Team leader for development of GESI integrated sustainable forest management plans for communities in CFM demonstration site of Son La province

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT SCOPE OF WORK

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A. RECOFTC ORGANIZATION AND VALUES

At RECOFTC, we believe in a future where people live equitably and sustainably in and beside healthy, resilient forests. We take a long-term, landscape-based and inclusive approach to supporting local communities to secure their land and resource rights, stop deforestation, find alternative livelihoods and foster gender equity. We are the only non-profit organization of our kind in Asia and the Pacific. We have more than 30 years of experience working with people and forests, and have built trusting relationships with partners at all levels. Our influence and partnerships extend from multilateral institutions to governments, private sector and local communities. Our innovations, knowledge and initiatives enable countries to foster good forest governance, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

At RECOFTC, our core values are the foundation of our culture and guide all our work. In addition to job specific skills and experience, the applicant should possess the following characteristics, attitudes and skills:

• Embrace innovation
• Adapt to, and learn from, challenges
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders
• Nurture commitment, responsibility and ownership
• Prioritize sustainability

Cultivate participation, social inclusion and gender equity

B. PROJECT BACKGROUND

The USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) will work with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation, the degradation of natural forests, and poor plantation management. The Project will implement a “Green Prosperity” approach that strengthens local communities’ ability to protect their natural resource base and reduce emissions while building a strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods and equitable economic growth.

The Project will work in seven provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam) and focus on five objectives:

1. Improve and expand community forest management
2. Increase conservation-friendly enterprises in forest-dependent communities
3. Increase functionality of law enforcement system for forest crimes
4. Improve production forest management practices
5. Mobilize domestic resources for forest management and protection

The Project will be implemented during the period 2020-2025 by DAI in collaboration with RECOFTC and Preferred by Nature as partners, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as the counterpart and the Management Board of Forestry Projects (MBFP) as project owner.

C. DESCRIPTION OF CONSULTANCY SERVICE:

1. Background

In recent years, the active participation of communities living near forests in forest management and protection is increasingly recognized as an important factor for effective maintenance of forest resources. The communities have participated in forest management and protection in various ways. There are four main types of participation including i) Traditional community forest, ii) Community based forest management, iii) Households group managing forestland and iv) Individual households, who individually own forestland, collaborating in forest management.

The Circular No. 28/2018/TT-BNNPTNT dated November 16, 2018 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Sustainable Forest Management stipulates that forest owners who are organizations, individuals, households and communities shall organize the preparation, approval and implementation of sustainable forest management plans (SFMPs) for the forest area allocated by the State in order to manage, protect and develop forests in a sustainable and effective manner;

The Project focuses on two forms of community forestry to promote local people’s participation in forest management. The first form is community forest management (CFM) in which residential communities/villages manage their allocated forests.. The second form is community-based forest management (CBFM) in which village communities manage the forests under contract with forest owners such as protection forest management boards. This also covers the modality where communities manage household’s allocated forests as a community group

With CFM models, local communities can access different financial sources, including but not limited to forest protection expenditures, PFES program, NTFP revenues, joint cooperation/investment and other credit programs to support communities to more effectively fulfill the roles and responsibilities of forest owners under CFM.

In order to strengthen the capacity of communities to manage, protect, sustainably use and develop the allocated forest resources, communities will actively develop SFMPs with support from the Project. Through this process, the communities will effectively perform the role of forest owner to protect the forests, promote multi-purposes of forest, and protect the forest environment; increase the supply capacity of forest and ensure the long-term use of forest products, especially NTFPs. The communities can also effectively explore the potential of eco-tourism, cultural tourism, recreation, and environmental education. This process strengthens capacity of communities, towards self-sufficiency in part of financial resources through revenues from forest protection, PFES, sustainable NTFPs exploitation, ecotourism activities to contribute to economic development, poverty reduction, and sustainable livelihood improvement of the communities.

In order to carry out the task of developing GESI-mainstreamed Sustainable Forest Management Plans (SFMPs) for communities at CFM demonstration sites, the Project recruits a consultant team, including:

• Consultant 01: team leader, responsible for coordinating, assigning, supervising other team members during the implementation of the assignment; directly participating in the survey, developing interventions, coordinating the implementation of forest inventory and development of SFMPs for communities.
• Consultant 02: team member, responsible for conducting forest inventory together with the team leader and the consultant 3.
• Consultant 03: team member, responsible for conducting the survey and developing interventions, participating in forest inventory, developing village convention on community forest protection

The CFM consultant team will also cooperate with the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) onboarded expert to ensure proper integration of GESI considerations into CFM planning processes.

The total estimated time for the consultant team to develop the SFMPs for FLA communities in Son La province is 155 man-days. Of which: the time for the team leader is 54 man-days.

2. Purpose of the consultancy assignment

Serve as the Team Leader to support the development of sustainable forest management plans for the 2 target communities through collecting, compiling and analyzing information/data at target CFM sites. This approach requires participatory manner and properly integrated Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) considerations (at least 35% of women and ethnic minorities are engaged in the development process). This aims to ensure that women and ethnic minorities are motivated to participate effectively in the implementation of CFM activities including community management boards.

3. Expected results

• Village meeting minutes (9 minutes): in Vietnamese, 3 villages, 3 minutes for each village, including: Minutes of 1^st village meetings to agree on the plan, contents, methods, and way of implementation; Minutes of 2^nd village meetings to agree on the SFMPs; Minutes of product handover approved by PPMU
• Sustainable Forest Management Plan: in Vietnamese, including 3 SFMPs for 3 FLA communities following the template provided in the “Guidelines for community forest management”. The SFMPs for communities shall be confirmed by the commune and approved by the VFBC PPMUs.
• 01 Report on participatory forest inventory training

4. Location

In three villages: Cat Lot village, Chieng La commune, Thuan Chau district; Cang village, Chieng Hac commune and Ta Lang Cao village, Tu Nang commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province. The scale and sites for development of SFMPs for 3 communities include:

• The community of Cat Lot village, Chieng La commune, Thuan Chau district, Son La province; 155 ha.
• The community of Cang village, Chieng Hac commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province; 1,123 ha.
• The community of Ta Lang Cao village, Tu Nang commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province; 624 ha.

5. Tasks

5.1.  Organization, tasks assignment, supervision and monitoring of the team’s activities: Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the team members.

5.2. Conducting training on participatory forest monitoring 

• Number of training course: 03 courses on participatory forest monitoring
• Duration: 09 days
• Location: Commune People’s Committee of Chieng La commune, Thuan Chau district; Chieng Hac and Tu Nang communes, Yen Chau district
• Participants:
  
  • Commune PPC: leader, forestry officer, land management officer, national front officer, women’s union officer and youth union cadre;
  • Local rangers, representative from management board of protection forests
  • Cat Lot villages, Chieng La commune, Thuan Chau district; Cang village, Chieng Hac commune, Yen Chau district and Ta Lang Cao village, Tu Nang commune, Yen Chau district:: Secretaries of community party branch; village leaders and village deputy leaders; national front task force members; women’s union officers; farmer’s union members; youth union members; forest patrolling team – total is 15 participants/village.   
• Training Subject: participatory forest inventory in accordance with the manual of community forest management in demonstration provinces including Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri and Quang Nam, endorsed by Viet Nam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) in the official letter No.1492/TCLN-KL dated 20 September 2022, including:
  
  • Forest area inventory;
  • Forest stock volume inventory;
  • Forest regeneration tree inventory;
  • Non-timber forest products inventory;
  • Endangered and rare forest plants inventory;
  • Endangered and rare forest animals inventory.

5.3. Collection of relevant documents:

Collect, consolidate relevant information and documents for the development of SFMPs for the communities:

• Information and data on natural and socio-economic conditions.
• Information and data on the actual status of community forest management, protection, use and development.
• Information on the risks of forest encroachment and the causes of forest change
• Other relevant information and documents.

5.4.  Coordination in the implementation of forest inventory

Collaborate with the forest inventory consultant to conduct the inventory of forest volume, forest regeneration

5.5. Development of participatory SFMPs.

The development of SFMPs for the communities shall be carried out according to the “Manual for community forest management” attached to the Document No. 1492/TCLN-KL dated September 20, 2022 of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry on the guidelines for pilot community forest management in Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, and Quang Nam provinces, in which community involvement in the process of surveying and planning for each intervention to be implemented in the plan must be ensured. The contents include:

• Developing forest protection plan and forestfire prevention plan
• Developing forest development plan
  
  • Natural regeneration, assisted natural regeneration
  • Afforestation, reforestation
  • Caring and tendering
• Developing forest harvesting and use plans
  
  • Plans for bamboo harvesting.
  • Plans for NTFPs harvesting
  • Plans for plantation timber harvesting
• Cost and net profit analysis.
• Monitoring and evaluation plans
• Measures for implementation coordination with relevant stakeholders
• Collaboration with GESI consultant to mainstream GESI issues into the development of SFMPs for communities.

5.6. Organizing village meetings to agree on the SFMPs

• Discuss with local authorities, FPDs, and communities about the information and interventions in the SFMPs to agree on the SFMPs, submit the SFMPs to the commune PCs for confirmation.
• Handover the SFMPs to communities.

6. Level of Effort (LOE) and Deliverables

The estimated time for the consultant to carry out this assignment is 54 man-days, expected to start from February 2023, and the final report shall be submitted on May 15, 2023. Details are in the table below:

7.  Qualifications

In order to carry out the tasks, the team leader needs to meet the following requirements:

• Vietnamese nationality.
• Master degree or higher, majoring in forest inventory, planning; management and protection or related fields;
• At least 15 years of experience in forestry sector, preferably in the field of sustainable forest management;
• In-depth knowledge and expertise in community forest management; experience working with communities, preferably experience working in Son La province;
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in forest inventory;
• Experience and expertise in the field of silviculture;
• Demonstrated experience and skills in organization, assignment and supervision of tasks in the team;
• Experience and skills in report writing in Vietnamese; ability to use English at work.

8. How to apply and requested documents

Interested individuals are requested to submit their CV and a cover letter indicating why they are suitable for this consultancy along with the expected fee or daily rate and current contact details of three references, to: [email protected] [2]. Please quote the consultancy title in the subject line of the email. Only shortlisted individuals will be notified.

For any further information you may need about the consultancy, please contact [email protected] [2].

To learn more about RECOFTC, please visit our website www.recoftc.org [3]