Social economic aspects in natural resources management in ngoc son ngo luong nature reserve

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT VIETNAM FORESTRY UNIVERSITY STUDENT THESIS SOCIAL – ECONOMIC ASPECTS IN NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN NGOC SON - NGO LUONG NATURE RESERVE Major: Advanced Curriculum in Natural Resources Management Code: D850101 Faculty: Forest Resources & Environmental Management Student: Nguyen Xuan Tung Student ID: 145 309 2337 Class: K59B- Natural Resources Management Course: 2014 - 2018 Advanced Education Program Developed in Collaboration with Colorado State University, USA Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Tran Thi Thu Ha Hanoi, September 23rd, 2018 Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii LIST OF TABLES iv LIST OF FIGURES iv Introduction Goals and objectives 2.1 Goal 2.2 Objectives 3 Site description Methodology 4.1 Collect existing data 4.2 Collect primary data 4.2.1 Structured interview 4.2.2 Semi-structured interview 4.2.3 Observation 4.2.4 Building a PR campaign (July, 2017- July, 2018) Data analysis process 5.1 Accessing the awareness of local people 5.1.2 SWOT analysis Results and discussion 6.1 General situation of social-economic aspects in Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve 6.2 The Local’s livelihood 11 6.3 The local’s participant, awareness, attitude and behaviors in management and using natural resources 13 6.4 Causes that effect to ineffective natural resources management 18 i 6.4.1 Causes from lead agency 18 6.4.2 Causes of people directly involved in natural resources management 19 6.4.3 Causes by people not involved in natural resources management 20 6.4.4 Other causes 21 6.5 Assessing the status of local’s natural resources management projects by SWOT analysis 22 6.6 Solutions to improve natural resources management 24 6.6.1 Raising awareness on natural resources management 24 6.6.2 The solution belongs to the natural resources management board 24 6.6.3 The solution belongs to the local people 25 6.6.4 Natural resources management solutions 25 6.7 PR program 26 6.7.1 Introduction 26 6.7.2 Situation analysis 27 6.7.3 Goals and objectives 28 6.7.4 SWOT analysis 28 6.7.6 Target publics 29 6.7.7 Tactics 29 Conclusion 34 Reference ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS NRsM: Natural Resources Management NTFPs: Non-timber Forest Products SUFs: Special-Use Forests LURC: Land Use Rights Certificate ODA: Official Development Assistance PR: Public Relations iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Staffs’ information Table 2: Patrol routes Table 3: Explaining the terms regarding the dependence of local people on forest Table 4: Incomes of local people depend on natural resources, agriculture Table 5: Respondent’s description Table 6: The role of community in management and using natural resources Table 7: Local’s awareness about protection natural resources situation Table 8: Reasons for people not involved in natural resources management Table 9: SWOT analysis of natural resources management Table 10: SWOT analysis for PR program Table 11: WWWWWH analysis LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The geographic map of Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve Figure 2: Percentage about people awareness of the importance of natural resources Figure 3: Reasons leading to people not involved in natural resources management iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To accomplish the final thesis in my university, in the first place, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Assoc Prof Dr Tran Thi Thu Ha for the continuous support of my thesis, for her patience, motivation, inspiration and immense knowledge Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined that I have a better advisor and mentor for my final thesis Thanks to cooperating between Vietnam Forestry University and Colorado State University, I have an opportunity to approach a reservoir of international knowledge and novel experience I would like to thank the Forest Protection Department, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Management Board of Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Natural Reserve and People's Committee of Hoa Binh province for creating all favorable conditions and supplying all information and data in the process of studying this dissertation Last but not least, this thesis could have never been completed without the support of my close relatives, including my folks and parents because of their encouragement and giving me the favorable conditions during the entire process of doing research and going field works for having my work done Hopefully, in the future, you will achieve many vivid milestones in your career path Because my insight is restricted, this thesis may have several mistakes; I would like to receive the comments from the teachers to help my thesis becoming more complete v ABSTRACT Natural resources contain all natural components, namely land, air, water, energies and minerals in Earth’s womb Human could utilize the benefits of natural resources to meet the demand for variety of human life In positive side, social – economic development would improve environment and costs for rehabilitation However, if social-economic aspects develop quickly, it has detrimental influences on the environment, such as environmental degradation, climate change…When the environment is degraded, it will threaten to a range of social-economic activities and quality of people life Natural resources are special products because people can not yield and most natural resources are created for long time in the past In general, natural resources are valuable, time-honored Hence, it requires people have to save and use effectively Natural resources management is an interdisciplinary field of study that considers the physical, biological, economic, and social aspects of handling natural resources It involves putting resources to their best use for human purposes in addition to preserving natural systems Natural resource managers’ duty include overseeing workers, analyzing data, developing environmental plans and policies in accordance with state and federal law and negotiating land and resources use contracts with landowners and governments This study undertakes to assess social-economic aspects impact on natural resources management and awareness, attitude, behaviour of local people in Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve Determining factors that affect to awareness of local people on natural resources management and proposing radical solutions to raise awareness of local people in Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong region The method I used to research, including collecting existing data, collecting primary data, survey questionnaires It has often been said that the study announces many differences in knowledge, awareness, attitude and behaviour about natural resources management depending on gender, age, occupation, monthly income, and education level Almost, people realize the importance of natural resources as well as natural resources vi management; however, they feel more incline to time-consuming to natural resources protection and lead agencies which should shoulder the responsibility natural resources management and protection The thesis proposed some radical strategies to resolve these issues as establishing environmental propaganda and education about natural resources protection by social media, developing training courses about using sustainable exploitation of NTFPs for local people, adding as criteria to assess the cultural family, guiding people join in reforestation by the guidance from project staffs, local authorities staffs, and volunteers vii Introduction Society has always been developing increasingly and the most key ones is developing economy Hence, natural resources play a significant role in manufacture and economic development in some fields, such as absorbing foreign investment, occupation, income for government, currency values, encouraging to other majors However, overexploitation makes the natural resources have been becoming exhausted increasingly, not only in Viet Nam, but also in many areas on the whole world To prevent, using reasonably and effectively, people need to know the importance of natural resources management and impacts of socialeconomic aspects to NRsM Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve was established on decision 2714 / QĐ UB dated 28/12/2004 of People’s Committee of Hoa binh province, the total area is 16.800 ha, including strict protection area is 12.717 ha, the ecological rehabilitation area is 4.073 ha, the administrative service is 10 Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve is put near the Bu Luong Nature Reserve of Thanh Hoa province to the west and Cuc Phuong National Park of Ninh Binh province to the south In 26/9/2005, the People’s Committee of Hoa Binh province signed the decision no 40/2005/QĐ-UBND to establish Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Natural Reserve’s Management Board under Forest Protection Management Board of Hoa Binh province Management Board went to operation officially in 1/2006 after for a long time to preparation In 25/12/2005, the People’s Committee of Hoa Binh province signed decision no 2790/QĐ-UBND related to approve and sustainable development the Natural Reserves as Hang Kia Pa Co, Phu Canh, Thuong Tien, Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong of Hoa Binh province from 2016 - 2020 According this decision, Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve has total area approximately 19.254 in Tan Lac, Lac Son district of Hoa Binh province There are 11.892 people living in 2.424 households in communes Muong ethnic group accounts for 90%, the remaining is Thai and Kinh ethnic group Of which, agricultural land occupies 16.800 ha, divided into a strict protection zone of 7.223 and 7.623 for ecological rehabilitation zone, 70.62 hectares for administrative services and the remainder for agricultural land and different land stretches across communes Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve establishment aims to protect the forest ecosystem and limestone landscape, to protect plants, animals, genetic resources, to serve scientific research and ecotourism to contributing to social-economic development in the region Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve is the largest nature reserve in Hoa Binh province where remains primary forest on rocky mountain hugely and less impacted by human The place has been presenting for tropical rainforest closed evergreen forest type in southwest of Hoa Binh province It is widely accepted that some international and national scientists assess Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve is one of the highest biodiversity values of the Northwest as well as Vietnam, is an important link to Cuc Phuong National Park to the Vietnam-Laos frontier About animals, there are a total of 93 mammal species, 253 bird species, 48 reptile species, 34 amphibian species and 27 fish species have been recorded in the protection Of these, nearly 60 animal species are listed in the Vietnam Red Book (2007), in Decree 32/2006/ND-CP and in IUCN Red List (2012) in different levels of danger About, plants have 667 species of vascular plants belonging to 372 branch, 140 families, and plant species It is noteworthy that the plants in the area, up to 50 species of native origins from other places have been stable, that is fruit trees, ornamental trees and other type of trees For aforementioned reasons, Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve is always assessed that it plays a significant role in preserving biodiversity of nation and international areas Thereby, in my thesis, I have been conducting the topic, named “Social-economic aspects in natural resources management in Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve” to evaluate life aspects impact on natural resources management, awareness, responsibility, in leading agencies, organizations, local people, the charity, auction photos and drawings is to donate money In the PR program’s strategies and tactics will be divided in two specific major groups In the first place, it is widely accepted that first target publics change awareness, attitude, behaviours of local people living around Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve Another one is that people, organizations will donate money for raising fund forNRsM A substantial part of the campaign budget will be allocated to prepare and print materials of the importance and deriving benefits from NRsM for office workers, local people and environmental-related-funding websites development To encourage students grasp the knowledge, I set up the competitions to assess the insight of problems, change in their awareness, attitude and behaviours Besides, to evaluate the campaign effectiveness, environmental-related-funding websites will be assessed after months running campaign about amount of donated money 6.7.2 Situation analysis From gathered survey and questionnaire, most local people know about the natural resource-related-matters through TV, internet However, they did not understand whole fields profoundly which lead to the degradation of natural resources and how to improve situation totally Currently, Management Board of Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Natural Reserve desire the authorities invest to upgrading rural roads to help people consume agricultural products easily, need the program, projects, models of economic development which support people to work, stable income and reduce the pressure on the natural resources However, to solve these above matters, it costs an immense amount of budget Hence, establish a funding to support for gaps is necessary 27 6.7.3 Goals and objectives The goals of PR program is to improve the awareness, attitude, behaviours of local people and raising fund assist the local people work, stable income, educate for local people, office workers about the importance of NRsM begin at July, 2017 and finish by the end of July, 2018 The objective of PR program is to organize the natural resources training course for Bac Son primary and secondary school with view to helping children grasp the basic information about NRsM 6.7.4 SWOT analysis Table 10: SWOT analysis for PR program Positive Negative Internal Strengths: Weaknesses: factors Have ability to design the websites It is difficult to change the habit and lesson which takes place over a long Experience and support of period of time Management Board of Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve External Opportunities: Threats: factors The support from Japan Volunteer Raising natural resources-managed- Association which has a series of funding is novel concept in Viet experience in NRsM Nam It is hard to have trust in local Use prevalence of internet via people Facebook, Youtube, to inform and educate 6.7.5 WWWWWH analysis 28 Table 11: WWWWWH analysis WHAT With “Natural resources are the source of human life”, aimed inform the real situation and importance of NRsM WHY Raising a fund and increase awareness, attitude, behaviours of people in using and protecting natural resources HOW Organizing training course, exhibition and contributed funding campaign WHERE Tan Lac district – Hoa Binh for the first campaign Online website – All public audiences for the second campaign WHO Collaborative effort by partners and international partners Local leading agencies Tan Lac villagers WHEN June , 2017 Beginning haft-yearly in 2018 6.7.6 Target publics The target public is divided into main groups: First, the target public focuses on Bac Son primary and secondary school is to educate and persuade Besides, the other target publics are community, mass media, local leading agencies, financial organizations, groups and the charity This target is concentrated profoundly because these above targets are groups which could grasp the situation and easy to understand the message, most importantly these organizations could shoulder the responsibility and they will capable of donating money for the environmental funding 6.7.7 Tactics  The first campaign: organizing the training course as an exhibition Bac Son School is combined between primary and secondary students Hence, the information needed to spread over a wide range In addition, I designed lectures in one 29 month with aim is educate the some aspects impact on NRsM, including human activities and economic activities, role of NRsM not only important in Viet Nam, but aslo on entire the world Moreover, preparing to the students some basic concepts in NRsM and radical solutions in the future is to confront Moreover, auction the products such like clothes, and charity activities in the websites - Lecture (1/7/2017) “Tam quan cua Quan ly tai nguyen thien nhien” To provide some basic information about the importance of natural resources and NRsM - Lecture (8/7/2017) “Tac dong Kinh te-Xa hoi den Quan lý tai nguyen thien nhien” To present the real local situations about social-economic aspects influence on natural resources management - Lecture (15/7/2017) “Giai phap khac phuc tinh hinh” Giving the ideas to resolve situation by photos and pictures about NRsM with students or even adults in exhibition To convince the audiences, I will use some pictures and photos provided from Management Board of Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve Students will have a week to grasp the basic understanding about social-economic aspects inNRsM Subsequently, the competition will be organized to test the insight of students about the delivered problems with each answer would be received a gift to encourage the students’ study  The second campaign Following the outcomes of first campaign, I had used for the second campaign Most people in from 15 to 30 aged group, social networking sites are used to contact and keep in touch, especially Facebook and Youtube This mean local people could expose the websites to 30 grasp the basic information about NRsM, as well as updates PR campaign, and contribute money in NRsM-related-websites For the 40 aged group, they are fascinated by traditional media, such as newspapers and magazines Hence, brief notices and advertising about NRsM in traditional media will catch the attention of this aged group All amount of money from PR campaign will be collected by Mr.Bui Van Hung who is the director of Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve’s Management Board, is to maintain advertised, propagandized and educated activities Furthermore, with some local people who have huge contributed money from 100 thousand VND to 200 thousand VND, will receive randomly gifts, including certificate, Tshirt, posters, stickers, free membership cards in the NRsM-related-websites in couple of months  PR products Gifts 31 Handbook Banner Badge 32 Photos and drawings performed in exhibition 33 Conclusion The survey and interview generated some values of findings it can be concluded that even local people have knowledge and awareness, attitude about the importance of NRsM, but they not have the concrete behavior Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Reserve currently faces many potential threats such as indiscriminate logging or land use It is widely acknowledged that local people's lack of understanding of the proper use and management of natural resources They recognize the importance of natural resources as irresponsible in their protection Their protection of natural resources depends on a number of basic life factors, such as age, sex, occupation, educational level, income One can say that this is a low level of education (in Table 5) Therefore, most of them feel time-consuming in the management and protection of natural resources and others follow the habit and their predecessors or they feel protected by natural resources is the responsibility of the local authorities Currently, local people depend on forests for their livelihoods (55% of table 4) because of their daily living needs, although most respondents felt the decline of the natural resources and the majority they all use natural resources Moreover, the average monthly income of local people is less than million and in 2-4 million As a result, they ignore illegal wildlife hunting and logging, even having sophisticated operations to evade forest rangers such as the local people are taken advantage of pochers to sneaky exploitation at night and the use of motorcycles for transport The main livelihoods of local people are mainly dependent on land, natural resources and simple labor In general, the lives of people around the reserve are very difficult In the thesis, I used some methods to gathered the data, including collect exist data, structured interview, semi-structured interview, observation, building a PR campaign 34 In the thesis, there are some permanent cures to resolve the matters in NRsM in Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve, such as propaganda and education about the importance of natural resources and NRsM to local people, develop courses and guide local people to effectively exploit and use natural resources Policies are to assist people in their livelihoods, improve people's lives so that they reduce the immense pressure on natural resources The management board coordinates with local authorities to improve infrastructure, develop tourism, improve the capacity of natural reserve staff, volunteers, apply science and technology in management and protection of natural resources Nevertheless, Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong Nature Reserve had complex terain, low educational level (ethnic miniorities) and manager’s ability that’s why govermnet got difficult to implement the policies to improve situations Moreover, building a PR campaign aims improve the awareness, attitude, behaviours of local people in NRsM PR campaign is implemented in Bac Son primary and secondary school with 40 students are to convey the importance of natural resources management, social-economic aspects impact on natural resources management Besides, organizing a exhibition “Natural resources are the source of human life” to students research about the role of NRsM Another objective is that receiving money donated through leading agencies, organization, charity , group and even local people is to support the local situation, such as natural resources protection, enhance quality of office workers and education, transportation, livelihood, For aforementioned solutions, hopefully, it could deal with some remained matters of local people and indigenous authority as well as Management Board of Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Natural Reserve 35 Reference Phan Vương Thành, 2011, Khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên Ngọc Sơn-Ngổ Lng tỉnh Hịa Bình: Để bảo vệ rừng cần cải thiện sống cho người dân N Phượng, Đại Đoàn Kết, 2014, Khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên Ngọc Sơn - Ngổ Luông: Hướng cho phát triển rừng bền vững - Bài 1: “Nóng” tình trạng khai thác gỗ trái phép VỀ MỤC TIÊU, NHIỆM VỤ, CHÍNH SÁCH VÀ TỔ CHỨC THỰC HIỆN DỰ ÁN TRỒNG MỚI TRIỆU HA RỪNG,1998 Thông tin rừng đặc dụng khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên Ngọc sơn-Ngổ Luông huyện Lạc sơn tỉnh Hịa bình, Ban quản lý khu bảo tồn Ngọc Sơn, Ngổ Luông, 2016 Appendix I: HH Questionnaire Part I Respondent information Full name: Code: ……… Address: Sex: Male • Female • What is your age? □ Under 26 □ 26 – 35 □ 36 – 45 □ 46 – 55 □ 56 – 65 □ Over 65 Education level Illiterate Vocational school Primary school College or University Secondary school Post University High school Other (Please specify………………………….) How many people in your family: persons How much your monthly average income? □ Under million VND □ – million VND □ – million VND □ – 10 million VND □ – million VND □ Over 10 million VND Part II: Awareness of local people on natural resources management and protection Do you aware any resources situation happened in your local area? □ Aware and subscribe □ Not aware If the answer is YES, please give some example: ………………………………………………………………………………… Do you think that you have direct responsibilities for protecting natural resources? Yes No In your opinion, natural resource surrounding you is devastated? Strongly Agree Agree Moderate Disagree Strongly Disagree If the answer is Yes, please explain: …………………………………………………………………………………… Does your family exploit and use natural resources? □ Yes □ No If the answer is Yes, please explain: …………………………………………………………………………………… In your opinion, have local natural resources changed over the last 10 years?? □ Yes □ No □ Unknown If YES, how you suggest change and why: Increase / More Decrease / Less Reason for change: … Do you have free grazing? - Does the area have cattle grazing areas? - Does the village have any regulations on livestock grazing? Did you go to the logging forest? - If yes, how often? - What kind of wood is usually harvested? - What is the purpose often used for? Did you harvest non-timber forest products? - How often? - Name of forest products that you usually collect: - Harvest season: - Are there any upward/downward trends over the last years? From your perspective, who are the main forces of saving and improving the environment? Residents Local environmental agencies District People’s Committees Provincial People's Committees 10 Has there been an education program on this issue in the locality? - If yes, which programs? 11 Are there any policies of committee or district authority of protecting natural resources? …………………………………………………………………………………… 12 Do you have any suggestions for the state authorities to enhance natural resources management and protection at your local area? Appendix II: Checklist for local governments Full name: Age: Position: - What is your job? What is your position in the office? - What is your response? - Do you know that rangers regularly go to the forest to check the status of biodiversity resources? How often the test? - What you think about the management and protection of natural resources with the participation of the community? - Do people implement the plan as expected? - Do you propose any solutions to raise the awareness of local people on natural reources management and protection? - What are the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of management, in dealing with the violations that are currently being encountered? Appendix III: Figures in the field trip ... been conducting the topic, named ? ?Social- economic aspects in natural resources management in Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve? ?? to evaluate life aspects impact on natural resources management, ... contributing to social- economic development in the region Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve is the largest nature reserve in Hoa Binh province where remains primary forest on rocky mountain hugely... 1: The geographic map of Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve Ngoc Son - Ngo Luong Nature Reserve is located on the limestone mountain in the southwest of Hoa Binh Province, which is the middle