Consultancy Service on Development of Forest Landscape Restoration Plan

Consultancy Service on Development of Forest Landscape Restoration Plan for Vu Quang National Park, Ha Tinh Province and Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, Nghe An Province For the Forest Carbon Stock Enhancement - ENRICH project

Terms of Reference

I. Background

SNV has been working in Vietnam since 1995. Using market based approaches, SNV is committed to reducing poverty by catalyzing environmentally sustainable solutions for the poor in agriculture, energy, water and forestry sectors.

SNV is implementing the project ‘Advancing Understanding of Forest Carbon Stock Enhancement at Landscape level as part of REDD+”, (ENRICH II) 2015-2018. This Project has four main components: (1) to introduce demonstration pilot activities leading to the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in representative forest ecosystems; (2) to provide recommendations on an appropriate incentives structure for forest carbon stock enhancement; (3) to support the inclusion of forest carbon stock enhancement as part of National REDD+ Program; and (4) to produce forest landscape restoration (FLR) plans in the Provinces of Ha Tinh and Nghe An. This task is to support component (4) on support technical staffs and local authorities at provincial level in development of FLR plan.

Vu Quang National Park in Ha Tinh Province and Pu Hoat Nature Reserve in Nghe An Province have been selected as sites for the development of Forest Landscape Restoration plan under the ENRICH project. In both of these two Forest Management Units there is a large area of natural evergreen forest (Vu Quang 55,000 ha and Pu Hoat 90,000 ha) with high levels of biodiversity and valuable timber species. However, with much of the sites degraded by previous timber extraction activities, these sites are now facing the challenge of how to regain the forest ecosystem functions in degraded forest areas while integrating socio-economic and environmental needs into forest rehabilitation initiatives

Approaching restoration on a landscape scale means addressing not only direct drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, but also indirect drivers while considering social and livelihood concerns among the local community and stakeholders.

II. Consultancy service description:

1.  Objectives

The tasks aims to help technical staffs and Forest Management Board of Vu Quang and Pu Hoat to develop their FLR plan, by providing training, mentoring, support and collaboration through a course on how to develop a FLR plan with an appropriate training methodology and specific steps.

2.  Scope of work

The selected consultant team will work close with local technical staffs and train them through “learning by doing” approach.

Specifically, the consultancy services should;

• Provide training on the GIS analysis that needs to be conducted to identify the potential areas for forest landscape restoration

• Provide training on the process of developing the Forest Landscape Restoration plan, including:
  
  • Assessment of current/potential benefits from landscape for local people and for biodiversity and carbon stock enhancement;
  • Assessment of the current, past and reference landscape states;
  • Defining the expected goals for Landscape restoration;
  • Development of possible land use scenarios in space though mapping;
  • Ground truthing and accuracy check of the proposed maps;
  • Development of possible restoration interventions to achieve the short term and long term goals (including models, time frames and maps);
  • Reconciliation of land use options;
  • Establish a set of goals, strategies and methods for each proposed zone and problem in the landscape;
  • Identification of a restoration roadmap, technical options, steps and phases (including monitoring system);
  • Consultation with local communities/authorities
  • A comprehensive Forest Landscape Restoration Plan, strategy and set of methods, with identified time frames, maps, estimation funds and quantified targets;
  • Developing a manual on development process of FLR plan

The fundamental documents for this assignment are: Forest Protection and Development Plan and Provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP) of Ha Tinh and Nghe An; technical reports for ENRICH, etc.

The consultancy team will work under supervision of the project Coordinator at the field.

3.  Methodology

As the aim of the assignment is capacity building for project partner, the selected consultants can use “learning by doing” approach. After a kick-off training the team will work close with local technical staff in site checking, site consultation to ensure the proposed recommendations are appropriated. The initiative steps of the assignment should include but not limit to the following: Training => Field work => Consultation => Report. This cycle will be applied for both management board.

4.     Deliverables:

The following deliverables are expected from the consultants:

• Prepare the methodology and develop appropriate steps/tools;
• Carry out the training and field works at site level
• Present the key findings and proposed FLR plan at consultation workshop
• Two comprehensive Forest Landscape Restoration Plan for Vu Quang and Pu Hoat
• Report on training impact to technical staff of Vu Quang and Pu Hoat (English and Vietnamese)
• Manual on development process of FLR plan (English and Vietnamese)
• Digital version of all relevant maps

5.  Timeline:     Duration is expected to be initially for a period of three to four months from April to July 2017; four – five consultants x 40 - 50 working days (including local technical staffs).

III. Qualifications, skills and experience required:

• The consultant team should consist of at least four – five consultants includes local technical staff with suitable qualifications, expertise and experience to conduct the assignment.
• Extensive knowledge on Forest Landscape Restoration;
• Experience in land use planning, specially LUP under context of REDD+ and development process of FLR plans including consultation process;
• Extensive knowledge of agro-business, and forestry, upland agricultural systems
• Experience in developing training programmes to local stakeholders and local people in such topics as improved production practices;
• Strong experience with community development and capacity building projects;
• Extensive knowledge on forest management situation in Nghe An and Ha Tinh is an asset;
• Fluent in verbal and written English and the applications of relevant GIS  software;

IV.       How to apply:

Interested consultants are requested to submit their technical and financial proposals demonstrating their ability to deliver on this assignment based on their qualifications and experience to: [email protected], no later than 17:00, Wednesday March, 24th, 2017 with the title: “Development of Forest Landscape Restoration Plan”

Key compositions of the technical proposals:

• Understanding the assignment
• Proposed assignment approach, methodology, tools
• Work plan and resource arrangement
• Deliverables development and submission plan
• Team roles and specific tasks

Key compositions of the budget proposal:

• Working package of the team and Daily rate of each members
• Operation and support costs
• Total estimated cost, indicating which costs shall be managed by SNV or other partners.
• Annexes: CV of team members, Publications if any