National Consultant to Support the Promotion of FSC Certification

Position: National consultant to support the promotion of FSC certification in Thanh Hoa province

Reporting: Sustainable Landscapes Manager, SNV

I.            Background

The USAID Vietnam Forest and Deltas Program (VFD), from 2013 to 2018, is being implemented through Winrock International, the Netherlands Development Organisation SNV, American Red Cross, Vietnam Red Cross and Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD). The USAID Vietnam Forest and Deltas Program is embarking upon a six-year effort that supports four provinces to accelerate their transition to climate resilient, low emissions development through investments in reducing net emissions from forests, and enhancing resilience of people, places, and livelihoods to short and long-term climate impacts. In VFD, SNV provides technical leadership for the sustainable landscape component that is focusing on upland landscapes, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forests degradation, maintaining and enhancing existing forests stocks and increasing climate change resilience and sustainability of landscapes.

As a part of the requests from Thanh Hoa province, VFD is planning to support the sustainable forest development and management in Thanh Hoa by introducing and piloting the first ever Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in Thanh Hoa in 2017.

II.         Consultancy service description:

1.  Objectives

The objectives of this consultancy are to:

• Conduct the feasibility assessment for promoting FSC certification for plantation forest (e.g. Acacia) and Bamboo in Thanh Hoa province.
• Develop FSC training packages and provide trainings on FSC for provincial staff.
• Provide support to a selected forest owners to prepare for and apply improvement practices toward achieving FSC certification in a pilot forest area.

2.  Scope of work

• The geographic focus of the assignment is only in Thanh Hoa province.
• The assignment will include capacity building for provincial government staff, feasibility assessment and the technical support for a pilot forest area in achieving FSC certification.
• The pilot will focus on bamboo and plantation forest (e.g. Acacia).

3.  Methodology and tasks

• Work with Thanh Hoa DARD to agree on the general work plan.
• Conduct desk review and field survey to evaluate the feasibility of promoting FSC certification for Bamboo and plantation forests in Thanh Hoa.
• Develop training materials and provide trainings on FSC for at least 20 provincial staff from Thanh Hoa (15) and Nghe An (5).
• Support a selected institution from Thanh Hoa in building capacity for FSC through direct involvement in FSC improvement process.
• Together with Thanh Hoa DARD to identify a pioneer forest owner willing to pilot FSC certification in a forest area that are most suitable for achieving FSC certification.
• Provide technical support to the selected forest owner to prepare and apply improvement practices to achieve FSC certification (it is not necessary that the FSC will be accredited by the end of the assignment, but at least it is in the good process of being accredited).
• Document the experience and lessons learnt from the pilot to share with other forest owners in Thanh Hoa through a provincial workshop.

4.  Deliverables:

• Assessment report on the potential and feasibility of promoting FSC certification for Bamboo and Acacia in Thanh Hoa provinces including opportunities, challenges and recommendations.
• Training packages for 2 days training on FSC certification. The training package should include background of FSC, FSC standards, principles, criteria, requirements, types of certification (forest management certification, chain of custody certification, and controlled wood), accredited certification bodies and process, audit, periodic review, etc.
• FSC training report (training provided to 15 government officers of Thanh Hoa and 5 from Nghe An) including list of participants.
• A pilot forest area is selected and applied improvement practices toward achieving FSC certification.

5.  Timeline: The expected total duration of the assignment will be during the period from Dec 2016 to June 2017. The number of exact days will be discussed and agreed with the selected consultant later.

III.      Qualifications, skills and experience required:

An individual consultant or the lead consultant (in case of group of consultants) with the following background are encouraged to apply:

• Master or university degree in forestry or biology.
• Intensive knowledge of forestry sector context in Vietnam and FSC principles, criteria, requirements and accredited process.
• Strong experience in developing trainings materials and providing trainings in FSC certification to government staffs in Vietnam.
• Experience in conducting feasibility assessment for FSC certification in other areas in Vietnam.
• Proved experience in supporting forest owners or communities in other provinces of Vietnam that have achieved FSC certification.

IV.       How to apply:

Interested consultants are requested to submit their letter of interest, CV and technical and financial proposal demonstrating their ability to deliver on this assignment to: [email protected] by 8 Dec 2016 with the title: “FSC certification”.

Key compositions of the technical and financial proposal include:

• Proposed assignment approach and work plan including resource arrangement
• Working package of the consultant(s) with daily rate
• Total estimated cost.