Nguyen - The Southeast has nearly 10,000 hectares of protected areas and special-use forests destroyed each year 104. The most recent is the serious destruction of special-use forests in Ba Na - Nui Chua in Da Nang, the public destruction of Nam Cat Tien protected areas in Dak Nong, and the destruction of Phu Quoc PRH.... The cause of deforestation comes from many reasons, first of all from the ineffective management of the Management Boards. With limited operating funds, a small force and having to maintain control of a relatively large forest area at high risk of encroachment due to many valuable plant and animal species growing in the forest, causing many difficulties for functional forces in forest protection work. On the other hand, the Management Board of Forest Protection and Development, as a forest owner, is inclined towards State management. The regime of "benefiting" from the forest they are managing is almost non-existent (limited forest exploitation, no transfer, capital contribution, or guarantee of forest use rights like other forest owners). This not only makes the Management Boards unable to fulfill their obligations to the forest, but sometimes also explains why they are forest owners but violate regulations on forest protection and development.
For rural communities, in the Asia-Pacific region, many countries such as Cambodia, Bhutan, Indonesia, Thailand, etc. also apply the method of allocating forests to local communities in forested areas as an effective forest conservation measure 105 . In Vietnam, by the end of 2013, nearly 600,000 hectares of forest, accounting for 4.3% of the total forest area in the country, had been assigned to communities for management nationwide, of which natural forests accounted for the vast majority of up to 96%, and planted forests accounted for only 4% 106 . The State's allocation of forests to rural communities not only contributes to improving forest management, protection and development but also creates opportunities for economic improvement and increased income for a certain community from forestry production combined with ecotourism. These achievements are undeniable through the typical example of forest allocation to communities in Phu Loc district - Thua Thien Hue province 107 . However, after a period of implementing the policy of allocating forests to village communities, some significant shortcomings have been revealed in practice:
Firstly , one of the important bases for allocating forests to a community is based on the influence of the forest on a certain group of people, especially in terms of culture, beliefs, and long-standing traditions associated with spiritual life such as sacred forests, ghost forests, forests providing traditional forest products for
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104 Cao Nguyen, "Every year 31,000 hectares of forest are lost", http://nld.com.vn/thoi-su-trong-nuoc/moi-nam-mat- 31000-ha-rung-20111022103614836.htm, accessed on July 13, 2015
105 Gia Minh, "Community Forests: A Way to Conserve Forests", http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/programs/ScienceAndEnvironment/com-fores-way-to-conser-
12152013052944.html, accessed on July 2, 2015.
106 Decision 3322/QD-BNN-TCLN
107 Le Quang Vinh, Ngo Thi Phuong Anh et al. (2012), "Evaluation of the effectiveness of community forest management in Phu Loc district, Thua Thien Hue province", Journal of Science - Hue University , No. 6, p.230
The community is mostly of ethnic minority communities. The problem is that when managing forests, these ethnic communities often do not apply the current forestry laws of the State but often use traditional customary laws from the past, causing many difficulties for forest management agencies to synchronously implement planning, management and protection plans for forests in the area. On the other hand, the limitation of legal awareness also makes many models of forest allocation to residential communities difficult to succeed in practice when it is impossible to design a specific forest development plan to operate activities in the community forest in accordance with current legal regulations.
Second , the general economic conditions of communities in forested areas are relatively low, while the forests assigned to communities are poor, low-reserve forests, and limited budget support sources also cause many difficulties for forest regeneration activities.
Third, the village community is recognized by the State for the right to use, protect and develop forests like other forest owners, but is not recognized as a forest owner, and is not allowed to transfer or contribute capital using the value of forest use rights invested by the community.
Third, regulations on the authority to make plans for forest protection and development and change forest use purposes do not meet the requirements of forest capital conservation.
Regarding forest classification, the current management and protection of forests according to 3 types of forests: protected areas, special-use forests, and productive forests creates many difficulties for the development of strategies, planning, and plans for forest protection and development in each locality because it is difficult to accurately determine the type of forest, many areas have forests but the forest area is divided into many types interspersed, not concentrated. In addition, each type of forest itself has protective functions, nature conservation and can be put into production and service business, but the division into 3 types of forests has absolutized the functions of each type of forest, not only making it difficult for forest owners to promote the effectiveness of forest management and use, but also not really consistent with the international forest classification.
Regarding planning, forest development and protection plans, forestry management agencies at all levels such as the General Department of Forestry and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development are specialized agencies but have not participated much in planning, forest protection and development plans in each locality or supported the People's Committees at all levels in appraising, approving, adjusting the content of planning and plans; deciding to establish forests. This makes it difficult for planning and plans to ensure their suitability with reality.
In addition, the People's Committee at the commune level is very limited in terms of professional capacity of staff, low operating costs, and a thin force, but the authority to make plans and plans for forest use in the locality is unreasonable.
Regarding the conversion of forest use purposes, our country's Law on Forest Protection and Development is quite open about planning, plans, and granting autonomy to localities, including the conversion of forest use purposes to suit the development goals of that province. Currently, most provinces are aiming for economic development, which has led to the consequence that in 2013, 37 provinces converted 9,528.48 hectares of forest to other non-forestry purposes, including: mineral exploitation 1,014.99 hectares; hydropower 332.71 hectares; irrigation 451.41 hectares; road construction 461.57 hectares; tourist areas and golf courses 13.79 hectares; industrial parks and ports 37.21 hectares; agriculture 2,868.57
ha; security - defense 136.01 ha; other purposes 4,212.23 ha 108 .
For projects that require conversion of forest use purposes, when submitting projects, units must simultaneously have an environmental impact assessment report, have a plan for compensation and site clearance for the forest, ensure that new forests are planted to replace the forest area that will be converted to another use purpose with the approval of competent authorities or must pay money to the Forest Protection and Development Fund 109. However, for hydropower projects alone, by October 2013, the area of planted forests to replace the forest area when converting forest use purposes only reached 13% (2,571 ha/19,805.3 ha) 110 and no hydropower project investor has paid money to the Fund 111. In addition, the locations of hydropower projects are mostly in high mountainous areas and upstream areas, so the converted forest area is mostly natural forest; On average, a hydroelectric plant needs 59 hectares of forest, while Vietnam has nearly 834 large and small hydroelectric projects112 , so there are nearly 20,000 hectares of forest, including 3,060 hectares of protected areas and 4,411 hectares of special-use forests that must be given up for hydroelectric plants113 (statistical data up to 2013).
There are many reasons why it is difficult to implement forest restoration measures after changing the purpose of use in practice, according to Circular No. 24/2013/TT-BNNPTNT of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued on May 6, 2015, regulating replacement forest planting when changing the purpose of use of forests to other purposes in Clause 1, Article 3: "Organizations and individuals who are project owners who change the purpose of use
108 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (2013), Forestry sector development report 2013 , Hanoi, p.12
109 Clause 5 Article 29 Decree 23/2006/ND-CP
110 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (2013), op. cit. (108), p.12
111 Hieu Lam, "There has been no money in the post-hydropower forest development fund", http://baodatviet.vn/kinh- te/doanh-nghiep/chua-co-dong-nao-ve-quy-phat-trien-rung-sau-thuy-dien-2358982/, accessed on July 12, 2015.
112 Duy Quoc, "A hydroelectric plant lost 59 hectares of forest", http://baodatviet.vn/kinh-te/doanh-nghiep/chua-co- dong-nao-ve-quy-phat-trien-rung-sau-thuy-dien-2358982/., accessed on July 12, 2015.
113 Thu Suong, "20,000 hectares of forest "devoured" by hydropower", http://nld.com.vn/thoi-su-trong-nuoc/20000-ha- rung-bi-thuy-dien-ngon-20121031100457303.htm, accessed July 12, 2015.
"Forests transferred to other purposes are responsible for organizing the establishment of alternative forest planting plans" while these project owners do not have any functions or professional expertise in forestry, this significantly affects the quality of the plan, the time waiting for appraisal and approval from competent authorities; finding suitable land to plant new forests to replace the previous forest area is also not easy due to problems with planning and forestry land plans; to overcome the above difficulties, the State allows project owners to choose to pay money to the Forest Protection and Development Fund, but due to the lack of regulations on payment deadlines and penalties for late payment, project owners often delay even though they have received the forest.
The conversion of forest use to other uses without effective plans to regenerate lost forest areas is rapidly degrading forest resources, especially for natural forests that, once fully exploited on a large area, will have no chance of recovery, causing negative impacts on the environment in the future. On the other hand, the benefits gained from forest conversion projects have not really compensated for the damage caused by deforestation. The State needs to develop more specific and practical plans to both ensure land funds for building infrastructure for economic development and well preserve forest resources in our country.
Fourth, some shortcomings in legal regulations on forest allocation and leasing
Currently, economic organizations are assigned to use natural forests with forest use fees, but most of the forests assigned to these forest owners are poor forests, restored forests, which cannot be exploited for a long time and require a large amount of capital to develop the forest. Moreover, when exploiting forests, forest owners have to pay resource tax, so it is not appropriate to still require economic organizations to pay forest use fees for this type of forest when the benefits from the forest are not yet available.
The legal content of the right to use and benefit from natural forests has not been clearly and transparently regulated in legal documents, especially the relationship of interests between the state - as the representative of the owner of natural forests and the forest owner as the person to whom the state has assigned the right to use forests through the form of forest allocation and forest lease. Forest allocation and lease policies are often oriented towards protecting natural resources rather than protecting the assets and legitimate interests of forest owners.
The Law on Forest Protection stipulates that domestic organizations, households and individuals who are leased forests by the State must pay annual forest rent, while foreign organizations and individuals and Vietnamese people residing abroad can choose to pay forest rent.
annually or pay once for the entire rental period. This leads to inequality between domestic organizations, households and individuals and foreign organizations and individuals.
2.3 Directions for improving laws on forest ownership in Vietnam
First, build a support mechanism for RSX owners who own planted forests.
The State's guiding viewpoint in the current period is to "encourage organizations, households and individuals of all economic sectors to invest in forest planting and forest product processing in accordance with the provisions of the law on forest protection and development" so that by the end of 2015, the whole country will have 5 million hectares of forest land, an average of 250 thousand hectares per year 114 . To achieve this goal, the State needs to pay attention to overcoming difficulties for forest land owners and create opportunities to recognize the ownership of forest land for organizations, households and individuals who have a need to use forests but still lack certain conditions. Specifically:
Regarding financial issues , instead of implementing the current 115 capital support mechanism (post-investment support and investment support), the State should promote the establishment of priority loan sources, lending at preferential interest rates for a long period of time, forest owners can repay the loan after the forest has been exploited, seek foreign support sources such as ODA, capital for development projects under the AR-CDM mechanism, REDD+... and then transfer it to domestic entities that still lack capital for forest development. Replicating re-lending models that have achieved certain successes such as the Forestry Development Project model supported by the World Bank has brought strong economic efficiency, positive social and environmental impacts to communities. Implemented from 2005 to 2015 in the provinces of Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, Thua Thien Hue, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa, more than 43,000 households have had access to low-interest loans and technical support to plant more than 76,500 hectares.
We use forest land use rights as collateral for loans 116. It should be noted that
These measures are not about the State subsidizing owners of State-owned forests, but are aimed at transferring ownership of RSX as planted forests to organizations, households, and individuals, or supporting RSX owners as planted forests to feel secure in developing their forests. Because compared to forest owners who only have the right to use the forest,
114 Articles 1 and 2 of Decision 147/2007/QD-TTg
115 Article 4 Decision 147/2007/QD-TTg: "1. Post-investment support: is a form of support in which organizations, households, individuals and communities with land planned as production forests organize their own forest planting. After the planted forest is accepted, the State will pay the forest planters the support capital according to the provisions of this Decision.
2. Investment support: is a form of partial support of investment capital from the state budget for organizations, households, individuals and communities to plant forests."
116 "Supporting sustainable forestation in Vietnam",
http://www.worldbank.org/vi/news/press-release/2015/03/27/supporting-sustainable-forest-plantations- in-vietnam, accessed July 15, 2015
Owners of planted forests always invest and protect the forest area they are managing better when their interests are linked to planted forests.
Regarding farming techniques , currently, depending on conditions and circumstances, localities have organized forestry extension and forestry guidance facilities, but most of their activities are formal and irregular, so they have not yet demonstrated an important role in accompanying forest owners in developing forests. To solve this problem, Vietnam can learn from Finland - one of the most successful countries in implementing sustainable forest protection and management.
sustainable with more than 74% of its forest area privately owned 117 . The country builds
Forestry services nationwide are divided into two parts, one part is to support state forests and the other part is responsible for monitoring and supporting private forestry activities, including supporting forest owners in planning forest development, teaching forest cultivation and care techniques to meet standards to obtain Forest Certification according to EU Common Standards 118. The model of both lending capital and providing technical support of the Forestry Development Project supported by the World Bank in the Central provinces is also worth learning, when owners of planted forests can earn high profits from the forests they have invested in, even meeting the standards for obtaining international forest certification.
Second, amend and supplement legal provisions related to State forest coordination activities.
Change the regulations on forest classification, still based on the purpose of use but only divided into two types (1) Production forest or economic forest, including the entire area of production forest, important and less important PFES 119 currently and (2) Protection and conservation forest, including the entire area of special-use forest and very important PFES currently. The new classification method is relatively consistent with international regulations, convenient for unified and unified management, creating conditions for expanding specialized production forest. To gradually reclassify State forests, it is necessary to convert less important PFES areas to production forest but still ensure their protective function 120 .
117 Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (2006), Forests and Forestry in Finland , Filand, pp.1-2
118 Sofia Hirakuri, "How Finland made forest owners follow the law", www.cifor.org/online-library/polex-cifors-blog-for-and-by-forest-policy-
experts/english/detail/article/1222/how-finland-made-forest-owners-follow-the-law-1/browse.html., accessed July 1, 2015.
119 Very vulnerable areas: Including places at the headwaters, with steep slopes, near rivers, near lakes with high risk of erosion, with the highest requirements for water regulation.
Critical areas: Including places with average slopes, erosion levels and water regulation, places with conditions for combining forestry production development, with high requirements for land protection and land use. Less critical areas: Including places with low slopes, low risk of erosion, water flow and other environmental incidents. - According to Decision 61/2005/QD-BNN of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development dated October 12, 2005 on promulgating regulations on criteria for classifying protective forests.
Enhance the role of specialized forestry agencies in planning activities, forest protection and development plans, forest allocation, forest leasing... It is necessary to abolish the planning and planning authority of the People's Committee at the commune level.
Requires the establishment of a unified legal regime for forest resources and the legal regime for forest land by establishing a legal framework regulating the coordination and responsibilities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in planning and developing forests in conjunction with planning and using forestry land, ensuring the timely issuance of land use right certificates with the allocation of forests to organizations, households and individuals .
The State should allow domestic organizations, households and individuals to choose between two forms of forest rental: one-time rental payment and annual rental payment to prioritize maximizing the opportunity for domestic forest owners to access forests first as well as attracting investment capital into forests.
To avoid the current situation of forest resource degradation due to forest conversion to other purposes, it is necessary to have stricter regulations on the authority for converting forest use purposes, especially for projects using national parks, nature reserves, landscape protection areas, research forests, scientific experimental forests of 50 hectares or more; upstream protection forests of 50 hectares or more; windbreak and sandbreak protection forests, projects and works that have a major impact on the environment or have the potential to seriously affect wave-blocking, sea encroachment, and environmental protection of 200 hectares or more; production areas of 500 hectares or more must be submitted to the National Assembly for decision on investment policies.
In addition, investment projects on converted forest areas are required to prepare environmental impact assessment reports and have written opinions from specialized agencies at higher levels; have the participation of specialized forestry agencies and independent appraisal agencies; have a compensation plan for land clearance of the forest area with the consensus of local communities where the land is converted and coordinate with local authorities to develop a plan to plant new forests to replace the area whose purpose of use has been converted. Only when project owners complete the plan to plant new forests or have paid money to the Forest Protection and Development Fund will they be assigned forests by the State to implement projects according to the registered documents.
Third, socialize forestry, contributing to improving the efficiency of ownership forms for forests.
In the process of restructuring the forestry sector in Vietnam, the policy of socializing forestry is always put first in order to attract investment resources for sustainable forest protection and development.
Socialization in the Vietnamese forestry sector is understood as the widespread participation of social entities such as households, individuals, communities and organizations in carrying out activities of afforestation, forest protection, exploitation, processing of forest products and environmental services, bringing practical benefits to participating entities, while previously these activities were mainly managed and implemented by State agencies, State economic sectors and collectives. 122 . Simply put, socialization of forestry
Forestry means creating equal access to forests for all individuals in society, giving more decision-making power to forest owners who are directly managing forests, and forest owners enjoying more benefits from the forests they invest in production instead of mainly through the activities of state agencies as before.
To gradually improve the socialization of forestry in Vietnam, it is necessary to synchronously implement many solutions, in which the top priority is to promote the allocation and leasing of forest areas without forest owners managed by the People's Committee to forest owners in society. The State should only play the role of managing the activities of forest owners because forests are an important natural resource of the country and at the same time a source of production materials that can bring very high economic benefits if managed and used effectively.
Encourage organizations, households, individuals and communities to invest in forestry production through forestry extension activities, support farmers and communities in terms of seeds, techniques, capital and output so that they can proactively invest in production on the areas of forests and forest land they have received. Increase the autonomy of forest owners in planning appropriate development for their forests regardless of whether the source of investment capital is from the State or private sector.
For the Management Board of the Forest Protection Area and Special-use Forests: To exploit forests according to the sustainable forest management plan, to receive state budget investment for projects in the protection forest; to receive regular career funding from the State and to receive stable forest management and protection funding to organize leasing, contracting, and contracting with local communities, to purchase equipment for forest management and protection; the state budget supports investment for village communities to co-manage the Forest Protection Area and Special-use Forests; to encourage the management board to organize ecotourism in the protection forest or to cooperate with economic sectors to invest in developing ecotourism; to provide forest environmental services to generate revenue for forest management and protection.
122 Nguyen Ba Ngai, "Party and State's viewpoints on socialization in the forestry sector", www.isgmard.org.vn, accessed July 19, 2015.