Consultancy on Farm Mapping, VLUP, and Collaborative Management Mechanism - CAFE REDD

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

OPERATIONALISING REDD+ THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPPs)
FOR SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES IN LAM DONG  (18_III_100)

FARM MAPPING, VILLAGE LAND USE PLAN, AND COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT MECHANISM

BACKGROUND

Agricultural expansion is a major driver of deforestation and associated GHG emissions in the land use change and forest sector across SE Asia. Meanwhile many countries in the region recognize the key climate mitigation role of forests in their NDCs. National REDD+ strategies outline policies and measures to arrest commodity-linked deforestation and promote forest landscape restoration but there is limited experience and guidance on addressing complex challenges on the ground.

Vietnam is a leading producer of many key agricultural commodity crops. The production of many of these commodities for global export markets is a major driver of deforestation and forest degradation. The National REDD+ Action Plan (NRAP) promotes deforestation-free agriculture as a key policy response. The Central Highlands is a priority region for REDD+ due to the area’s remaining natural forests, high forest carbon stocks and important biodiversity but is threatened by coffee expansion.

The project aims to support the implementation of Vietnam’s NDC and NRAP by developing and applying approaches to address agriculture-linked deforestation and promote forest landscape restoration in the Lang Biang Man and Biosphere Reserve in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. It does this by:

1. Strengthening institutional capacity for climate smart landscape governance through a district PPP approach focused on protecting and restoring forests, sustainable production and inclusive economic development
2. Engaging companies to establish monitoring and traceability systems that track deforestation in their supply chains
3. Improving livelihoods of ethnic minority farmers by promoting sustainable coffee agroforestry models connected to higher-value markets
4. Leveraging public and private investment for a deforestation-free and sustainable landscape

Knowledge generated by the project is shared to inform the development of model approaches to tackling commodity-linked deforestation in Vietnam.

The project established the collaborative forest management for Lac Duong district through 4Ps approach, contributed actively to sustainable landscape development, deforestation-free coffee production, and improved livelihoods for more than 2,500 local farmers in the period 2018-2022. In extension period. Cafeì REDD project continue to implement collaborative forest management mechanism and land use plans at 15 hot spot villages.

SNV seeks qualified team of consultants to implement work package to consolidate and expand project impacts in Lang Biang Biosphere Reserve and Lac Duong District in the period 2022 – 2024.

OBJECTIVES

• Farm mapping of individual farms (1,000 farm households ~1,000 ha) and development of a spatially referenced database for the CAFÉ-REDD project will be served for operationalize deforestation free traceability systems.
• Conduct FPIC and participatory development of village land use plans, consulting and supporting the signing of Community Co-management Agreements for 5 new targeted villages based on the farm mapping database.
• Strengthening and building an institutional framework to implement the collaborative forest management mechanism in Lac Duong district to 4Ps approach.

KEY TASKS & RESPONSIBILITIES

The consultant team is expected to perform the following tasks working closely with project staff to development of overall work plan for the assignment:

Conduct farm mapping of individual farms

• To collect and adapt relevant secondary reports, data and land use planning of province/district and satellite images of Café REDD project in Lac Duong district.
• To have a consultation meeting with relevant stakeholders (DARD, Lac Duong DPC, DONRE, …) to make consensus on potential 1,000 ha of Arabica coffee) before doing farm mapping on the site.
• Verifying the owner’s name, kind of crop, density of each farm as well as in a total area of 1,000 ha of Arabica coffee by drone.
• Comparison of the drone images/data with the designated land use boundaries to mark the boundaries (residential, agriculture land, forest lands)
• To establish a map and database of 1,000 ha that can be utilized for Terra-I, traceability applications, GFW pro, and/or Lac Duong IOT Center.
• To conduct consultation workshop with relevant stakeholders; based on above, and in collaboration with SNV project staff and partners to finalize farm mapping.

Conduct FPIC, Village Land Use Plans and Community Co-management Agreements

• Development of a suitable agenda, planning and organization of a training courses (1-2 days) on collaborative forest/landscape management and REDD+ safeguards for relevant project stakeholders i.e., provincial/district and commune level forest protection and forest management board staff, as well as representatives of local communities.
• Assess existing co-management approaches, agreements, and status in the project landscape (e.g., supported by SNV, WWF, UNDP, IDH, PFES groups) in 5 target villages
• Working with project staff and local stakeholders to develop a detailed plan and revise approach for FPIC, participatory village land use plan, and community co-management agreements, referencing REDD+ safeguards requirements (UNFCCC, national, IKI safeguards policy), ensuring the full and effective participation of women and ethnic minorities in the process.
• Participatory negotiation and discussion between communities, forest owners and local authorities on land ownership and use regulations, and what the project (and others) can support where = FPIC
• Lead the facilitation of a participatory village land use plan process, community co-management agreements in the project’s 5 targeted villages through the consultations with the local communities, clarify and confirm land/resource access and use rights for spatially defined areas resulting in local level land use plans with agreed agriculture and forest land boundaries and basic land-use zoning.
• Using the farm mapping database to finalize maps and spatially defined community co-management agreements.
• Refine and improve simple, culturally appropriate grievance redress mechanism enabling project affected peoples to raise concerns, and for those concerns to be addressed through a clear and transparent process. Refer to IKI regulations on complaints and gender strategy.
• Conduct consultations with villages to re-affirm village land-use boundaries, zoning, and agreements. Village community co-management agreements are linked to the district level collaborative management mechanism and the forest protection and livelihoods fund.
• Facilitate signing 5 community co-management agreements (written, verified broad community support for the spatial) with project and other support provided to households who agree with the land use arrangements and regulations (cannot convert further forest land, commitment to help protect forests, agree to multi-purpose planting/agroforestry on conflict land and/or on agriculture land) (this should also be in line with their PFES requirements).

Strengthening and building an institutional framework to implement the collaborative forest management mechanism in Lac Duong district

• Review and improve Collaborative Management Mechanism in Lac Duong with integration of technology and IOT platforms.
• Develop a plan to consult with stakeholders (public sector, private sector, international organizations, and local communities) on the grievance redress mechanisms, referring to the results of farm mapping database, village land use plans, and community co-management agreements.
• Coordinate with project staffs to organize the consultation workshops/PPP meetings with stakeholders (Lam Dong DARD, Lac Duong DPC, FMBs, I-NGOs, banks, companies and other relevant) on CFM, ensuring the full and effective participation of women and ethnic minorities in the process.
• Development of a suitable agenda, planning and organization of a training workshop on collaborative management mechanism for relevant project stakeholders i.e., District People's Committee, Commune People's Committee, forest owner, as well as representatives of local communities in 15 target villages of project.
• Drafting DPC decision on CFM.

For more details on the Expression of Interest process, submission requirements, and evaluation details, please see corresponding sections below:

Selection Process

SNV will review all Expressions of Interest received in accordance with the guidelines and criteria in this solicitation. SNV reserves the right to exclude any EOIs that do not meet the guidelines. Please note that SNV is unable to provide detailed feedback to those EOIs that are not selected.

Step 1: SNV will shortlist selected EOIs, and unsuccessful respondents will be notified. Successful applicants will be contacted by SNV.

Step 2: SNV will release Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the specific activities and contract with the selected organizations/ consultants.

Protection of Information

We request that Expressions of Interest responses be free of any intellectual property that the applicant wishes to protect. Should offerors wish to include proprietary intellectual property that they believe would be helpful for SNV, please note the proprietary nature of such information. Costing information will be kept confidential and will not be shared beyond SNV.

Issuance of this EOI does not constitute a commitment, award, or engagement on the part of SNV nor does it commit SNV to any future commitment or engagement.

Note: SNV reserves the right to change or cancel this requirement in the EOI/or solicitation process at any time.