Procedures for making payment for forest environmental services

(Baonghean) - To effectively implement the forest environmental service policy in the province, on May 11, 2016, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Instruction No. 1087 on the procedures for implementing the forest environmental service payment policy (PFES) in Nghe An province.

Do Luong Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. produces acacia seedlings for forest planting. Photo: Hoang Vinh

The guide consists of 6 parts: 1. General regulations; 2. Principles, methods, contents, procedures, and implementation of reviewing boundaries and forest areas in the forest environmental service supply basin; 3. Procedures for preparing district-level forest protection and management plans, plans for using funding sources and plans; 4. Procedures for preparing contract documents and technical designs for forest protection to serve the payment for forest environmental services in the period 2016 - 2020; 5. Procedures for payment and settlement of forest environmental service payments; 6. Implementation organization.

Accordingly, the order and procedures for making DVMTR payment records are as follows:

a) For forest owners who are households, individuals, village communities, and organizations that are not forest owners but are assigned by the State to manage forests.

Step 1. Prepare appraisal and approval of related documents: Based on the Decision approving the basin boundary and forest area in the basin, the district-level forest ranger unit (representatives of district-level payment organizations) coordinates with the commune-level People's Committee and related units to prepare a forest protection management plan according to the prescribed contents. Based on the approved forest protection management plan, the district-level forest ranger unit coordinates with the commune-level People's Committee and related units to prepare allocation and contracting documents; technical design according to the prescribed procedures.

Step 2. Implementation:

- Before July 15th every year, the district-level payment organization shall prepare and summarize the plan and estimate for payment of forest environmental services for the entire district for forest owners who are households, individuals, village communities and forest areas managed by the Commune People's Committee and send it to the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund. The plan for payment of forest environmental services shall be accompanied by: A table determining the forest area providing forest environmental services, a report explaining the payment plan, and an estimate of management costs;

- Compile a list of forest owners who are households, individuals, and village communities and submit it to the District People's Committee for approval after receiving confirmation from the Commune People's Committee. This list is approved at the same time as the approval of the technical design documents for forest protection. Every year, the district-level payment organization reviews and advises on adjustments if there are changes in forest owners or changes in the forest.

- Before December 31, synthesize the results of forest protection and provision of forest environmental services in the whole district (based on reports sent by the People's Committees of communes) and complete the confirmation and compilation of the results of forest protection acceptance and payment for forest environmental services, along with a report sent to the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund as a basis for payment of entrusted forest environmental services payments for the planning year.

- In case of petitions from households, individuals, village communities and in other necessary cases, the district-level payment organization shall preside over and coordinate with relevant agencies and units to conduct acceptance inspections. The report on results must be sent to the provincial Forest Protection Fund before January 15 of the following year as a basis for payment of forest environmental services.

- Coordinate with the People's Committee at the commune level to direct the village chief to publicly post the summary list and forest area of ​​forest owners paying for forest environmental services in the village community or the most convenient public place for people to easily monitor before making payment...

b) For forest owners including management boards of protective and special-use forests; state-owned forest farms/forestry companies; armed forces units; private enterprises; foreign enterprises and other forest owners

Step 1. Prepare, appraise and approve relevant documents: Based on the decision approving the basin boundary and forest area in the basin, the forest owner prepares a forest protection and management plan according to the prescribed contents. Based on the approved forest protection and management plan, the forest owner prepares a technical design dossier for forest protection according to the prescribed procedures.

Step 2. Implementation: Planning and payment records for forest environmental services: Before July 15 every year, forest owners must prepare a plan for payment for forest environmental services and submit it to the provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund along with the records according to specific regulations as follows:

The plan for payment of forest environmental services includes: Report explaining the payment plan; statistical table of the list of contracted households, forest area providing forest environmental services; and management cost estimate.

Sign a commitment to manage and protect forests to provide forest environmental services or review and supplement the annual forest protection commitment (if any) with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Sign a contract or review and supplement the contract appendix (if any) for forest protection (if a multi-year contract is signed) with the contracting parties. The contract must be confirmed by the People's Committee at the commune level. Attached to the contract are: Application for receiving the contract, minutes of handover of the site and map of the forest area contracted for forest protection.

The map of forest area providing DVMTR is attached with the technical design documents of BVR approved by competent authority.

The forest owner shall conduct acceptance testing with the contractor according to the prescribed procedures and send it to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (directly to the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund) before December 31 of the planning year.

- The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development establishes a team and organizes the acceptance of management level according to current regulations. The acceptance team conducts the acceptance according to the prescribed content, summarizes the acceptance results and notifies the acceptance results to the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund, and at the same time reports to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development before March 15 of the following year of the planning year as a basis for settlement of the entrusted payment for forest environmental services of the planning year to the forest owner.

For all information about the Forest Environmental Services Payment Policy, readers can visithere!

Hai Yen(Synthetic)