularly that of the Kinh households. Arbitrarily, the estimation of the human pressure on the park is developed on the assumption that the proportion of surveyed households (Table 7) entering the park to collect and use forest products is representative of the whole population in the buffer zone of Cat Tien National Park. As it is, Chau Ma and Stieng is about 69% while Kinh is about 4% of the total 173,947 people who are both inside and offsite the Park. The simple estimation on human pressure is calculated as follows:

People groups The proportion of people inside and offsite of the Park(*)

Estimation on the total human pressure to Cat Tien National Park

Kinh 67.1% {67.1% * 173,947 people * 4% } = 4,662 people

Chau Ma & Stieng 8.5% {8.5% * 173,947 people * 69% } = 10,202 people

Others 24.4% Not estimated

It seems that although the total population of Chau Ma and Stieng people is lower than Kinh people, the percentage of households entering the park and the number of human pressure exerted to the Park by Chau Ma and Stieng people is two times higher than Kinh. Therefore, it can be concluded that Chau Ma and Stieng people have heavy reliance on forest resources.

Source: (*): Tran Van Mui, 2006; Data estimate, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

The relationship between people and the park is stressed by the contract of forest protection initiated by the management board. Ta Lai village is one of zones given an area for forest protection. The area covered 600 ha in which Chau Ma and Stieng people have signed a contract with the Cat Tien national park management board. After signing a

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contract to protect the forest, households have a responsibility to check the changes of forest, discover violations, clear the runways, prevent and fight fire. At present, a total area is divided into six plots (100 ha per plot) where each plot has to be monitored and patrolled at least four times a month. The group of households set up a working schedule and divided themselves into four teams under the supervision of a group leader. Every team has a duty to patrol one plot in a month. On the following month, the four teams have to draw lots to select the new plots for protection. Time for patrolling is one day except on special cases. Before patrolling, the teams have to inform the Ta Lai forest station in order to feedback developments and changes within the park as well as receive instruction from staff of Cat Tien National Park. All households get a subsidy from the park’s management board.

5.3.6 Household’s view about forest protection activities in Cat Tien National Park.

It is clear that poverty is one of the reasons that motivate the people to enter the park for forest products collection. Moreover, if closely look into, the decision of the people whether to enter or not to enter the park largely depend on the perspective of individual households. However, understanding this world view of the people is a complex task. Discussion with key informants that includes Cat Tien national park management board, Ta Lai forest station, Ta Lai commune people’s committee, the head of village 4, and the staff that implemented the project in the village resulted in a carefully considered ten statements reflecting the comprehensive analysis of that said world view. Table 8 summarizes the discussion results.

While using the statements, the researcher avoided the use of leading questions as it might bring the respondent to a conclusion that the current activities of forest protection and conservation are better than before. A yes response to this question maybe the easiest and many of the respondents might simply take the path that requires the least amount of time to critically think. Thus to objectively obtain household’s view or opinion on Cat Tien national park forest protection program, households were given an exercise to do a rating of responses reflecting their reactions, opinions and sentiments on a given statement. After which, a follow up question was raised as to why they chose that answer over the other statements. The following categories of answers are listed: Strongly Agree, Agree, Not Sure, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. However, the result of the exercise showed that when the questionnaire was tested, household’s opinion were basically concentrated on the response of Agree, Not Sure, and Disagree. The response on “Not Sure” was insignificant as it was below five percent of responses hence no further discussion was made.

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Table 8. Perception of households on Cat Tien National Park forest protection activity

Statements and percentage of surveyed households that said they “AGREE”

94% 94% 94% 94%

Chau Ma Kinh Stieng Total Sample

Statement 1. “It is deemed necessary for Cat Tien National Park to protect the forest and preserve its biodiversity (flora and fauna)”

70%

48%

80%66%


Statement 2. “We think that the current activities of Cat Tien National Park Management Board on forest protection and reservation are very good”

46%

20%

56%41%


Statement 3. “We got benefits from Forest Protection and Rural development Project of Cat Tien National Park and other projects/programs”

44%

80%

62% 62%


Statement 4. “Forest Protection means that people are absolutely not allowed to enter Cat Tien National Park for any purposes”

26%

80%

44% 50%


Statement 5. “Although we are poor, we usually do not go to the Park to get forest products”

56%

88%

62%69%


Statement 6. “Even if the forest is not there, we can easily find other sources of income”

44%

24%40% 36%


Statement 7. “Up to now, the people in village 4 have the right to collect medicinal plants, edible plants and animals in the Park”

72%

48%64% 61%


Statement 8. “Forest play an important role to our family”

18% 22% 26% 22%


Statement 9. “There are still some outsiders that abet local people in our village to get forest products”

82% 78% 82% 81%


Statement 10. “The poor people frequently go to the Park than the better-off people”


Table 8 shows that most households agreed to the first statement and considered it as deemed necessary for Cat Tien national park. Chau Ma and Stieng household explained that the existence of the national park help the preservation of flora and fauna. Whereas Kinh households explained that the park is a source of fresh air, reservoir of natural resources and assists the prevention of the extinction of rare and exotic wild animals. The second statement on the current forest protection activities created a varying explanation for the “agree” answer between indigenous households and Kinh households. Over 70 percent of the indigenous households think that the current forest protection activities is “Good” because they realize that there exist an abundant fauna and flora species and that forest guards have been cooperating closely with the contracted households. However,

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only 48 percent of Kinh households agree to the current strategy of forest protection as they realized that there are too little forest guard enforces who patrol a large forest area for protection and with forest guards who are not yet well-versed in handling cases of violations.

A high 80 percent of Kinh households agree the fourth statement. It means that people are absolutely not allowed to enter Cat Tien National Park for any purposes because they have to strictly follow the forest law. Further, they assert that even if they are poor, they usually don’t go to the forest to get any products. On the other hand, over 65 percent of Chau Ma and Stieng households are willing to enter the park if they lack food. When a distinct demarcation line is drawn between forest and livelihoods, approximately 38 percent of Stieng households while 44 percent of Chau Ma households said that they find it difficult to find other income sources not related to forest products. Discussion and interviews with key informants suggest that this is due to the fact that Chau Ma and Stieng people’s level of education does not warrant the qualifications required in non-farm activities such as the case of working in industrial company. Unlike with the Kinh people who have the advantage of acquiring higher education that places them at a better situation. Chau Ma and Stieng people have valuable knowledge of collecting medicinal plants in forest (Nguyen Huynh Thuat, 2005). In the household survey over 40 percent of Chau Ma and Stieng households said that they have the right to enter the park to collect medicinal plants, forest food, and wild animals for family’s consumption. While on this aspect, only 22 percent of the Kinh household said this. Looking at the total population ratios between the three groups in village 4, the total impact on resources seems bias to indigenous people. However, if considering the total population of the park, this research lacks a strong evidence to claim that the total impact of indigenous people on these resources is significant or reflected in that statistics, and even not to mention people’s capacity of extraction will differ between them because of the vary of each village in the buffer zone.

The view of Chau Ma and Stieng households indicates that forest plays an important role in their life particularly during times of dwindling rice harvest or when they can not find fire wood in the village. For them, forest helps to overcome difficulties in the short run. Kinh household on the other hand, have a wider view on the role of the forest, they see it as climate equalizer, water source and bio-diversity protector.

Box 4: How can forest guards manage the park well?

One key informant in village 4 said: “The ways of forest protection and conservation are not reasonable. In Cat Tien National Park, the forest law is very strict but not feasible. People’s houses are close to the Park, just a step away so people can enter into the Park. If the forest guards are in roaving, people need only one jumping to get back to their houses. So, how can forest guards manage the park well?”


From 2000, a project for forest protection and rural development has been implemented in the village and was managed by Cat Tien national park management board. When people were asked about the third statement, approximately half of indigenous households said they did not benefit from the project when in fact this was targeted for the indigenous households. Kinh household had less benefits received.

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Households further explained that while there were many components in the project, only few technology training courses were conducted thus the majority of the participants failed to understand and apply the technology in the field. Moreover, discussion with key informants appears to suggest that the success of the project outcome in terms of maximizing the benefits lies in the challenge that most of the households have low level of education as well as their lack of strong to get out of poverty. Again, this is manifested in their over-dependence to Government support and external help.

One sensitive issue of this study is the case of indirect violators who abet local people to enter the park to collect forest products. Results of household survey reveal that indeed some outsiders are committing this act. Twenty-two percent of the surveyed households support this claim. More interestingly, by looking deeper at the local level realities, the poor has a higher tendency of entering the forest more than the others in the community thus forest protection activities are complex and seems to be difficult.

5.3.7 Advantages and disadvantages of people’s livelihoods

Advantages: People in village 4 have been supported by the project for rural development and the program for hunger elimination and poverty reduction in the buffer zone of Cat Tien national park. According to Ta Lai commune People’s committee, some projects/programs have been implemented in village 4 as follows: (1) In 1994 program for settled agriculture and residence aided the people with two billion VND to build 61 houses, 80 water wells, 2.3 km of lane and three sewers. In that same year, program 327 supported a loan amounting to 385 million VND for animal husbandry which mainly was for cow production; (2) In 1997-1998 local government built 14 houses for war invalids, martyrs' families, and special cases of poor households; (3) In the 2000 program 135 supported a program on iodine salt consumption for poor households (identified by the poverty line of Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs). Every poor household benefited 4.5 kg of iodine salt per year. The project moreover provided other things such as petroleum for light and health care insurance card. Also a budget for compulsory education as well as illiteracy elimination was provided. Aside from this, a project for conservation of Cat Tien national park also supported Chau Ma women to restore traditional handicraft of brocade weaving; (3) From 2000 up to now project for forest protection and rural development of Cat Tien national park has been building lanes and a dam. Also training in agricultural technology for the village is conducted. The above external aids are benefits provided to people to improve their living condition and income sources. In addition, internal factors as core advantages are the household’s access to cultivated land. Also there is a young labour force available and the tradition for shifting cultivation does not exist.

Disadvantages: According to the status report of Tan Phu district on settled agriculture and residence of minority ethnics in Ta Lai commune (2004), the local people failed to meet the project and program objectives. For instance, in 1994 a cow production model was invested in but it failed due animal disease. The local people also slaughtered the animals for household consumption. The local government moreover built 133 houses (18 wooden houses, 115 concrete houses) but only 120 functional houses exist – ten houses are unoccupied while one house was sold, and two wooden houses were combined to form one structure. Among the functional houses, there are 22 houses being downgraded but heads of households who do not repair them. The Vam Ho dam releases water out of its usual water level for people to catch some fish but results in lack of water for rice cultivation. The equipments of the public dam are destroyed by the local people. With the low level of education of the majority of the local people, there is indeed difficulty of

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transferring technology and applying it efficiently. Therefore, the limited education, the low motivation to protect public equipments, and heavy reliance on the help of others are the main disadvantages for the improvement of the local people’s quality of life.

5.4 Stakeholders of Cat Tien National Park

Conservation activities concern different stakeholders in which the implementation and management is complex and difficult. To have a rich picture of conservation activities, the study conducted a stakeholder’s analysis employing the CATWOE tool. The technique reveals that every stakeholder has different responsibility and interest in the process of conservation. This analysis is illustrated in Figure 10.

Clients: conservation brings a significant value for bio-diversity and biosphere not only to national level but also to global level. The value of flora and fauna needs to be maintained for the younger generation who are considered future clients. In fact, the direct beneficiaries are staff of Cat Tien national park, researchers, students, tourists, and partly local people in the buffer zone. For instance, staff of the park got salary from the government. They have been trained to gain knowledge and skills so they can effectively participate in the process of implementing projects as well as in tourism activities. They have a responsibility to conduct the activities and enforce the regulations of decision No.09/2001/QD-BNN-TCCB of Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development concerning the park (MARD, 2001). Researchers and students have also a place to research especially on matters of genetic, forestry, and biology. Domestic and foreign tourists can visit the park to enjoy fresh air, humming birds, flowing streams and ancient trees at day time. During night time, tourists can see and experience wild animals in the natural area of the park♦. Aside from this, a group of people in the buffer zone also takes part in the forest protection activities that in turn gets benefit through government’s subsidy. For instance the 29 indigenous households from village 4, Ta Lai commune who have a contract with the park. Generally, the local people in the buffer zone are considered as indirect beneficiaries of the project for conservation of Cat Tien national park with the objectives of improving the people’s living condition. However, Chau Ma and Stieng people are considered both as indirect beneficiaries and victims of conservation activities because they have a support from the project but are not allowed to collect forest products. The conflict of interest between conservation and livelihood activities are crucial points to consider. The government tries to reduce this conflict through projects and programs in the buffer zone in order to balance the initiatives between conservation and socio-economic development.

Actors: the direct actors include the staff of Cat Tien national park management board, staff of the park, forest guards, the households that were contracted and non government organizations. These actors directly implement conservation activities such as the monitoring of forest events, violations, research on flora and fauna. Indirect actors include Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, People’s Committee at different levels, the police of Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc and Lam Dong provinces.

♦ The researcher observed the ecosystem inside Cat Tien National Park in early 2006. At day time, various species of forest tree, butterflies and streams are seen and birds are heard singing. At night time, the researcher and staff travelled around in the park using a special car and floodlight at about 30 minutes. Wild animals in forest such as wild boar, java mouse deer, and deer were seen for the first time (Field Diary).

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Figure 10: Depiction of the conservation activities in Cat Tien National Park Source: Overall analysis, Tran Duc Luan, 2006 Note: Connected to Village 4 (Please zoom 200% to see this figure)

Conservation activities in

Cat Tien National Park

Clients

Cat Tien National Park Management Board

Researchers

People in village 4, Talai commune

Chau Ma people

Stieng people

Kinh people

Students Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh city.

Other Universities Tourists Domestic tourists

Foreign tourists

Actors

Direct


Forest protection department

Households (who has a contract with Cat Tien National park for protection)

Others (WWF, WB, UNESCO)

Indirect

Ministry of Agriculture and rural development

People's committee at different levels

Universities/Institutions People in village 4, Talai commune

Transformation

Activities

Contributing the recommendation for policy maker to draw up forest law

Training for staff

Master students

Short training courses

Informal training courses

Students

Implement projects

Project for conservation the Park

Reforestation in the buffer zone

Providing agricultural inputs for people

Project for forest protection and rural development

Building infrastructure in buffer zone

Providing agricultural inputs for people

Study tour

Learnt from other national parks in Vietnam

Learnt from other national parks in the world

Ujong Kulon National Park (Indonesia)

Bardia and Chitwan National Park (Malaysia)

Umfolozi National Park (South Africa)

Khao Yai National Park (Thailand)

Science Research

Research on Rhino

Research on birds and other rare animals

Create landscape

Restore gene of flora

Restore crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis)

Forest protectionViolation checking and judging

Preventing and fighting forest fire

Conservation education

Other activities (eco-tourism, education, etc.

Objectives

To conserve specific ecosystem (species, gene)

To protect forest for Tri An hydroelectricity system

To maintain the place for research, study and tourism

To enhance people's living condition in the buffer zone

World view

World wild fundWild Animal Conservation

World Bank

Improve people's living condition in the buffer zone

Ministry of Agriculture and rural development

Maintain and develop bio-diversity and gene


Implementation the objectives of the Park

People in village 4

Derive benefits from the Park in a more sustainable way

UNESCO Maintain the biosphere zone

Owners

Ministry of Agriculture and rural development United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO)

World Wild Fund

World Bank

Other NGOs

Environment

Forest fire

Exotic species threats to native species and gene in the Park

Demand of agricultural land is increasing

A hydroelectricity system threats to wetland ecosystem of the Park

The outsiders abetted local people to collect forest products

The pressure of poor people to the park

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In addition, universities and institutions also contribute to the conservation activities

through research. For instance, the park has co-operated with Centre for Nuclear Research of Ho Chi Minh City on investigating forest mushroom. Also the environmental institution of Ho Chi Minh City conducted an investigation to establish a record for underwater flora and fauna. Likewise Ping Tung University of Taiwan rescued nine bears and took care of them in the park. In the study site, people who are considered as indirect actors have also been improving their living conditions as effective strategies to carry out the conservation activities. The development of which will result in better access to the park for forest collection.

Transformation/process of conservation

This component relates to activities and objectives of conservation in Cat Tien national park. The conservation activities include forest protection, project implementation, training skills for staff of the park, study tour, science research, eco-tourism, and environmental education. For forest protection, the forest fire fighting and prevention are important during dry season because fire can quickly destroy ecosystem of the park. The patrolling and handling of violations are necessary to ensure the objectives of conservation. In fact, it is difficult to achieve the objectives of conservation if not good practice on forest protection.

The environmental education is also noticed through the lessons on environment for pupils and children in buffer zone. The activities of projects have been implemented inside the buffer zone of the park such as forest planting and infrastructure. Moreover, the research and study tour on forest management and care for wild animals also contribute to the development of conservation efforts. The objectives of conservation are mentioned in the previous sections of this research. The main goals of conservation are to conserve the local ecosystem, preserve the watershed of Tri An Reservoir, provide research opportunities for national and international sciences as well as develop tourism destination.

Worldview: this component will bring out the different views of stakeholders. World Wild Funds are looking for wildlife conservation, World Bank is concerned the enhancement of people’s living condition in the buffer zone through the loan amount extended, the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development emphasizes the responsibility of maintaining local ecosystem and gene resources, the Management board focuses on the implementation and management of the park by following the regulations of activities of Cat Tien national park and UNESCO would like to maintain the biosphere for Vietnam and the world. The interesting issue is the concern of people in the buffer zone on ways of forest product collection without damaging the national park. This means that the activity of forest product collection would result to a more sustainable way.

Environment: This component highlights the direct and indirect threats to conservation activities in Cat Tien National Park. Firstly, the direct threats are forest fires in the dry season, the increasing water level when preserving the watershed of Tri An Reservoir affects the ecosystem in wetland area and the infiltration of exotic creatures into the park. Secondly, the indirect threats are the human pressures of 173,947 people who live inside and outside the park. Collecting and trading of forest products and finding cultivated land for them are critical issues for Cat Tien national park management board.

In summary, as earlier noted, there are many stakeholders involved with Cat Tien national park. One activity can mobilize many stakeholders while one stakeholder can participate in many activities. It has been clearly stated that some stakeholders are both beneficiaries and victims of the process of conservation in general and forest protection in particular.

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5.5 Solutions for forest protection

As suggested by key informants, the solutions need to be considered such as community education, patrolling, co-operation and improving people’s living conditions (Box 4).

Box 5: The solutions for forest protection by key informants

Community education: The parks should initiate social awareness and educational campaign on forest law to communities through series of meetings, banner or poster installation within communities as well as through leaflets and other information campaign materials. The social network across governmental and sectoral level (e.g. provincial level to village level) is an effective strategy to disseminate the information as widely possible as it can. Coordination with the primary and secondary schools in buffer zone can add to the efforts of educating the people on environmental issues. For instance, a taught sub-course being integrated in the student’s curriculum will largely help not only the children and students but will also upgrade teacher’s knowledge on the environment which they are close to. Activities such as holding of painting contest around topics of “people and forest” or “children are being friendly to wild animals” or a writing contest that describes their ardent passion for the forest are but few of the specific activities local people can engage into. This will help achieve heightened awareness among people the importance of forest law and why the government is bent of protecting the park.

Patrolling: Forest guards should find, prevent and handle violations at the right time. The patrolling should be regularly maintained. Every forest protection station should have a responsibility to patrol and protect their assigned areas. The mobile team of forest guards should patrol in hot spots where violations are regularly committed to prevent further adverse effects to the park.

Co-operation: The park staff should collaborate with the police and the local government to educate the people in regard with the forest protection efforts of Cat Tien national park. They should set up a record file to deter the repetition of violations committed by violators. Moreover, it needs to hold a mobile hearing at the local regions to ensure prevention and education to all.

Improving people’s living condition in buffer zone: Along with patrolling and handling violations, staff of Cat Tien national park has been implementing projects to support the people in the buffer zone of the park. For example, reforestation program in the buffer zone can assist in people’s need for cash income, timber for infrastructure construction (e.g. house, buildings) and source for fuel and firewood. The park has contracted the indigenous households to protect the park. Restoring traditional activities such as handicraft, brocade weaving through training courses are helpful initiatives. Participation of the local people on helping the illiterates learn to read and write so they can access agricultural technology should also be encouraged. Likewise, on aspect of eco-tourism their involvement and participation must be given due focus. More investment on irrigation system as well as setting up an agricultural and forest extension models must be seriously considered. Source: Group discussion with key informants (*), Tran Duc Luan, 2006 Note: (*) Management board of Cat Tien national park; Ta Lai forest guard station and local authorities.

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This research found that no single solution is the best solution if it stands alone in the process of forest protection initiatives. However, the problem can somehow be mitigated with an integrated approach that considers the inherent complexities of the issues and problems associated with forest protection initiatives in Cat Tien National Park.

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6 GENERAL DISCUSSION

6.1 Sustainable livelihoods

According to DFID (1999), livelihoods are sustainable when they are resilient in the face of external shocks; are not dependent upon external support; maintain the long-term productivity of natural resources; and do not undermine the livelihoods of others. This research examined how people in village 4 achieved “sustainable livelihoods”. It was found that the resettlement of the people from forest to the settled residence has changed their livelihoods. The transfer was aimed at helping the people find a stable location to live and cultivate as well as to conserve natural resource in the forest. The forest law in Cat Tien national park has separated the people from the forest. People are not allowed to collect any forest products inside the park so that income from forest has been lost. The new boundary of buffer zone made people lose their cultivated land area inside the park. Also, the effects of drought, flood, and wild animals have damaged people’s crops and houses. Because of these, people have to face external shocks. The heavy reliance of the local people on external help is considered as the topmost constraint for their livelihood since the ending and termination of programs, projects and other aids extended in the village would mean that local people would find it difficult to maintain their living condition. Productivity of main crops is also low and people have yet to improve this situation. Poverty is one of the main causes that led the people to collect forest products which are a threat to conservation efforts in Cat Tien national park. Conflict of interest over the use of natural resources widely occurs in the village. One particular issue is the use of the dam for cultivation. While one actor enjoys catching fish by destroying the dam so the water can freely flow, others suffered as result of loss of rice yield due to lack of water. Poverty is manifested not only in terms of low income but also in the low level of awareness and education of the local people. If this condition persists, people in village 4 would find it difficult to escape poverty and achieve sustainable livelihoods. To achieve these would demand changes especially in terms of internal factors.

6.2 Forest protection, conservation and people’s livelihoods

When reviewing the main research question (Has the forest protection/conservation approaches in Cat Tien national park led to sustainable livelihoods of people in the buffer zone?), the research found that it is difficult to answer if the above-mentioned evidence is the only basis. However, the researcher acknowledges that there are conflicts between the park and people on account of livelihoods. Similar to the study of Cernea and Schmidt-Soltau (No date), this study recognizes that the perspectives of the inhabitants within the protected areas of Cat Tien national park are inclined more to think on the equitable sharing of cost-benefit on the issue of conservation than thinking more on sustainability of the forest biodiversity. For instance, the people usually wonder why the benefits of Cat Tien national park are enjoyed only at the national and global level while most of the opportunity costs are borne by the local people, mostly paid by the poorest and the vulnerable groups. Moreover, reducing biodiversity can not be utilized as a strategy for poverty reduction while achieving sustainable livelihoods. Conversely, solutions to reduce poverty are conflicting with the means for preserving biodiversity thus as the study found, the way to avoid lose-lose situations is to secure both the well-being of the people and the

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conservation of the park which meant that objectives for conservation practice should be integrated with the objectives of improving people’s livelihoods.

Indigenous people have a high level of dependency on forest resources of the park. There is no motivation for sustainable forest use while the activities of forest product collection are considered “illegal”. Balancing local people’s needs with conservation can only occur with a supportive policy that should be developed by the management board and local authority. It will involve reorienting the management board on the sustainable use of forest products through preservation and conservation than prohibition of all possible exploitations. The indigenous knowledge of local people is very useful in the monitoring and forest protection activities but these have to be harnessed. The regulations for conservation management have to be developed but it seems that this will include greater flexibility to explore collaborative management and sustainable use approaches, and Vietnam has limited experience with these approaches. Johnson (1997), Jones and Murphere (2001), Child and Dalal Clayton (2004) found that, in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, and Pakistan some local communities obtain income from sport hunting around protected areas. These experiences are based on species that can be sustainably harvested, not including rare species such as the black horned rhino, however, these can not be accepted in Cat Tien national park because the threats are potential both to rare and non-rare wild animals. Therefore, it needs to find other approaches to manage the park and this is an issue that should be addressed. The management of the park should at least not worsen the living conditions of the rural poor and indigenous communities within and adjacent areas (Scherl, 2003). Based on the findings of the study, the management board of Cat Tien national park has been applying “Integrated conservation and development projects” approach around the park. The projects supported the local communities who live around the park to improve their living condition. The research shows that this approach has brought some initial results in their behaviour such as changes in their attitudes towards park conservation activities (e.g. local people realized the necessary and value of the park in terms of biodiversity). However, this approach has to be strengthened to dramatically decrease violation because after the projects were implemented in the study site, the proportion of indigenous households entering the park to collect forest products remains high. Box 5 gives a similar evidence to highlight the success and failure of conservation management. The management approaches of the two national parks in Uganda are considered as lessons learnt for Cat Tien national park to study. In the study site, the buffer zone can not help local communities to cope with the lack of fuel wood and food for their need because of poor natural resources of buffer zone. The integrated conservation and development projects would not be successful if there is no co-operation between the staff of the park and indigenous people.

Box 6. The failure of national park management in Uganda

“In 1991, the establishment of Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks met with conflict and resistance from local people. Park staff faced negative attitudes, illegal exploitation of forest resources, fires, and demands for land. After 15 years of integrated conservation and development projects around these two protected areas, a recent study, based on surveys in local communities and among park staff, found that attitudes towards the parks have improved greatly. But illegal resource extraction – mainly by the poorer people for subsistence – is still a problem. Source: A presentation by Namara at 5th IUCN WPC ” Note: Quoted in the study of Scherl et al. (2004:31).

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Box 7. The success of protected area management in Sarawak

“The Sarawak Government recognises that totally protected areas (TPAs) are vital for conservation. The state’s policy is that 10% of the land area will be included in TPAs. Many rural communities depend on resources in TPAs, so during the gazetting process they are granted rights to continue to use such areas, wherever appropriate. Often, however, local use, especially hunting, is not sustainable, and law enforcement is impossible without local support. Hence, new laws allow for TPAs to be co-managed by government and local communities. The aim is for unsustainable extractive uses to be phased out, in exchange for benefits from projects compatible with conservation. The new law also bans all trade in wildlife, to increase the sustainability of subsistence hunting. Hence, the needs of local communities are met in a way which does not detract from the central conservation goals of TPAs. Source: Tisen & Bennett (2000)” Note: Quoted in the study of Scherl et al. (2004:34).

Clearly, the evidence of this study has proved it. Indigenous people enter the park to collect forest products even if they know these were violations. Therefore, in the study site, poverty reduction while achieving sustainable livelihoods needs to link with conservation efforts of the forest park. The other evidence from the success of protected area management in Sarawak (a region of Malaysia) is also a lesson learnt for Cat Tien National Park to consider. Box 6 shows that the co-management by local government and local communities led to the achievement of meeting people’s need and conservation objectives. In summary, Cat Tien national park can only contribute to poverty reduction while achieving sustainable livelihoods if the park adopts the responsible management approaches with the collaboration between the staff of park and local communities. There is a stronger need for full integration between conservation management and poverty reduction strategies. However, as to the specific means and measures of collaboration and integration to address this felt need is one area recommended for further research.

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7 CONCLUSION

7.1 Summary of findings

The research found that in spite of state management, there are many stakeholders who are directly and indirectly influencing Cat Tien National Park. Among them, the local communities and staff of the park are closely related to the park in terms of forest protection and conservation activities. To protect the forest and preserve bio-diversity, the forest guard stations are established to patrol and handle the violations. For this, the forest guards have been co-operating with local authorities, the police, and some indigenous households who have a contract with Cat Tien national park management board to protect forest. However, it was proven by the study that forest protection is very difficult because of the human pressure from local inhabitants.

The living condition of Stieng and Chau Ma people in the buffer zone of Cat Tien national Park is still poor. Their livelihoods depend on rice cultivation with low productivities. The majority of agricultural products are for household consumption except cashew nut which is for trading. Low educational level and low income are the main characteristics of their poverty. Stieng and Chau Ma people are myopic in terms of coping with the challenges in their lives. They have to build through their plans to bring about appropriate strategies that will help solve or cope with their current problems. These two communities are heavily relying on the assistance of government, social organizations, and projects. Combining the limitation of human and financial assets, infertile soil and waterless cultivation are the main constraints to promoting people’s internal strengths to escape poverty and achieve sustainable livelihoods. The condition of Stieng and Chau Ma communities depicts this condition. Meanwhile, Kinh people’ living condition is also poor but seems to be better than indigenous people’s. Agricultural activity also provides the main income for Kinh people, and its products have high potential for market. In study site, there are some projects and programmes implemented to support for local communities in the buffer zone such as the fixed cultivation and resettlement programme, the 327 Project, the 135 Programme, the conservation project of Cat Tien National Park, and the Forest Protection and Rural Development Project. Although these support have brought the initial results for poverty reduction and conservation objective (the proportion of people in the buffer zone who entered the park is decreasing, especially Kinh people), it has nothing to hide a fact on the high proportion of Chau Ma and Stieng people still enter the park to collect forest products even they know that these were violations. The reason for the people to enter the park is not only due to low income but also the desire to consume forest food, and acquired living habits in the forest. Meanwhile, the reason for Kinh people not entering Cat Tien national park is because they concentrate on their cultivation and animal husbandry and they are afraid of forest guards.

Although the co-operation between Cat Tien national park staff and Chau Ma and Stieng people to protect forest is agreed through a signed contract, the number of households participating to this activity is only few. People have to participate at all levels of management and indigenous knowledge has not been applied to manage natural resources. The perspectives of local people seem to be good when they consider it as deemed necessary for Cat Tien national park. For example, Chau Ma and Stieng people explained that the existence of the national park help the preservation of flora and fauna. Kinh people explained that the park is a source of fresh air and a reservoir of natural resources. However, local inhabitants still depend on forest resources, especially the

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indigenous people. The solutions of key informants for forest protection and conservation are community education, patrolling, co-operation, and improving people’s living condition in buffer zone. Finally, the concern of people in the buffer zone on ways of forest product collection without damaging the national park should be considered as a new solution for forest protection and poverty reduction in the near future.

7.2 Lessons learnt when conducting the study

The author is in phase of learning and writing an academic research. Therefore, the result of this research is considered as the starting point for improving knowledge and further studies. In terms of lessons learnt, perhaps, it related to the data collection methods. The author recognized that this research has both success and failure on the data collecting. The success is the flexibility of using PRA tools when the author applies them in the field study. For example, the author applied easily the resource mapping tool to work with Kinh people but it seems difficult to conduct it with the two remaining people groups. The author changed the order of PRA tools to practice Chau Ma and Stieng people by using the historical-time line tool at the first time of group discussion with them. With that flexibility, the respondents feel comfortable and willing to participate and discuss together. The failure is also drawn out. Due to the sensitive issue, local people did not share information about income from collecting forest products therefore this failure is considered as the challenge for understanding the relationship between people and the park. The researcher recognized that, having enough time, the study should apply the participant observation method, which was found very significant to deepen the analysis the income generation from the forest of Cat Tien National Park.

7.3 Further research

Related to the author’s ambition, a new study is needed in at least one of the local communities inside Cat Tien national park to gain a rich picture of local people’s livelihoods and conservation activities. The future research should be focused on people’s perspective of the park, and especially emphatic the trade-offs between stakeholders of the park for ensuring the conservation objectives and people’s living conditions.

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9 APPENDICES

Appendix Box 1: Historical issues of Cat Tien national park.

(1) Before 1975, Cat Tien National Park was the revolutionary base of Vietnamese Military during the resistance period against France and America. After the War, Cat Tien was entrusted to Division 600 of Vietnamese Military for forest management; (2) On 07 July 1978, the Prime Minister took decision No. 360/TTg on the establishment of a protected forest at Nam Cat Tien located in Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province. Subsequently, an investment plan was prepared which proposed the upgrading of Nam Cat Tien to National Park Status; (3) On 09 August 1986, the chairman of the council of Ministers took decision No. 194/CT on the establishment of nature conservation at Tay Cat Tien; (4) In 1989, following the rediscovery of Javan Rhinoceros, an investment plan was prepared for the establishment of Cat Loc Rhinoceros Sanctuary. This investment plan was approved by Official Letter No. 686/CV of Lam Dong Provincial People’s Committee in 1992; (5) On 13 January 1992, the chairman of the council of Ministers took decision No. 08/CT on the passage of that investment plan. And on that same day, a management board was established for the national park; (6) On 05 December 1998, the prime ministry took decision No. 1090/TTg on management responsibility of the park. The responsibility was transferred from the three provincial people’s committee (Dong Nai, Lam Dong, and Binh Phuoc) to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD); (7) On 10 November 2001, Cat Tien National Park was accepted as the 411th biosphere reserve in the world by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); (8) On 31 March 2003, decision No. 893/QD-BNN-KL of MARD approved a framework for the integrated boundary re-demarcation and resettlement action plan for Cat Tien National Park. According to the present management board, this plan has been implemented from 2005 up to the present time; (9) Finaly, on 4 August 2005, Cat Tien National Park was ratified as 1499th Ramsar Site by International Ramsar Management Board.

Source: Cat Tien national park, 2005.

Appendix Box 2: Two types of violation in Cat Tien national park.

In general, apprehended violators are taken to the nearest forest guard station and are handled by two ways depending on the type of violation. The first type for small violations, the violator(s) will be found. In particular, for a small violation where the fine is less than 2 million VND, the violator(s) is fined at the forest guard station where they have been taken and then released. For a small violation where the fine is greater than 2 million VND, the violator(s) is fined at the central forest guard station where they are found and then released. In both situations, the violation data is recorded at the central forest guard station and the information is passed to the forest protection department office and the police. The second type for serious violations, the violator(s) will be taken to court. In particular, the violator(s) is brought to the central forest guard station where they are processed and then handled over to the police. Then, the law unit of forest protection department is responsible for processing the information and preparing the case for court.

Source: Cat Tien national park, 2005.

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Appendix Box 3: The population of Village 4, Ta Lai commune, Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province

In village 4, the population is 1,467 persons in 330 households that includes 8 people groups: Kinh (85 households: 316 persons), Chau Ma (120 households: 579 persons), Stieng (107 households: 518 persons), Chau Ro (7 households: 24 persons), SRay (8 households: 28 persons), Kho (1 household: 7 persons); Khome (1 household: 2 persons) and Hoa (1 household: 2 persons). The total population between the three main groups: [{Kinh; Stieng; Chau Ma}/{total population of village 4}] = [22%; 39%; 35%]

Source: Ta Lai commune people’s committee, 2005.

Appendix Box 4: The solution for improving people’s livelihood

From the group discussion, respondents raise the main problems of their livelihood of which solutions were also generated by themselves. The following discussion has been drawn out:

For the Chau Ma people, the following four problems have been identified: (1) lacking capital for agricultural production and school cost; (2) low education; (3) lack knowledge on the proper application of technology for cultivation; and (4) cultivated land area inside Cat Tien national park. The four identified solutions are as follows: (1) Establish the group for borrowing money where the group leader must be a trusted person in the village. The members of the group should be diligent and hardworking people who cultivate land and labour. The interest and time for repayment would depend on a particular productive model which would suit the needs of the people. The group agreed to select Mr. K’Yeu as group leader and Mr. K’Srong as supervising person; (2) motivating the children to go to school and recruit teachers who can speak the indigenous language; (3) Opening cultivation technology training courses. However, on the fourth problem, no solution has been arrived at as it is policy-related issues. They suggested to continue cultivating the rice area inside the park or relied on the help of the local government to find an alternative land area.

For Stieng people, the problems identified are as follows: (1) Lack of capital for cow production and cashew cultivation; (2) Lack of running water; (3) Lack of cultivated technology. The solutions generated are that (1) local government/banks give loans for the people; (2) local government provide money for water wells; (3) technical training courses should be organized more often with extended training time than the usual at the same time coinciding during cultivation period so they could easily apply knowledge immediately rather than forget it;

For the Kinh people one interesting point is the respondent’s ability to express in detail their suggestions for reducing problems. Their suggestions closely relate to the problems identified. They wished that the local government would discuss with them the proposal to invest a 2 km road, 1.6 km electric wire, and 5 water wells in Phuoc Sang zone of the village 4. For other problems such as on cultivation aspect people realized that those were out of their control (e.g. infertile soil, lack of water). Regarding agricultural technology, they said that local government should keep the training course as it was in the past.

In summary the problems, suggestions and solutions which were identified by the people are closely related to their living condition. The problems basically reflect their current difficulties while the suggested solutions vary between indigenous people and Kinh people. The indigenous people look more for the help of the government while the Kinh people want to contribute their share to reduce the problems.

Source: PRA exercise Tran Duc Luan, 2006

67

Appendix Box 5: Timeline for the contract of forest protection in village 4.

Discussion with key informants in the village revealed the activities that followed with the contract signing:

o In 1997, there were three households who entered into the contract for forest protection of which an area of 300 ha was entrusted with a subsidy of 50 thousand VND per ha per year. Households worked by individual forms;

o In 2000, the individual arrangement continued however the management board signed a new contract with a new six Chau Ma and Stieng households. These households got 300 ha to protect. The first three households who signed a contract in 1997 continue to work on their obligation in which a 50 thousand VND per ha per year is subsidized;

o In 2003, there was a change from individual management arrangement to group management. The management board of the park gave 600 ha to 29 Chau Ma and Stieng households for forest protection in which a subsidy of 50 thousand VND per ha per year is covered.

Source: In-depth interviews with the key informants of village 4, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

Appendix Table 1.Multiple Comparisons – Using LSD function (Test for the mean difference of variables)

Variable (I) Ethnic (J) Ethnic Mean Difference (I-J) Sig.

Kinh Stieng -1.16(*) .001 Kinh Chau Ma -1.48(*) .000

1. Household size (persons)

Stieng Chau Ma -.32 .358

Kinh Stieng 110.41(*) .000

Kinh Chau Ma 91.19(*) .001

2. Income per capita per month (000 VND) Stieng Chau Ma -19.22 .468

Kinh Stieng 1105 .672

Kinh Chau Ma -2727 .297

3. Cultivated land area (m2)

Stieng Chau Ma -3832 .143

Kinh Stieng -2.24(*) .000 Kinh Chau Ma -2.32(*) .000

4. Number of categories of forest products (before 2000)


Kinh Stieng -1.72(*) .000

Kinh Chau Ma -2.16(*) .000

4. Number of categories of forest products (2005)



* The mean difference is significant at the .05 level; Total sample zise is 150

Note: The means of household size are different between Stieng people and Kinh people; Chau Ma people and Kinh people because of sig. = 0.001 < 0.05 level. However, the means of household size are not different between Stieng group and Chau Ma group because of sig. = 0.358 > 0.05 level (Similarly to explain other variables in this table).

68

Appendix Table 2. Multiple Comparisons of households that belong to group of above poverty line

Variables (I) Ethnic

(J) Ethnic

Mean Difference (I-J) Sig.

Kinh Chau Ma -2.77973(*) .000

Kinh Stieng -1.98158(*) .000

Before 2000

Stieng Chau Ma -.79815(*) .032 Kinh Chau Ma -2.10624(*) .000

Kinh Stieng -1.32105(*) .001

In 2005

Stieng Chau Ma -.78519(*) .048


* The mean difference is significant at the .05 level.

Note: The means of number of forest product categories in 2005 are different between Chau Ma and Kinh; between Stieng and Kinh because of sig. = 0.001 < 0.05 level. Similarly, the means of number of forest product categories in 2005 are different between Stieng group and Chau Ma group because of sig. = 0.048 < 0.05 level.

Appendix Table 3. Multiple Comparisons of households that belong to group of under poverty line

Variables (I) Ethnic

(J) Ethnic

Mean Difference (I-J) Sig.

Kinh Chau Ma -1.63768(*) .001 Kinh Stieng -2.23333(*) .000

Before 2000

Stieng Chau Ma .59565 .112 Kinh Chau Ma -2.14130(*) .000 Kinh Stieng -1.88333(*) .000

In 2005



* The mean difference is significant at the .05 level.

Note: The means of number of forest product categories in 2005 are different between Chau Ma and Kinh; between Stieng and Kinh because of sig. = 0.001 < 0.05 level. However, the means of number of forest product categories in 2005 are not different between Stieng group and Chau Ma group because of sig. = 0.518 > 0.05 level.

69

Appendix Table 4. SWOT analysis on Ta Lai commune and Village 4

Items TaLai Commune Village 4

Stre

ngth

s

The majority of the people follow the annual plan of Ta Lai commune’s peoples’ committee on agricultural cultivation transformation

Democratic regulations from the people’s groups, villages to the commune are being carried out. Thus, people collaborate with the local government on socio-economic development plan

Leaders and officers in villages and commune are enthusiastic with their duties.

Labor force is plenty People begin to be familiar and applied technology

for cow, rice, cashew, and fruit production. The traditional culture of minority people is really

valuable for researchers. And, indigenous knowledge is useful for conservation management in Cat Tien national park.

Wea

knes

s

Limited budget for action plan of commune. The co-operation between the commune and the

other offices (the police, the forest guards and Cat Tien national park) has a constraint of remote location and traffic in particular patrolling and handle the violations.

Traffic is stills difficult on rainy season. Electricity is not yet to serve for local people. Lack of running water on dry season.

Most people rely on others help. They are looking for the support of government or projects

Village 4 People’s education level is lower than the other villages in commune and the requirement of technology training course.

Opp

ortu

nitie

s Be invested on infrastructure, for example road and community house and school. by government

People are supported on capital, seed, breeding animals and technology from programs-projects.

Government has been built a cultural house, chain bridge, and preserved traditional culture of people.

Program 135, 137 and other projects develop infrastructure for village

Thr

eats

Output and input prices are unstable. Unusual weather (drought)

People in the temporary households and outsiders come to village to trade forest products. They abet local people to enter the park in order to hunt and fish.

Poor people often enter the park to collect forest products for their life.

Source: Group discussion with leaders of Ta Lai commune and Village 4 (Brainstorming), Tran Duc Luan, 2006

70

Appendix Figure 1. Transect walk

Source: PRA exercise, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

- Residential zone of Chau Ma people - No certificate of cultivated land for local people

- Rice Cultivation - No certificate of cultivated land for local people

- Artificial Forest - Residential zone at the bottom of hills - Land tenure: local government - No certificate of cultivated land for local people

Land use & Land tenure

- Cashew - Few cattle and poultry

- Rice only - Forest tree, Cashew - Cow

Crops Animal husbandry

- Suitable for: + Timber + Fire wood

- Suitable for: + rice cultivation + potential cash crops - Having irrigation system

Suitable for: + cashew cultivation + forest tree. + Fire wood

Opportunities

- Wild animals destroy plants, houses. - Threats to forest (forest product collection) because people’s houses are next to Cat Tien national park.

- Low rice productivity - Farmers cultivated not at the same time, thus it causes problems on productive water supply and pestilent insect.

- Deforest leads to bare hills - Local people logged forest tree - Lack of productive water - Erosion, rocky

Problems

Zone 3. Ta Lai Zone 2. Rice Field Zone 1. Bu Chap 1, 2 Items

3 km

71

Appendix Figure 2: A conceptual Framework

Source: DFID, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

LIVELIHOOD ASSETS VULNERABILITY

CONTEXT

• SHOCKS • TRENDS • SEASON

ALITY

Influence & Access

N: Natural F: Financial P: Physical S: Social H: Human

POLICIES LAWS

INSTITUTIONS

Livelihood Strategies

Livelihood Outcome

• MORE INCOME • MORE SUSTAINBLE LIVELIHOODS

GOOD FOREST PROTECTION

N

CAT TIEN NATIONAL PARK

72

Appendix Figure 2: Seasonal Calendar

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 21.Rice Production

1 st crop + Not irrigated fields

1 st crop 2 nd crop + Irrigated fields

3 rd crop 1 st crop 2 nd crop + Irrigated fields

2. Cashew Production 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2

+ Not applied technologyHarvest Pruning off branches Harvest

+ Applied technologyHarvest Pruning off branches Putting down fertilizer Harvest

Putting down fertilizer Spraying pesticide

3. Others 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2

+ Hired -labours in other farm of neighbour provinces Cashew harvesting Cashew harvesting (Chau Ma + Stieng people)

+ Forest product collectionBamboo shoot

ITEMS MONTHS

Note: A line of “forest product collection”: People enter to Cat Tien national park all year round but they are highest entering when bamboo shoot season comes

Source: PRA exercise, Tran Duc Luan, 2006

73

Appendix Figure 3: The surveyed ethnic minorities and Kinh people entering the park for forest products

Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006 Another analysis based on the two groupings of surveyed households. The first group was Kinh people. The second group was ethnic minorities including Chau Ma and Stieng people. The finding was 69 percent of ethnic minorities collected and used forest products in 2005.

POINT OF TIME DECISION GROUPS PRIORITIES

Ethnic Minorities 1. Forest Food2. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)

Enter the Park 84 hhs 84% 3. Hunting

95 hhs 63%Kinh 1. Forest Food

Before 2000 2. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)11 hhs 22% 3. Hunting

150 hhs 100%

Not enter the ParkNot use forest products

55 hhs 37%

ComparisionEthnic Minorities 1. Forest Food

2. HuntingEnter the Park 69 hhs 69% 3. Material (e.g. fire wood, timber)

71 hhs 47%Kinh

Year 2000 Three categories2 hhs 4%

150 hhs 100%

Not enter the ParkNot use forest products

79 hhs 53%Notes: Ethnic minorities = 50 hhs of Chau Ma people and 50 hhs of Stieng people

hhs = householdsSample size = 150 households (50 hhs of Chau Ma People; 50 hhs of Kinh People; 50 hhs of Stieng People)Priorities = (1...3: Use much....not much of forest products)

74

Appendix Figure 4: Relationship between income and forest product categories in 2005 by two groupings

Note:

Total sample size: 150 households [85: above poverty line; 65: under poverty line]

Value [0, 1, 2, 3, ..] in the vertical axis is the quantity of forest product categories

Ethnic Minorities are including Chau Ma and Stieng people.

Source: Household survey, Tran Duc Luan, 2006.

Error Bars show 95.0% Cl of Mean

Dot/Lines show Means

Kinh Ethnic Minor ities

Groups

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

Col

lect

ion_

2005

0.0844.71%n=38

1.8555.29%n=47

100.00%n=85

Abov e Poverty Line Under Poverty Line

Kinh Ethnic Minor ities

Groups

0.2518.46%n=12

2.2581.54%n=53

100.00%n=65

75

QUESTIONNAIRE

Interviewer: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Household Number: . . . . . . . . . . Date interviewed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Name of household head: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Name of interviewee: . . . . . . . . . 2. Ethnic: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Code: (1) Kinh (2) Stieng (3) Chau Ma (4) Tay (5) Sray (6) Hoa (7) Kh•me (8) Others: ............................ 3. Income per capita/month of the household (1) < 80,000 VND (4) 150,000 - 200,000 VND (2) 80,000 - 100,000 VND (5) 200,000 - 250,000 VND (3) 100,000 - 150,000 VND (6) >= 250,000 VND 4. Total of members in family: ....................... (persons). Male: . . . . . . . Female: . . . . . . . . 5. Household composition

No. Relation Sex Age Health status

Years at school

Main occupation

Member of institution/org

1 ...

Relation Sex Occupation Institution/Organization

1: Male 2: Female

Health Status

Head Wife/Husband Son Daughter Parents Others 1: Healthy

2: Disabled

Agricultural labour (crops) Livestock/poultry Fishing Forest activities Trade/Small business Worker (industry sector) Government officer Teacher/Doctor Student/pupil Transport operator Other: ..............................

Farmer’s association Women’s association Veterans' organization Credit Union Youth Union Old-man Union Religions Others: . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6. Non – Land Assets 6.1. House

- Built by: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in year . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1) Household (2) Government (3) Other: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - The house was made by: (1) Roof: Leaf Cement tile Other: . . . . . . . . . (2) Floor: Land Cement Other: . . . . . . . . . (3) Wall: Leaf Wood Concrete Other: . . . . . . . . . - Present Value of house (estimating): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (‘000 VND) - In future, number of years could use that house for living : . . . . . . . . (years)

76

77

6.2. Living Assets

Items Number of units

Year (bought them)

Value if sold now/unit (‘000 vnd)

1. Television

2. Radio/cassette

3. Karaoke/Amplifier/Speaker

4. Sewing machine if served for hhs

5. Electric fan

6. Electric cooker

7. Motorcycle

8. Bicycle

9. Other : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.3. Production Assets

Items Number of units

Year (bought them)

Value if sold now/unit (‘000 vnd)

1. Tractor/Power tiller 2. Buffalo 3. Sprayer 4. Thresher 5. Rotary weeder 6. Rice mill 7. Irrigation Pump 8. Sledge hammer/Saw 9. Other: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7. Land Assets 7.1. Land for living Area :....................(m2). + for housing :..................(m2) + for home stead:..................(m2) + for other purposes:..................(m2)

7.2. Land for cultivating

Total cultivated areas :....................(m2). Number of parcel: ............

Parcel serial

Land area (m2)

Distance from homestead (m)

Land tenure (Code)

Land use (crop/livestock/fish)

1 2 3 Land tenure Land use Own (bought) Inheritance Rented

Community land Others: .................

Rice Cashew Fruit

Vegetables Husbandry Other: ................

78

7.3. Forest land

+ Area of forest land (belong to the right of use of hhs): ............. (ha) + Forest land from contract:

Parcel serial

Contract form (1: Household 2: Group)

Contract with (Code)

Land area (ha)

Salary (000 VND/hh/year)

Other income (000 VND/hh/year)

1 2 Code (column 3):

(1) People Community (3) Cat Tien National Park (2) A forestation yards (4) Others: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II. PARTICIPATION ON TRAINING COURSE & PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED IN VILLAGE

1. Last year, you participated on training course for:

(1) Cultivation (rice, fruit, cashew...) Times: . . . . . Applied: . . . . (1: yes; 0: no) (2) Husbandry (pig, cow...) Times: . . . . . Applied: . . . . (1: yes; 0: no) (3) Forestation and forest protection Times: . . . . .Applied: . . . . (1: yes; 0: no) (4) Others: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Times: . . . . . Applied: . . . .(1: yes; 0: no)

2. From year 2000, have you been participated on any projects/programs? . . . . . . (1: yes; 0: no) If YES, what did projects/programs support you? How did they support? How much did they support?

Self-assessment Name of

projects/program Supported Form (material, money or what else?)

Value (million vnd)

Very good Good Bad

1. 2.

79

III. RELATION BETWEEN HOUSEHOLD AND CAT TIEN NATIONAL PARK

A. The change on relation between household and Cat Tien national park by two periods

5 YEARS AGO: Did you go to the park?

LAST YEAR: Did you go to the park?

If YES, please answer for part a, b,c, d and e

If YES, please answer for part a, b,c, d and e

a. How many times to go to the Park? . . . (times/year) + Male: . . . . (times) + Female: . . . . . (times) b. Which months did you go to the Park frequently? Please circle on the below number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Reason of frequency: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c. Time (went and returned) for 1 times: . . . . .(hour) d. Distance from house to the Park: . . . . . . . . . (km)

a. How many times to go to the Park? . . . (times/year) + Male: . . . . (times) + Female: . . . . . (times) b. Which months did you go to the Park frequently? Please circle on the below number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Reason of frequency: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c. Time (went and returned) for 1 times: . . . . .(hour) d. Distance from house to the Park: . . . . . . . . . (km)

e. The purpose to go to the Park (Put X on the following box)

e. The purpose to go to the Park (Put X on the following box)

(1) To get honey (2) To get fire wood (3) Wood to build house (5) Bamboo shoot, rattan (6) To get medicinal plant (7) To collect food plant (8) To trap animal (9) To catch fish (10) Others: . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Total of times/value per year:

+ Self-consumption + Selling/exchange

(1) To get honey (2) To get fire wood (3) Wood to build house (5) Bamboo shoot, rattan (6) To get medicinal plant (7) To collect food plant (8) To trap animal (9) To catch fish (10) Others: . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Total of times/value per year:

+ Self-consumption + Selling/exchange

If NO, please tell us the reason why?

If NO, please tell us the reason why?

(1) Afraid of forest warden (2) Afraid of dangerous animals (3) No time to go to the Park (4) Not enough health to go to the Park (5) Don’t care (6) Other reasons: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1) Afraid of forest warden (2) Afraid of dangerous animals (3) No time to go to the Park (4) Not enough health to go to the Park (5) Don’t care

(6) Other reasons: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

B. Individual opinion of you about the activities on forest protection in Cat Tien National Park. Please share your own opinion about 10 statements below (connecting to livelihood activities of your household). There are 5 levels of answering part: Strong Agree; (2) Agree; (3) Not sure; (4) Disagree; (5) Very Disagree Circle the choosing number and explain why to choose that level

Statements

Strong Agree

Agree Not sure

Disagree

Very Disagree

It is deemed necessary for Cat Tien National Park to protect the forest and preserve its biodiversity (flora and fauna)

1 2 3 4 5

We think that the current activities of Cat Tien National Park Management Board on forest protection and reservation are very good.

1 2 3 4 5

We got benefits from Forest Protection and Rural development Project of Cat Tien National Park and other projects/programs

1 2 3 4 5

Forest Protection means that people are absolutely not allowed to enter Cat Tien National Park for any purposes 1 2 3 4 5

Although we are poor, we usually do not go to the Park to get forest products 1 2 3 4 5

Even if the forest is not there, we can easily find other sources of income. 1 2 3 4 5

Up to now, the people in village 4 have the right to collect medicinal plants, edible plants and animals in the Park. 1 2 3 4 5

Forest plays an important role to my family. 1 2 3 4 5

There are still some outsiders that abet local people in our village to get forest products 1 2 3 4 5

The poor people frequently go to the Park than the better-off people

1 2 3 4 5

IV. SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP OF HOUSEHOLD Do you and your family members participate on/have:

1. Village meeting? . . . . . .(1: yes; 0: no) 2. People meeting to solve some problems of community? . . . . . . (1: yes; 0: no) 3. Sharing and learning on cultivation technologies with your neighbours? . . . . . (1: yes; 0: no) 4. Sharing & learning about experiences of forest product collection with other people? . . (1: yes; 0: no) 5. Festival, music show or sport game which was celebrated in village? . . . (1: yes; 0: no)

Do you know almost all people in this village? . . . . (1: yes; 0: no)

81

V. INCOME OF HOUSEHOLD

1. Annual Crops (rice, corn, vegetables...)

Cost /crop (000 vnd) Harvest/crop Note Id. Ty

pe o

f cro

ps

(det

ail)

Are

a (m

2)

Cro

ps/

year

See

d

Fert

ilize

r

Pes

ticid

e Fa

mily

la

bour

H

ired

labo

ur

Oth

er c

ost

outp

ut

(kg)

Qua

ntity

so

ld (k

g)

rece

ived

(0

00

vnd/

kg)

sold

ou

tput

(0

00

vnd

)

1

2 Note down clearly the type of crops

2. Perennial Crops (Fruit, Cashew....)

Cost (000 vnd) Harvest Id.

Type

of c

rops

(d

etai

l)

Are

a

Inve

stm

ent c

osts

for

the

plan

tatio

n (0

00 đ

) H

ow m

any

year

s ha

ve y

ou h

arve

sted

th

e pl

anta

tion?

(y

ear)

Fert

ilize

r

Pes

ticid

e Fa

mily

labo

ur

Hire

d la

bour

Oth

er c

ost

Tota

l out

put (

kg)

Qua

ntity

sol

d (k

g)

Pric

e re

ceiv

ed

(00

0 v

nd/k

g)

Val

ue o

f sol

d ou

tput

(0

00

vnd)

1

2

3. Income from forest activities last year (see again page 3): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (000 vnd)

VI LIVESTOCK 9.1.1.1.1

Items Unit of measurement

Type of breed 1 . . . . . . .

Type of breed 2 . . . . . . .

Type of breed 3 . . . . . . .

Breed Note down Form of breeding Note down Number of animal Head Costs on animal house 000 vnd Estimated number of years to use year 1. COST + Breed 000 vnd + Feed 000 vnd * Purchased feed 000 vnd * Left-over feed 000 vnd + Veterinary Medicine 000 vnd + Labour 000 vnd * Family 000 vnd * Hired 000 vnd + Other cost 000 vnd 2. BENEFIT + Quantity of output Kg + Quantity sold Kg + Price received 000 vnd/kg + Income from manure 000 vnd

82

VII. OTHER INCOME (FROM OFF-FARM AND NON-FARM ACTIVITIES)

Id. Source of income Number of labours

Number of working months /year

Annual net income (000 vnd/person)

1 Hired labour (off-farm activities)

2 Hired labour (non-farm activities)

3 Handicraft

4 Trade, services

5 Worker

6 Government officer

7 Other jobs

8 Annual (frequently) subsidy/gift

VIII. CREDIT INFORMATION Have you borrowed credit for last year production? Yes No If yes, please give the details as the following:

Purpose ( mill vnd) Id. Credit sources Amount (or equivalent) borrowed (mill vnd)

Interest charge (%/month)

Length of credit(months)

Agri

Forest

Consu-mption

Other

1 Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development

2 Bank for the Poor

3 Lender (informal credit)

4 Relatives/Friends

5 Others . . . .

What are criteria of household to get credit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Capital needed: . . . (mil vnd). The priority to use this capital (please tell details): . . .

IX. COST FOR LIVING

Food daily Id.

Items

Quantity (kg)

Price purchased (000 vnd/kg)

Cost/day (000 vnd)

1 Rice 2 Meat, Fish 3 Vegetable 4 Others Total of cost per day:

Note: + Provided by Gov’t/Organizations : . . . . . . . . . (000 vnd/year)

+ Provided by relation/Friends : . . . . . . . . . (000 vnd/year)

83

Other living cost Id. Items Cost (000 vnd/year) Note 1 Education 2 Health care 3 Parties 5 Clothe 6 Other cost

Total of cost per year:

Note: + Provided by Gov’t/Organizations : . . . . . . . . . (000 vnd/year)

+ provided by relation/Friends : . . . . . . . . . (000 vnd/year)

X. HOUSEHOLD OPINIONS

1. Self-assessment on your household economic from 5 years to now:

(0) No change (1) Improved (2) Bad

If improved, please explain shortly: (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If bad, please explain shortly: (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2. The advantage and disadvantage on livelihood activities of household Advantage:

(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Disadvantage: (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3. The advantage and disadvantage on forest protection and reservation activities now?

Advantage: (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Disadvantage: (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4. To improve standard of living of household and protect the Park, we should do what activities/solutions? a. Solution 1: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Particularly:

(a) Activity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) Stakeholders? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (c) Responsibility? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (d) Benefits? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

b. Solution 2: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Particularly:

(a) Activity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) Stakeholders? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (c) Responsibility? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (d) Benefits? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Checklist for Cat Tien National Park Management Board 1. Which year was Cat Tien Natinonal Park established? 2. How many forest stations are there in the Park? Quantity of forest wardens per

station? Level of education and professional knowledge? The average age of forest wardens?

3. If have, please draw an operational sketch and administrative diagram of Cat Tien National Park?

4. Responsibility of the Park? 5. Total area of the Park? How does the topography like? 6. How does the bio-diversity of the park change over time? 7. Who are stakeholders on Cat Tien National Park? Responsibility and benefit of them? 8. What are the advantage and disadvantage on forest protection and management of

the park? 9. What are the negative/positives pressures on the park? 10. How can the stakeholder co-ordinate to manage and protect the Park? 11. What ways can the Park propagandize forest protection for people living on the buffer

zone? Does the Park apply different methods for every people groups? If yes, how? 12. How are the contracts of forest land implemented? 13. Should or shouldn’t transfer forest land for people to manage and protect it? Why or

why not? 14. How many times of breaking the forest law? Form of breaking law? (giving a detail of it

over time by year) 15. Who violate the law? Why? 16. The poor have a trend to go the Park more than the better-off go, is it right? Please

explain in detail for this issue. 17. Are there any conflicts between the staffs of National Park and people in buffer zone?

If yes, what are the conflicts? How to solve that problem? 18. When did tourism activities of park operate? Who are tourists? What are the tourism

products? Do local people get benefits from those tourist activities? Forecast on the trend of tourism in future?

19. Oriental activities of park in future? 20. Short-term and long-term solutions which are the park suggested for forest protection

and management of Cat Tien National Park?

Checklist for Ta Lai Forest Station 1. When was Ta Lai Forest Station established? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. How many staffs are there in the forest station? Level of education and professional

knowledge? The average age of forest wardens? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. If have, please draw an operational sketch and administrative diagram of the forest

station? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Responsibility and benefit of staffs? What are equipments for staffs? Do that enough

the equipments for them to implement? Are they good or not good? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5. What are the advantage and disadvantage of park protection and management?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6. What ways can the forest station propagandize forest protection for people living on the buffer zone? Does the forest station apply different methods for every people groups? If yes, how? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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7. How many times of breaking the forest law? Form of breaking law? (giving a detail of it over time by year). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8. Was the breaking law seasonal? If yes, please explain (ex: rainy season, sunny season, or other...) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9. Who violated the law? Why?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. The poor have a trend to go the Park more than the better-off go, is it right? Please

explain in detail for this issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11. Relation to the park, are there any difference behaviours from every group of people

(Stieng, Chau Ma, and Kinh)? If yes, please explain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12. Short-term and long-term solutions which are the park suggested for forest protection and management of forest station?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Checklist for the households having a contract with Cat Tien national park 1. What year did your family (household) get a contract with the park?................................................ What criterion did your family have to be a member of contract?.................................................................... 2. How many members are there in your family? How many members are there in your

family involving to this activity?............................................................................................................................................ 3. Responsibility and benefit of your family?.................................................................................................................. 4. Did you have any special equipment to work?.......................(1: yes; 0: no) 5. Total areas of forest land which was your family managed? How is the

topography?......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6. What are the advantage and disadvantage of your work?........................................................................... 7. How did the co-ordination between household and forest station?..................................................... 8. How many times of breaking the forest law which you discovered? Form of breaking

law? (giving a detail of it over time by year).............................................................................................................. 9. Who violated the law? Why?.................................................................................................................................................. 10. Oriental activities of group of contract in future?................................................................................................. 11. Short-term and long-term solutions which are you suggested for forest protection and

management of forest station?..........................................................................................................................................

Documents

Livelihoods of People in the Buffer Zone of Cat Tien ... nghien cuu/Master thesis-L… · Đề tài này tìm hiểu về thực trạng bảo vệ rừng ở vườn quốc gia