UNDERSTANDING FROM POLICY TO REALITY IN IMPLEMENTATION OF FOREST LAND ALLOCATION: INSIGHT FROM TWO CASES STUDIES IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Abstract

Forest land allocation (FLA) policy has officially adopted since 1992 in Vietnam with the aim of forest protection and rural livelihood improvement. Despite having contributions significantly, it is remaining many problems and skepticism on its benefits for the local community, especially ethnic minority groups. This study, therefore, first aims to investigate the implementation of FLA in upland areas of Quang Tri province and then can provide policy-related implications towards sustainable development. Together with depth interviews and empirical notes, a survey of 70 local people was carried out in 2018 at two communes of Vinh Linh district, namely Vinh O and Vinh Ha. The results show that the FLA process in Vinh Ha commune is currently progressing with 5.2 hectares of residential land allocated to 51 individuals/households, each received 0.1 hectares on average, while Vinh O has completed since 2016. More specifically, 520.5 hectares of land have allocated to 243 local people with an average of 2.14 hectares/household. Of these, 55 households have received 0.5-1.9 hectares on average, and 188 households were allocated from 2 to 2.5 ha. Though both local authorities and communities have expressed great efforts, the implementation of policy in the district has been facing challenges because of limited human capacity, complex geography, as well as biased economic policies, and overlap among organizations. The research also shows that in order to achieve better results, flexibility must be accompanied by control and inspection by increasing stakeholder responsibility.