ERPA light source
Going to the villages and hamlets of the border communes of Tri Le, Hanh Dich, Nam Giai, Thong Thu... of the mountainous district of Que Phong on this occasion, you will see many newly completed "small projects" of roads, lighting, cultural houses..., listen to the excited people talk about how they benefited from the policy of payment for greenhouse gas emission reduction, and see in them the connection with Pu Hoat Nature Reserve (BTTN), joining hands to preserve and protect the forest.
Nhat Lan - Vo Hai • December 31, 2024
The land of "thousands of peaches" Pa Khom of the Mong people in the border commune of Tri Le is located precariously on a high mountain. In previous years, to get to Pa Khom was very difficult. Leaving National Highway 16, you had to go up the mountain along a narrow trail, more than 1km long, with a slope of more than 30 degrees. Now, getting to Pa Khom is easier, because most of the trails have been replaced by concrete roads nearly 20cm thick and 3m wide.
On the new road, Party Secretary Va Ba De excitedly said that around mid-2024, Pa Khom village was informed by Pu Hoat Nature Reserve and the Party Committee and government about the implementation of the North Central Region Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA), according to Decree 107/2022/ND-CP. Pa Khom village, consisting of 98 households, was assigned by Pu Hoat Nature Reserve to protect 293 hectares of forest along 1.8km of the border. With the ERPA Program, the forest protection budget was increased from over 100 million VND to 218 million VND, and 50 million VND was supported to build a public work. With this level of support, the community agreed to build a main traffic route.
“Previously, the road to the village was very difficult, during the rainy season it was very slippery, people could not send their children to school because the school was far away, so it was very pitiful for the children. Therefore, when asking for opinions, people all said that the village needed roads the most and suggested building a concrete road to the village…” - Party Secretary Va Ba De said. Then he said, with 50 million VND from the ERPA Program, the village had additional support from philanthropists, a total of more than 200 million VND to buy materials. The construction process was carried out by the villagers, so the new road was completed. And Ba De excitedly said: “There is only one more section to have a concrete road to the center of the village. But like this, people are already very happy…”.
Asked about forest protection work, the Secretary of the Pa Khom village Party Cell honestly said that when the community was contracted to protect the forest, some people still felt uneasy, thinking that the insufficient funding would affect their lives. Therefore, the Party Cell and the Village Executive Committee have been very active in propagating the State's policies to dispel the incorrect thoughts of a part of the people. "If we can preserve the forest, we can preserve the clean environment, preserve the water source for the village, for ourselves, and there will be additional benefits for each family, for the community..." - Secretary of the Party Cell Va Ba De said. We asked, if we receive support next year, what projects will we choose to build? Mr. Va Ba De replied: "This needs to be discussed with the people to reach a consensus. If we do not consult with the people, the efficiency will not be high. But only necessary projects will be selected...".
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Leaving Pa Khom, we arrived at Tan Thai, one of the villages of the Thai people in Tri Le commune. At 5:15 p.m., the mountainous area in the winter afternoon was covered by the indigo shade of the mountains, but on the winding road in the village, the street lights clearly illuminated the rough mounds of land. Mr. Luong Van Hanh (70 years old), whose house is next to the road, said that the street lights had only been completed for exactly one week, "a welfare project that Pu Hoat brothers did for the people". According to Tan Thai village chief Luong Van Dan, because the main road is still a dirt road, it is difficult for people to travel at night. In particular, the village has Tri Le 1 Primary School and Kindergarten, so it is very difficult for children to review their lessons at night. Therefore, the Party Cell and the village executive committee chose this place to hold a meeting to get people's opinions. With 100% support from the community, the village reported to the Party Committee, the commune government and Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, then completed the procedures to organize the construction of the street lighting system. 40 lamp posts on the main road, more than 800m long, were thus completed, lit from 5pm to 5am the next morning. "With street lights, Tan Thai people are very excited to thank Pu Hoat Nature Reserve. People working far away also posted the news on Facebook to congratulate..." - Village Chief Luong Van Dan happily said.
According to Village Chief Luong Van Dan, the village has 65 households participating in protecting more than 500 hectares of forest. This year, thanks to additional funding from the ERPA Program, they received more than 300 million VND. Most of this money is divided among households participating in forest protection, a part is used to organize forest protection patrols, and a part is used to invest in village infrastructure, and organize events such as Great Unity Day, Spring Opening Day, etc. "With the propaganda from the Party Committee, the government, and Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, and a fairly large and stable source of money every year, people's awareness has changed, they strictly comply with regulations, especially the regulations of the Forestry Law..." - Village Chief Luong Van Dan affirmed.
In the border commune of Hanh Dich, up to now, 6 villages of Long Thang, Long Tien, Hanh Tien, Quang Vinh, Vinh Tien and Chieng have all benefited from the ERPA Program. For example, Long Tien village, which was assigned by Pu Hoat Nature Reserve to protect more than 1,000 hectares of forest, with additional funding from the ERPA Program, the village community received 462 million VND, and was supported with 50 million VND to build nearly 100m of concrete road to the production area. With a house next to the new concrete road, Ms. Vi Thi Minh said that when the community agreed to build the road, she was very happy. Now she is very happy, sometimes she stands and watches the road.
According to Long Tien Village Chief Ha Van Cuong, the cost of road construction materials was 67 million VND, and labor was mobilized from 144 households in the village. Mr. Cuong said: “The amount of 462 million VND will be divided among households, the village will keep 62 million VND to serve forest patrols and some activities. The remaining 17 million VND will be covered by the community's forest protection fund. It is expected that next year, if supported, we will invest in a road lighting system in the village...”.
In Long Thang village, a beautiful wooden communal cultural house with a sa mu roof has just been built. Therefore, the villagers shared the wish to add a corrugated iron roof, both to cool down the people when attending ceremonies and meetings, and to keep the house from being splashed by rain, increasing the durability of the cultural house. This wish has been fulfilled, the corrugated iron roof system is 200m wide.2Surrounding the cultural house was completed before the day the villagers held a meeting to elect a new village chief...
The North Central Region Greenhouse Emission Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA) was signed on October 22, 2020 between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), with revenue from forest environmental services for forest carbon sequestration and storage services, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Revenue from the ERPA Program is paid according to Decree 107/2022/ND-CP to communities contracted to protect forests in the North Central provinces, and supports livelihood activities with a rate of no more than VND 50 million/community/year.
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Nghe An is one of the six provinces in the North Central region that implemented Decree 107/2022/ND-CP quite early, but there are many regulations that, when compared to reality, have problems and shortcomings, which take a lot of time to analyze and clarify. It is even necessary to synthesize the problematic contents to propose to the Central agencies to review and provide guidance. It is not until mid-2024 that the ERPA Program will really begin to be deployed to beneficiaries. Therefore, what is seen and heard from the border villages of Que Phong is really interesting.
Contacting the Pu Hoat Nature Reserve Management Board, Director Nguyen Van Sinh discussed that in the context of limited budget capital for forest management and protection, sources from forest environmental services, replacement forest planting, especially sources from the ERPA Program are extremely important. Having more resources from the ERPA Program will contribute to reducing pressure on the state budget, improving livelihoods, increasing income and living standards for people participating in forest protection, especially people in mountainous areas such as Que Phong border district, thereby contributing to maintaining security, national defense, social order and safety, and increasing forest cover. Therefore, Pu Hoat Nature Reserve identified the implementation of the ERPA Program as an important task to proactively take early action. As early as January 2024, Pu Hoat Nature Reserve selected personnel to establish a Steering Committee and developed a detailed work plan for each member to organize implementation.
As Party Secretary and Director of Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, Mr. Nguyen Van Sinh is responsible for the general direction of the implementation of the ERPA Program. During the discussion, he mentioned a lot about implementing projects to support livelihoods for the communities of villages and hamlets. According to him, this is a "difficult" but "good" content, although the support level for a project is only 50 million VND, but if it is done, it will have a great spread among the people, supported by local Party committees and authorities. This thought has stuck with him since approaching Decree 107/2022/ND-CP, because the projects are implemented from the people's wishes, by the people themselves planning the implementation until completion, the Party committees, authorities and related organizations such as Pu Hoat Nature Reserve only carry out the steps of preparing documents, supervising the implementation, acceptance and disbursement according to regulations. From thought to action, the staff of Pu Hoat Nature Reserve has taken action, and up to now, 44 villages and hamlets of 9 communes in the mountainous district of Que Phong have completed 44 high-quality community works.
Director Nguyen Van Sinh said: “Implementing community projects is for the people. We think that helping people is also helping ourselves. When people benefit and have their difficulties reduced, they will have more trust in the Party Committee and government, and become more closely connected with the staff and employees of Pu Hoat Nature Reserve. Therefore, we have researched and exploited all policies so that people can benefit. In recent years, Pu Hoat Nature Reserve has applied policies for special-use forests to implement a number of community projects, so we have gained some experience. When the superiors implemented Decree 107/2022/ND-CP, we focused on research early, made careful preparations, and achieved some results…”.
According to the Nghe An Forest Protection and Development Fund, Pu Hoat Nature Reserve is a bright spot, the only unit that has basically completed 100% of the plan. Here, the leadership is resolute, the staff is proficient in their work, and has good preparation so that when the ERPA Program is implemented, it can be quickly deployed to beneficiaries. The completion of 44 livelihood support projects has been highly recognized by the Party Committee and authorities of Que Phong district and the communes in the area.
(Nghe An Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund)
On November 26, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to deploy the National Forestry Planning for the period 2021 - 2030, taking into account the year 2050. At this conference, the speech of the former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, mentioned the working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change; comparing the province's forest cover of 58.3% with the average forest cover of 43% of the whole country for in-depth analysis, affirming that Nghe An is shouldering a great responsibility for the country, and needs to have equal policies. Because according to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, it is time to not look at forests in terms of forest products, but in terms of global environmental issues, the issue of human survival.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Sinh, when talking about forest use, people now talk about the multi-purpose nature of forests, not just the value of forest products. Specifically, the value of environmental services, tourism, or medicinal plants... In particular, the world's trend is leaning towards the environment through the trading of carbon credits. This trend is opening up huge benefits from forests for Vietnam. From 2025 to 2027, Vietnam will pilot the carbon market to officially come into operation in 2028. By this time, the benefits from forests are huge, becoming the main source of income and being stable and sustainable.
Therefore, large areas of natural forests, mainly concentrated in areas where ethnic minorities live, are of particular value and need to be protected. Therefore, to ensure the preservation of these large areas of forest, there must be policies to ensure the livelihoods of ethnic minorities, and policies for forest protectors. “For example, the ERPA Program, which is the first step in testing the Government’s carbon market for 6 provinces in the North Central region, is truly a source of light for those participating in forest protection…” - Director of Pu Hoat Nature Reserve Nguyen Van Sinh shared.
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