Hanoi, Viet Nam. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS) are jointly organizing the final workshop on 25- 26 October 2016 in Hanoi, including a field visit to Phu Tho province on the first day, followed by presentation and discussion on the second day at Hoa Binh hotel, Ha Noi, Viet Nam.

“Strengthening Forest Tenure for Sustaining Livelihoods and Generating Income” Project was initiated in October 2014 under a Technical Cooperation Program (TCP) of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and implemented in Cambodia, Nepal and Viet Nam. The project has been jointly undertaken by relevant government agencies in collaboration with other stakeholders. Particularly, Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS) was assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to be the local counterpart in Viet Nam.

The main outcome of this TCP is to strengthen the regulatory frameworks and institutional capacity of the three pilot countries on forest tenure. The ultimate beneficiaries are forest-dependent communities whose livelihoods and income depend on their access to and use of forest resources. In the long run, those communities are expected to have more secure and stronger forest tenure as a key prerequisite for ensuring the contribution of forests to their livelihoods and income. The activities of the TCP were built on previous and existing work of FAO in this topic, including, for example, various awareness raising activities conducted in the past, training on the tenure based on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT), training on conflict management…

To date, the project has achieved significant results and findings and will be wrapped up soon. In order to facilitate the sharing and discussion of such results and findings, VAFS and FAO are jointly organizing a final workshop in Ha Noi.

The key objectives of the workshop are to:Share main results and findings of the TCP intervention, and lessons learnt for future; Share and discuss proposed action plans to address the gaps identified in existing forest tenure policies and institutional capacity; 
Discuss and agree on the way to move forward so as to implement the action plan and strengthen forest tenure in the pilot countries.

Participants in the workshops are representatives from the State management agencies of the project countries, international partners, domestic and international organizations working in the fields of forestry and land tenure, research institutes; and experts, consultants as well as staff from FAO.

For further information about the workshop, please contact:

Vu Tan Phuong, Head of VAFS Training and International Cooperation Department at [email protected]

Vu thi Ngoc Diep, FAO Communication Focal Point [email protected]