Multilevel Governance Roles in Land Use Change: Lessons for REDD+ from the Case Study in Nghe An Province, Vietnam45235

Multilevel Governance Roles in Land Use Change: Lessons for REDD+ from the Case Study in Nghe An Province, Vietnam Nguyen Dinh Tien1* (1) VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam * Correspondence: ndtien.up@gmail.com Abstract: Multilevel governance (MLG) is discussed in relation to influences over land use and forests, to identify who makes decisions, how those decisions are made, and the interaction between multiple levels and sectoral offices of government Since 1994, the government system in Vietnam was deconcentrated, with established lower level governments - provincial, district and commune largely carrying out national directives Forests fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) whereas natural resources and land are the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) There are conflicting interests and weak coordination between agencies and conflicting objectives between the agriculture and forestry sectors Findings from the study identify the provincial government as a key decision making body, relative to the commune and district The province sets out overall land use planning, subject to central government approval, while commune and district governments are important for identifying and resolving accountability issues surrounding land use decisions The commune government’s role is as an intermediary for higher level government decisions as well as being mandated to bring the voices of local people to the district level Nevertheless, lower level governments’ ability to achieve these functions are constrained by weak capacity and technical skills, and limited human and financial resources as well as their ability to influence decisions of those in higher government both in implementation and for resolving local concerns The research suggests that the outcomes of forest and land use policies are strongly driven by (i) will, interest and attitudes of influential actors to promote forests over other land use goals, (ii) the effectiveness of coordination and coalitions amongst those actors and between these actors and local communities; and (iii) local people’s understanding of pros and cons of these land uses, and their confidence and right to accept or reject these land use changes Keywords: Multilevel Governance, REDD+, Land use, Nghe An Introduction Managing forestry ecosystems requires a good understanding of the political, socioeconomic, and ecological dynamics Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is a multilevel process in which different scales and multiple actors and institutions come together around decision-making processes on land use Multilevel governance (MLG) is discussed in relation to influences over land use and forests, to identify who makes decisions, how those decisions are made, and the interaction between multiple levels and sectoral offices of government Since 1994, the government system in Vietnam was deconcentrated, with established lower level governments - provincial, district and commune - largely carrying out national directives Forests fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) whereas natural resources and land are the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) However, there are conflicting interests and weak coordination between agencies and conflicting objectives between the agriculture and forestry sectors In Vietnam, the government structure and forestry sector has been evolving over the last 30 years The Vietnamese governance system, following reforms in 1986, has been shifting from a central mono-unitary structure to a more decentralized structure with the emergence of lower government at the provincial, district and commune levels (Trung et al 2015) REDD+ presents an opportunity to encourage a ‘bottom up’ design and therefore involve more actors in forest governance Larson and Petkova (2011) highlight, however, that REDD+ also risks driving power further into the hands of the elite often at the detriment of forest dependent communities, such as through inequitable benefit sharing mechanisms (BSM) or land grabs Equally, burdens can be both direct and indirect but are usually broken down into financial costs (e.g lost opportunity costs), transaction costs and reduced access to natural resources (Luttrell et al 2013) The report provides the description the changes of land use and forest management in different levels including the analyses of key drivers and actors involving in land use change process and decision as well as the legal arrangement of power between different levels of local government and actual power practices and its effects to land use and forest management and in relation to benefit sharing mechanisms (BSM) of Nghe An province This report is based on an analysis of MLG land use decision making with a focus on the sub-national level A complete overview of all land uses were not investigated, instead the focus was on land uses directly perceived as influencing forests This case study approach enables a unique examination of decision making at various levels, in particular from the sub national to the local, to inform land use options and future land use decisions within Vietnam and globally Methodology The methods include secondary data collection and a literature review, alongside primary data collection based on key informant interviews at multiple scales The secondary data collection involved a literature review on legal and policy documents related to Vietnam’s Forestry sector and other relevant land use sectors Data and information was also collected from reports and official documents at different government offices levels and NGOs, institutions in Nghe An province including administrative offices and department from province level to local government levels The researchers combined and adapted the interview guides as appropriate in order to conduct open-ended semi-structured interviews with multiple actors Overall, interviews aimed at understanding the actors involved in land use decision-making, the relationships among actors, the processes leading up to land use changes, agreements to distribute benefits and results of land use decisions The research team also interviewed key informants from provincial and district-level governments in all sites to capture their involvement in decision-making on land use, coordination with other levels of government and knowledge of REDD+ and other such initiatives Primary data was collected at the provincial, district and commune levels in 2014 and 2018 The key study sites included four communes in the two districts of Nghe An province with interviews focused on Luc Da and Chi Khe communes in the Con Cuong district and Thach Giam and Yen Na communes in Tuong Duong district A total of 52 official staffs and local people who involved in making and implementing policies on land and forest management were interviewed For the study site selection at commune level the following selection criteria was applied: Significant land use or land use management changes within the last 20 years; At least two land use activities associated with deforestation and degradation drivers (perceived as “increasing carbon emissions” sites) At least two land use activities (BSMs) aimed at stopping/ slowing deforestation and degradation (potentially decreasing carbon emissions) Accessibility and feasibility In the Nghe An province, the two sites (Chi Khe and Yen Na communes) classified as ‘increasing emission’ sites included hydropower plant (HPP) developments The other sites considered ‘decreasing emissions’, included afforestation BSMs, from private business enterprises in the Luc Da commune, and government afforestation programs in Thach Giam commune There were no REDD+ initiatives in Nghe An at the time of the study although one had recently ended The interview data was stored, managed and analyzed using qualitative data analysis software (e.g NVIVO 10) Data was coded using a heretic node tree based on an initial literature review The codes were also updated and adapted according to the data complied The coding process was iterative, so that the coding tree changes could be datadriven Coding was specified within a coding guide and spot verified by a single coder Queries were then conducted in order to assist in finding patterns for data analysis (Ravikumar, et al 2015) Results 3.1 History of Land Use Change in Nghe An province Nghe An province, formal known as Nghe Tinh province was established in 1991 when Nghe Tinh province divided into Ha Tinh and Nghe An province Currently, Nghe An has total 1,649 km2 natural land and bordering with Thanh Hoa to the north, Lao PDR to the west and Ha Tinh province to the south For land use change purpose from agricultural land to industrial zone is observed in the districts in lowland near by Vinh city such as Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan, Do Luong and Quynh Luu districts (NA#12) At the upland areas, the province was allocated forestland to individual household based on the Decree 02/CP-199472 in the period from 1998 to 2000 The program affected to villagers land management and swiddening practice, a sharply decrease of swidden area was observed after the forestland allocation (Nguyen, 2011) The remarkable period of land use change was in the period of 1975 to 1987 The fact is that after Vietnam reunification in 1975, the quick impact of the development programs 72 Decree No 02/CP dated on 15th January 1994 on allocated forestland to organization, household and enterprises to use land in long term and stable use in the North area of Vietnam was encouraged particularly in agricultural production and forest logging Ineffective cooperatives model in this period caused the low agricultural production which lead to the serious food shortages, the Communist Party leadership approved Resolution 100 in 1981 which sanctioned the household production contract system (McElwee, 2011) Primary forests were converted to upland rice, cassava and maize cultivation The forest area managed by SFEs caused seriously deforestation during this time (Leisz J S et al 2011) The main cause of forest degradation is poor management system, which lead to unplanned logging and extensive shifting cultivation (Tran, 2006) The forest enterprises were established, all rich forests were managed by them with the focus general only on exploitation of forest because of the economic development and poor management system Consequence, forest declined fast in both area and quality (two third of forest area in Nghe An province was logging and cut down by the State Forest Enterprises and forest) (Tran, 2006) For example, in 1973, the State Forest Enterprises of Con Cuong district was awarded the Uncle Ho’s medal (the honor prize award by president Ho Chi Minh) for the highest productive in logging forest Mr Nguyen Ngoc Lai, the director of Con Cuong State Forest Enterprise was awarded a medal for the “labor hero” in 1985 because of his contribution to the State Forest Enterprise in logging timbers Highlighting during this time that the government was supporting production and logging activities In addition, migration from lowland to upland areas lived in the mountainous districts of Nghe An was observed in this period Some district town were established at that time such as Con Cuong town in Con Cuong district and Hoa Binh town in Tuong Duong district in 198873 As provided by the key informants, a larger area of rich primary forest had change into poor forests in this time Land use in Nghe An undergone many changes during period of economic transformation since 1988 when the government has adopted a land use reform and new policies for agricultural development, including policies for land allocation and reforestation such as Decree 10 in 1981 allowed farmers to use land in turn for a fixed amount of crop produced, and the new national land law in 1988 (known as Resolution 10) on entrusting land to households and organizations for long term use (Leisz 2011) In the period 1988-1993, the land use change of Nghe An province was influenced much by the land law in 1988 This was remarkable changes in land use of Nghe An province because the land law indicated that the agricultural land was allocated to household Second then, the 1993 Land Law which has been amended three times in 1998, 2001, and 2003 which granted five rights to the households (the right to transfer, exchange, inherit, rent and mortgage (Nguyen 2010) The law also extended the lease term to twenty years for annual crop land and fifty years for perennial crop land (Land Law of Vietnam 1993, Article 20) The farmers have been allocated agricultural land for self-production and investment in their land (land use right certificate was granted to households) while it did not happened in the past (NA#21) Other period of land use change in Nghe An was from beginning of 1991 to 2003 In this period, there was a split from Nghe Tinh province to Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces 73 http://btxvnt.org.vn/cms/?m=14&act=view&id=119 as recently Vinh city was selected for a new provincial town of Nghe An province, and a large area of paddy rice and agricultural land had to change into residential land and government offices Even in the mountainous districts of Nghe An, under this process, primary forests in Nghe An were continuously undergone strong exploitation activities for the construction such as that road systemEspecially, the land law in 1993 had to revised and effective in 1998 to 2003, forestland allocation policy had been implemented in the province Forestland was allocated to individual household in long-term using of forestland (land title certificate) The individual household had been providing land title (red book) for using forestland However, until 2010, the policy was fully effective, local people really realized their rights in using forestland and therefore, the forest protect management have been paying attention by householder Table illustrates the land use changes of Nghe An province In 1997, a total natural area of land was 1.649 million Of which, agricultural land was 899,283 ha; annual crops area was 126,384 However, this figure increased by 9,294ha and 29,094ha in 2007 and 2013, respectively (DONRE, 2014) This was an increase of both paddy rice area and upland rice, as the Nghe An authority’s encouraged local people in expanding paddy rice area for food security Due to increase of orange tree plantation and other fruit trees, area of perennial trees plantation had increased by 2,765ha from 1997 to 2013 On the contrary, the unused areas of the province have been reduced Forestland area had increasing significantly in the period of 1997 to 2013 because of increasing and expanding by forest plantation development Acacia, rubber and bamboo plantation had been increasing quickly in this period from 60,782 to 92,347 (the 661 program) Table Land use status in Nghe An Province in 1997, 2007, 2013, and projected 2020 (Unit: ha) 1997* 2007 2010 2013 2020 Agricultural land 899,283.0 1,034,338.1 1,239,677.3 1,249,779.6 1,438,701.1 Land used for annual crops 126,384.0 135,768.0 105,151.2 107,237.8 96,083.1 Rice cultivation 87,540.1 87,540.1 87,540.1 88,887.5 84,000.0 Long-term plantation trees 15,586.4 26,566.8 66,300.2 81,141.4 90,697.0 Forest land area 663,703.5 777,482.2 972,425.5 963,691.0 1,146,377.0 Production forest 60,782.0 88,282.1 501,163.0 492,948.4 581,841.0 Protection forest 602,799.0 689,077.6 302,055.3 301,263.3 392,036.0 Special-use forest 122.5 122.5 169,207.2 169,479.3 172,500.0 Aquaculture production areas 5,231.0 6,143.0 7,422.3 7,984.1 9,030.0 Salt production areas 837.98 837.98 837.98 837.78 837 Non- agricultural land 14,859.0 21,347.0 125,251.6 128,568.1 174,207.0 Un-used land 735,227.0 593,683.9 284,440.1 271,021.3 36,461.0 Total natural area 1,649,369.0 1,649,369.0 1,649,369.0 1,649,369.0 1,649,369.0 (Soure: * Department of Statistic of Nghe An; Data of 2007 to 2020 is provided by DONRE of Nghe An) The acacia plantation has been planted in most of the mountainous districts of the province such as Ky Son, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Anh Son, Thanh Chuong During the period from 2010 up to now, acacia plantation is expanding and it become an economic value tree plantation of upland areas In addition, rubber plantation had been planting in the province since 2007 According to Nghe An DARD (2007), the total rubber area in Nghe An was about 4000 which mostly planted in Thanh Chuong and Anh Son districts In 2010, the Provincial People Committee of Nghe An retrieved 5,354.9 of forest areas which was managed by the Anh Son forestry company to the Nghe An Rubber Stock and Investment Company for rubber plantation Because rubber plantation has been being promoted continuously, area of long-term plantation in the province continues to be increased The land use planning of Nghe An indicated that the rubber plantation area will be increased to 25,000 in 2020 (Nghe An People Committee, 2014)74 However, area of rubber plantation has increased slightly as local people are not interesting in rubber plantation because of low price compensation to land and acacia trees on land (NA#13), and it is cause of deforestation, loss of biodiversity and reduced water recharge (NA#12, NA #14,) Until 2013, the actual rubber area production in whole province was 3,718 with the yield about 1.2 tone/ha Currently, Nghe An Rubber Stock and Investment company have facing problem in compensation to land owners 3.2 Multilevel governance and land use decision making While the Vietnamese central government defines institutional structures and provides regulations and guidelines to the lower government and land users, forestry policy outcomes vary at the local levels We assess multilevel governance by outlining the key actors in forestry decentralization and then analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the decentralization process in Vietnam This is followed by a discussion of actor influence on deforestation as identified by respondents in the case studies 3.2.1 Decentralization of forest and land use powers to lower governments Forests in Vietnam have undergone a major transition A period of centralized control, from 1975 - 1986, coincided with a natural forest loss of 1.7 million (To, 2009) Government claims over forests dismissed the rights of an estimated 25 million local people, including mostly ethnic minorities who lived in or near forested areas (Sam and Trung, 2003: 15) In 1986, the legal system was gradually revised, with management responsibilities of land and forests transferred to ‘lower’ levels of government (Trung et al 2015) Since 1994, the government system in Vietnam was divided into two parts: (i) central government; and (ii) local government (provincial, district and commune levels) Each of these government units remains under the control of the central state following a form of administrative decentralization, known as ‘deconcentration’, with established lower governments still largely following national directives The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) controls forest sector policy in Vietnam At the provincial level, forests are under the remit of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) within the Provincial people’s committee (PPC), and responsibilities are further delegated to the district level divisions Below the 74 Resolution on Adjust and addition to general planning of social economic development of Nghe An to 2020 in the meeting of Nghe An People Committee 2014 district level the commune people’s committee (CPC) is accountable for forest management and protection on the ground Forest protection monitoring is conducted by the communes’ forest rangers mandated to enforce the Law on Forest Protection and Development within their territory Forest Rangers cooperate with local forest protection groups at the village level Each village has an assigned ‘village head’ selected by the community, who provides the communication link between the commune government and the community In 1992, following the issuing of the forest protection and development law and its subsequent revisions, the central government began forest land allocation (FLA), providing increasing rights and responsibilities to communities, households, and individuals MONRE is another key land use ministry, responsible for natural resources, including land itself and national land use planning For REDD+ coordination, MARD shares responsibilities with Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE), with divided duties outlined by the Prime Minister in 201175 (Pham et al 2012) The Prime Minister also approves provincial land use plans developed by the Provincial and District People Committees (DPC)76 Central government provides the guidelines on how land use plans should be developed, and MONRE, on behalf of central government, has a mandate to prepare national land use plans DONRE at the provincial level has mandates to prepare and implement provincial land use plans Land use planning is critical to how and what decisions are made on land use, as how local governments decide to classify land impacts its protection and management status Thus decision making power over land use plans at the provincial level arguably provides the provincial government a strong instrument through which to influence land use decisions Furthermore, as part of the planning process, the classification of forests, for example as production or protection, is vital to determine land holders rights of access and use, which means there are socio-economic impacts for forest dependent smallholders Thus any oversights or mistakes may lead to conflict between the local government and local people77 A respondent who works in land use planning and classification admitted risks when the land use plan is developed without local inputs (NA #13) He said, “land use planning is not suitable for [local] realities Top-down planning is not practical” 3.2.2 Decentralization and legitimacy in land use decision-making powers The Vietnamese government issued Land Law in 1993 and it was revised and amended in 2003 and 2013 which is stipulates the requirement of land use planning and land use plans Land use are defined by types of land use planning and plans which are: i) national land use planning and plan; ii) provincial land use planning and plans; iii) district 75 No 282/VPCOQHQT (13 January 2011) 76 One of the differences in Land Law 2013 is that there is no requirement for planning and preparation of land use plans at the commune level (Trung et al 2015) 77 Forests were classified into three categories; special use, protection and production, each with differing rights according to the type of user group as defined in the 1991 Forest Protection and Development Law (De Jong et al 2006) In early 2013 it was estimated that of Vietnam’s total 13.66 million of forest, million hectares was classified as special-use forest, 4.68 million classified as protection forest, and 6.96 million classified as production forest (MARD, 2013) land use planning and plans; iv) land use planning and plan for national defence; and v) land use planning and plans for national security The planning of land use is implemented in 10 years rotation and land use plans for national and provincial scale and national defence are prepared for years term, but district land use plan is required on the annual basis78 The responsibility of implementing land use planning and preparation of land use plans as well as power to review and approve the planning and plans are clearly stated in the land law The government is responsible for national land use planning and plan which directly supported by MONRE The Provincial and District People Committees take the responsibility for land use planning and plans at provincial and district level The National Assembly is the agency to make the decision on approving national land use planning and plans The Prime Minister is responsible for approval of provincial land use planning and plans (including planning and plan for national defence and security) The coordination among the organizations regarding the management of land and forests include vertical and horizontal coordination Vertical coordination is consistent guidance made by the government to responsible ministries and then to provincial and district people committees Horizontal coordination is made among management agencies in the province and district level At the provincial level, DARD and DONRE are the key management organizations responsible for land and forest managements The DONRE at district level was separated from a land management unit of DARD since 2003 and responsible for management of all natural resources such as mineral, water, environment, and land (NA#10) All land use planning have to following the DONRE’s planning, before DARD have more power in land use planning decision but now DONRE have more power (NA#47) DONRE is the lead organization to prepare land use planning and plan for the province and DARD is the lead agency for management of forestry and agriculture operation and development in the province The chairman of provincial people committee (PPC) is authorized to approve land use planning and plans for districts79 The district levels are approval for the land use of commune Currently there is the weakness of land use planning at commune level because of low capacity of staffs, limited funding used for collecting basic information and data (NA#3, NA #10) The weakest capacity is at commune and village level It is need strengthen capacity for commune officers because they are non-degree and low education, lack of technical support (#5) Besides, due to the weak management mechanism combined with the high level of the dependence on forests of people lead to forest degradation and deforestation (NA #13) The commune level also have land use planning for years and 10 years following the guideline from district and province levels (NA#43), however, the actual planning is different from document planning (map) because the land use change every year but the commune could not update this situation since they don’t have enough human recourses (NA#43, NA#44) This issue also raised by Mr Tuan Anh (NA#14) that currently the land use planning of forests (special use forest, protection forest, and production forest) is not appropriate showing in the map and in the real is some time different (NA#14) 78 Article 36 and 37 of Land law 2013 79 Article 45 of Land law 2013 Land use planning process has involving by different departments such as DARD, DONRE, Army, department of Trade and Investment, department of cultural and tourist (NA#47) Therefore, there is a significant conflict between departments because every departments also have land use planning (NA#47) For example, DARD have land use planning itself, DONRE also have land use planning, department of Planning and Investment, Department of education, Department of Transportation Hence, the general land use planning for whole province is collecting land use planning from different departments, DONRE is the host organization to collect the land use planning from different department then submit to the PPC who will make the final land use for whole province (NA#47) The reaction of commune level and provincial level is very slow and it take long time to solve a issues For example, the conflict between villager with Forest company and Pu Mat National park have been happing since 2005 up to now but it have not solution from higher level Local people want to get the land from forest company because they said that these land belong to their parents but the company get it from them (the FC have permission from province level) (NA#44) The other issues is that the state and private forest companies occupy a large of forest area while the local people not have land to work which is the cause to conflict between local people and forest owners The government needs to make land use planning according to local needs The government can revoke the inefficient lands to allocate to households (NA#14) 3.2.3 Multiple actors’ influence on forests Actors at different levels were identified as having varying influence on forests and forest land, with both complementary and conflicting interests within and among levels In the case study locations, key land use change actors included state companies (HPP in Chi Khe and Yen Na communes) supported by national government and the afforestation programs (in Thach Giam commune) The private sector (a paper mill company) and small business enterprises (focused on afforestation activities) were also important in the Luc Da commune All of these interventions and actors have impacted smallholder livelihoods and forests to varying degrees Land use change, to the detriment of forests, illustrates the influence of more powerful land use actors that can encourage or even force smallholders to convert forests as an alternative livelihood strategy Respondents frequently cited HPP companies as highly influential, and as drivers of deforestation and degradation (NA#3, 30)80 HPP (in terms of the larger stations) must first have approval and support of the national government, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade the provincial government Furthermore each government level is responsible for identifying and planning the location of the HPP, as well as evaluating and regulating the HPP environmental impacts (Trung et al 2015) Whilst each government level has a responsibility for HPP development, the provincial government has substantial decision making power In the Yen Na commune the HHP recovered land from households for construction and flooded the area; complaints were made to the commune and district government, and a commune government employee admitted they “did not 80 Linked 22 times with deforestation in the interviews conducted understand why those people had not yet been compensated” and that they had “raised the issue several times” (NA#42) This point implies that those at the commune level are more aware of the local impacts of these interventions then those in higher government levels, but still have little power when it comes to decisions, e.g in this case compensating affected people Equally the commune government has a role to bridge the voice of the local people to higher government levels and findings indicate this occurred in practice (Trung et al 2015) Interviewed village heads commonly described the most frequent communication as between the CPC and communal forest ranger (NA#8) Yet communication to the commune government demonstrates this may be to no avail if the district and provincial government ignore their own responsibility to respond to local level concerns The provincial government was recognized as one of the most influential actors for land use change A respondent from the Nghe An PCP said that was because it has the ability to change “approximately 20,000 hectares of forest land, converting protection forests to production forests” 81 (NA#6) That is, the provincial government can change the classification from natural forest, with heavy restrictions on production, to increase rights to allow harvesting Nevertheless the central level still has a critical role, as all land use plans, such as these, must be approved by the Prime Minister (NA #6; Trung et al 2015) Environmental as well as development program fall under the responsibility of a multitude of ministries and agencies, which often have overlapping roles (Pham et al 2012) A report by the World Bank (2011) stated this was an issue at a national level: “lack of intersector cooperation by MARD and MONRE in land use and development planning, and the lack of an agreed upon … forest and land use classification threatens the attainment of overall forest sector policy goals” (p.12) One key informant from DARD also observed the same difficulties between DONRE and DARD at the provincial level “because each department has its own management regulations” (NA#11) He also argued that DONRE was in fact more influential then DARD, as DONRE is responsible for land use plans, so it can make the more powerful decisions Analyzing these perspectives together, along with the legal context of land use governance in Vietnam, it appears that the agricultural sector has considerable freedom to facilitate the establishment of plantations, and the environment sector has limited scope for challenging such decisions, and rarely even attempts such contestations The role of government in land use decision making does not mean, however, that local people are without influence In a number of examples smallholders refused to bow to external interests For example a villager in the Chằn Nằn hamlet of Nghe An rebuked offers made by the HPP (NA#31) In a more unique example, the commune authority attempted to seize illegally harvested timber but local people refused by threatening violence (NA#24) Although these examples are more exceptions than the rule, they demonstrate that smallholders in some cases could influence the direction of change Pham et al (2012) found that policies that withdraw productive assets from local people would often put those already marginalized, such as the poor, at a further disadvantage by failing to offer viable alternatives Overall results from this study indicate 81 Under the Pursuant Decision No 38 by Prime Minister that local people were often associated with deforestation and degradation as a result of 1) a lack of livelihood options or incentives; 2) agricultural lands being converted for HPP or rubber plantations (thus other indirect forces are evidently at play); 3) the government’s failure to provide clear land rights and access to forests, as well as weak forest monitoring and inventory; and 4) a lack of legitimacy in procedural and distributive outcomes in BSMs and other government programs Yet smallholders were also widely recognized for their positive influence on forests Smallholders were linked on 72 occasions with forest improvements Four of the case study sites, e.g PFES, government afforestation programs and the REDD+ pilot project82, illustrate how BSMs focused on local people could be effective in promoting forest protection and development Tabe Actor influence in land use change of Luc Da commune, Con Cuong district, Nghe An province Actor mentioned Infl Inte uenc rest e (1: (1: lowe low st; 3: est; high 3: est) hig hest Villager/household Farmer Associations, ) Reason why They are very interest in land use but they don’t have enough power to force commune to follow their idea Youth union DARD at District level They are very interest in land use but they don’t have enough power to force commune to follow their idea 3 They have power to land use planning because they have right to approve DONRE at district level 3 The same DARD because they get recommendation from DARD Department of industry 2 and trade at district level Head of village/village Less care about land use and they only comments about road or building He can talk to villager and explain their idea 2 They received land use plan from village head and 3 They don’t care about land but they have right to committee Communal People committee Department of Finance submit to the DARD at district level approve the budget in investing District PC 3 They have highest power at district level, they will approval all land use plan within district Tan Hong paper mill company 82Case The company invested seedling and fertilizer to villagers and made the contract to buy acacia products study communes recognized as sites of decreasing carbon emissions 3.2.4 The role of lower governments in practice Forest protection and development are key features of Vietnam’s land policy and structural reforms, leading to attempts to further include lower government and local people in the forestry sector Respondents were asked to explain their perceptions of decentralization, including the relationships between government levels, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and whether decentralization had been effective The provincial government was recognized to have “more power in making decisions on how to make use of resources and how to develop the province” Some respondents claimed these challenges were the same amongst the three levels of local government, whilst others highlighted variation among the levels For instance “at provincial level [there are] enough power and resources to [act] effectively but at district levels and commune levels [there] are not enough This needs to be changed” (NA #11) Respondents were specifically asked whether decentralization had been effective In terms of the government objective for the forestry sector, ‘effectiveness’ was interpreted as improvements in and development, as this has been the objective of devolving forestry management - to promote local government and local people as protectors and managers of forest resources (Trung et al 2015) Hence, benefits from decentralization of the forestry sector were recognized, but almost 13 respondents in the study did not answer the question This was both as a result of not knowing what to say, but also stemming from issues with the question itself Analyzing respondents’ perceptions of decentralization reveals a broad consensus that the provincial governments, while theoretically implementing the central governments’ mandates, in fact have considerable influence and are consequently important centers of political negotiation around land use The key benefits of decentralization in the forestry sector have been raising public awareness on forest protection Overall however, the obstacles to and weaknesses of decentralization were much more notable in the findings There is apparent variation in how responsive communes and districts are to local needs, and there is widespread agreement among respondents - and especially local people - that communes that are responsive can have positive impacts on procedural equity in land use Despite many achievements in decentralizing the forestry sector, respondents commonly felt that, in addition to inherent constraints, efforts were hampered by a number of factors, namely capacity, human resources, unclear guidance, and budget For example government officials themselves frequently commented, “local governments not have good human resources, suitable budgets or good instructions for implementing their tasks effectively” (NA #10) The ability of actors to make and enact decisions from the different levels seemed to be impeded by the distance of higher level decisions from local reality and the capacity of lower levels (particularly at the district and commune level) The findings, however, were not unanimous Opinions varied across the different levels and case study sites, for example capabilities and resources had improved in one place, but were constrained in another (NA # 10, 12, 13, 14, 17) The obstacles identified reflect the common views of government respondents The following sub-sections describe the summarized weaknesses and challenges to lower governments’ efforts in the forestry sector as identified by respondents Poor cooperation and coordination between government levels and sectors Poor cooperation, moreover ‘poor communication,’ between different levels of government and organizations was also a barrier to decentralization (NA #47) Respondents explained that their own roles in land management and protection depended heavily on the cooperation with other actors, including the CPC, People’s committee of the district (DPC), local people, DARD, forest ranger station, and DONRE Nevertheless poor cooperation was believed to have influenced the quality of land use plans prepared by different government levels, as well as FLA One respondent said “there is inefficient collaboration among the agencies in implementing allocated tasks Land conflict is an increasing trend, particularly…in forest land areas” (NA #47) These points suggest a need to build cooperation between government levels and sectors as well as within the sector to ensure effective information exchange Limited resources of lower government Weak technical skills It was fairly consistently stated in the interviews that weak capacity was a key issue in policy implementation and one the biggest hurdles to ‘effective’ decentralization (NA#5, 10, 12, 13, 40) This was not consistently associated with all local government levels but rather was mostly an issue for the district and commune levels A member of the commune peoples committee (CPC) admitted “officials of districts’ and communal governments not understand their mandates or responsibilities They not know how to carry out their assigned tasks They also lack capacity to carry out the assigned tasks” This is a sweeping statement, and capacities undoubtedly vary Nevertheless, numerous respondents from both provinces agreed that a lack of knowledge, education and technical support were common challenges at the village, commune and district levels (NA#5) Lack of human resources The lack of human resources in lower government was further cited as an issue for decentralization Insufficient human resources were linked with unrealistic policy expectations from upper government For example forest rangers are expected by central government to patrol large areas of forest with small budgets, perceived to be unrealistic by a number of forest rangers A forest ranger in Nghe An province explained as there were not enough staff to patrol assigned areas, hence their abilities to monitor forests effectively was hindered (NA # 16) Lack of financial resources Oates (1998) argues that a centralized funding mechanism can be unfavorable to the establishment of integrated and responsive local policy-making The issue of insufficient budgets was commonly noted as a weakness for lower government in the province (NA #15) This point suggests that the central government is aware of the magnitude of work requested, but still allocates inadequate resources Land laws and laws on forest protection and development, for instance, require that local governments allocate forest land to local households, communities and so forth However, there is no regulation on budget, human resources and other resources in order to implement the allocation activities; this leads to poor or incomplete FLA, as evident in study communes Budgets for forest protection programs and payments to local people were also argued to be insufficient A member of the Forest Inventory and Planning Group (NA #12) noted the “protection management fee …of 200 thousand VND/ha/year is not [enough to] encourage local people to protect forest; they have to look for alternative income from forests” This responded pointed out that policies for forest protection and development will be challenged if the incentives provided cannot provide for peoples’ livelihoods Overall, respondents, but particularly provincial authorities, often cited lower level government capacities as major concerns Nevertheless, they were less likely to recognize contributing factors that limit the effectiveness of decentralization polices, such as conflicting interests or the political vision of central government, as will be seen below 3.3 Risks surrounding land use decisions Currently, land use planning are preparing by top down from the provincial levels to district and commune levels The chairman of provincial people committee has the highest power to approval land use planning of the whole province which is submitted from departments The existing process have several risks/weakness because of inadequate information and consideration during the preparation process particularly the local condition and engagement of different stakeholders, the land use plan is commonly not suitable to the real conditions of locality that cause low feasibility for implementation of land use plan (NA#47) The lack of manpower at local levels is the main constraint of ineffective land use planning process (NA#44) The goal of land use policies is to improve local livelihoods The biggest challenge is to ensure food security of people who live near the forest Because most of them are relying much on the forest (NA#12) Currently, food insecurity are often observed in the case studies of Nghe An, normally they are often lack food about 4-5 months a years (NA#27, #31, #35, #37, #40) The shortened fallow length and decrease in swidden fields has led to food insecurity to local people because the main source of income is from rice production (Nguyen et al, 2010) Intensive agricultural production to ensure food security will reduce the pressure on forest (NA#45) The food insecurity of the households who lost their land by the HPP are clear evident (NA#23, #42) The environmental pollutions such as water pollution which is caused by the HPP and factories in the villages Currently many people in the Mac village, Thach Giam commune are facing unclean water for their living The water pollution caused by Tan Hong company is reported on the local authorities The HPP constructions and reduce forestland are the main cause of water pollution and lack of water Ms Anh, (NA#25) a village leader of Mac village said that “The people are very frustrated because they not have domestic water, the river water is very polluted, but they have to take it Water quantity loss is caused by the deforestation in the upper-stream” Conclusions Decentralization, in the form of deconcentration, has increased the responsibilities of lower levels of government in Vietnam Lower level governments largely implement higher level government policies, but provincial governments are now seen as having important influence over decisions about land and land use, particularly through the land use planning and classification process Although these plans must be approved by the central government provincial governments are seen as playing an important role, at least, in determining how policies will be implemented locally If policies from the central government are contradictory, this suggests that provincial governments may, thus, have very important influence on forests and local livelihoods Other levels of local government are more limited, both in terms of their decision making power and in terms of their technical, human and financial capacities Nevertheless, commune governments have a mandate to bring the voices of local people to the district level and are seen as intermediaries for higher level government decisions (Trung et al 2015) Commune and district governments are crucial for delivering and implementing policy but also in a bridging accountability of the government to the local people, however their ability to this will remained constrained if they afforded scarce power to influence such decisions, as will be seen in the next section With regard to coordination between and among levels of government, there are calls for clearer policy guidelines from higher to lower levels, while leaving room for local discretion to adapt policies appropriately - that is, for greater accountability There are also calls for greater collaboration and information exchange and more effective land use planning The outcomes of forest and land use policies appear to be driven by (i) will, interest and attitudes of influential actors to promote forests over other land use goals, (ii) the effectiveness of coordination and coalitions amongst those actors and between these actors and local communities; and (iii) local people’s understanding of pros and cons of these land uses, and their confidence and right to accept or reject these land use changes Although decentralization in Vietnam has given more decision-making power to the provincial government, in the context of an important platform for land use negotiations, the real power still lies in the hands of the central government Acknowledgements This research is part of CIFOR's Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (www.cifor.org/gcs) The funding partners that have supported this research include the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) References Larson, A.M., Petkova, E (2011) An introduction to forest governance, people and REDD+ in Latin America: obstacles and opportunities Forests 2(1), 86-111 Leisz, S.J, Ginburg, R.F., Nguyen, T.L., Tran, D.V., Ramussen, K (2011) Geographical Settings, Government Policies and Market Forces in Upland of Nghe An At the Upland Transformations in Vietnam, editors by Thomas Sikor, Nguyen Phuong Tuyen, Jennifer 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Land Use Change in Nghe An province Nghe An province, formal known as Nghe Tinh province was established in 1991 when Nghe Tinh province divided into Ha Tinh and Nghe An province Currently, Nghe