10.1. Organizational development
10.2. Policy making and strengthening
Through administrative reforms, the Government has recently restructured its organizational set-up at the central and provincial levels. There is new the merging of agencies dealing with state administration with emphasis being laid upon the role of the ministries and sectors in state administration and a better definition of responsibilities of the central and provincial (or municipal) authorities under the present process of decentralization.
Based on the above, the former three ministries of Agriculture, Forestry, And Water Conservancy are combined into a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development (MARD), which began to function as such in 1996.
At the provincial level, the three formed separate services of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Conservancy have been also combined into a Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The new MARD in Hanoi is headed by one (1) Minister and seven (7) Vice Ministers in charge of the administrative and the technical development functions of the ministry. MARD office now comprises two (2) groups: (1) the group of department in charge of state administrative responsibilities and (2) the group of specialized departments in charge of agricultural forestry and water conservancy activities. In the latter, there are two departments in charge of forestry activities:
· The Forestry Development Department acting as-an advisory body to help the Minister in his task of technical administration for the establishment, restoration, use and development of forest resources.· The Forest Protection Department helping the Minister implement his administrative function for forest protection, the department at the same time is acting as a central technical and legal agency to enforce the low and to prevent forest low breaking over the whole country.
The re-structuring process does not only improve the efficiency of state administration by the former ministries but also creates conditions for a better coordination of activities for agricultural and rural development (see also the chart showing the organization of MARD).
Since 1986, with the policy of open-door to the outside world and that of encouraging all sectors of the national economy to develop their business the Government has enacted a number of relevant policies: some of them have had a strong impact on forestry development; they are:
a. Land policy
Forest lands are to be allocated to economic entities, not excepting farmer' households and individuals for long term farming following formal procedures and issuing of landuse certificates. After land reception. Local farmers are urged to carry out their land farming with the assistance of a number of other policies related to capital investments by state agencies loans and credit supply under favourable conditions agriculture-forestry extension and not the least taxation (for instance, water used for hydroelectric power generation is subject to a tax, the proceeds, of which is to be invested for watershed management and development).
For the most critical areas, in particular those in which extensive shifting cultivation is still the role, resettlement and sedentarization projects/programmes are being implemented thus helping local farmers to improve their farming system and their living conditions before the clearing of forested area can be made to reduce.
b. Forestry development
The guidelines for development are to shift from resource exploitation to its development from an exploitative forestry by State to a social forestry, using a number of appropriate agroforestry systems. Based upon these guidelines, relevant forest policies have been in force, implemented and then gained impetus.
c. Agricultural and forestry extension
The new approach and practice is being helped to come into existence development, allowing better extension of forestry technologies and agroforestry technologies. New methods and tools at the same time are adopted in agriculture-forestry extension activities/projects: two way communication, exchange of know-how and field experience, participatory approaches in solving problems, thus leading to active adoption of the introduced technologies, effective inputs of labour and resources by farmers and finally to successful establishment of forest plantations, and of agroforest systems. In particular, the state-owned forest enterprises, besides their work of direct management, now have had to carry out technical services to help farmers, establish their agroforest systems, maintain and protect natural forests, and more importantly to market their products, thus cresting conditions for the development of a forestry that looks quite different from that of the 70s.
d. Credit policy
Low interest loans can be grated to farmers for them to establish forest plantations (lower interest rates than those of loans of other kinds).
e. Taxation
Products from forest plantations are liable to landuse tax emanating to only 4% of their values (while products from natural forests can be taxed at 15-40% ad valorum) with tax exemption being granted to products from plantations established by farmer own funds.
However it is time to perfect the incentives and policies mentioned above for the advancement of forestry business.
· The system of combining forest land allocation and forest contracting functions quite well in practice, but the form and contents of the component related to forest contracting should be emended so to better link the benefits from forest and environment conservation with the long-term economic interest of farmers in particular in terms of their incomes.· Some amendment to the taxation system should be made so that the proceeds from "landuse tax" (also called "resource-use" tax) can be ploughed back to better protect, manage and develop the forest resources.
· The credit policy, in particular the term and conditions of which for new forest establishment should be reshaped to make it more interesting to entrepreneurs.
· Incentives should be crested to be better link products processing units and industries with their stabilized raw materials area.
· Study should be made to "close the access to natural forests" in particular those of low standing volume as required by the Government, and draft on the matter should be submitted by MARD as soon as possible not later than the 2nd quarter of 1997 year.
· The law and by laws governing the extraction and transportation of timber from plantations by local farmers themselves should be improved so not to cause much trouble to those involved.
· The policies for the mobilization of people's resources, motivation of local farmers to obtain the necessary resources (capital, labour, technical supplies... are to be thought of and then shaped out).
With the above, it is to be hoped that the way to social forestry and a brighter prospect in forestry development in which landuse in forestry is stabilized and forest management is sustainable, can be opened up.
