Thank you ELLA and all for the knowledge and experience shared! They would be useful for me as I'm also working with community participation approach in our project for adaptation to climate change in the coastal areas. I would like to share here one example from the current work that we are doing here (GIZ Vietnam) in Soc Trang Province in Vietnam. Our GIZ project has supported the provincial government of Soc Trang to implement coastal protection measures including: afforestation, rehabilitation, conservation and management of mangrove forests using co-management methods; stabilisation of banks and rehabilitation of mudflats by building protective structures or breakwaters. What I would like to emphasize here is the method of mangrove co-mangement, which is an example of community-based DRR and more.
"Co-management in a natural resource context is a partnership arrangement in which a resource user group gets the right to use natural resources on state owned land (a defined area) and the responsibility to sustainably manage the resources (including protection). Resource users and local authorities jointly negotiate an agreement on who can do what where, when, how and how much in a particular area of resources which is then implemented and monitored primarily by the resource users themselves. The aim is to provide local communities with benefits through legal and secured access to natural resources in protection forests and at the same time to ensure sustainable use of the resources and effective protection of the mangrove forests."
Effectively managed and protected mangrove forests protect communities from waves, erosion, storm and flooding and provide food, shelter and nursery ground for aquatic species. Moreover, further benefits of mangrove co-management are livelihood improvement, involvement of resource users in resource management decision-making, reduced workload for authorities and benefit sharing as part of an Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) approach.
More information on mangrove co-management can be seen on our project website below.
- http://www.iucn.org/fr/nouvelles_homepage/nouvelles_par_date/?10583/Disaster-Risk-Reduction-through-school-education-IUCN-and-GIZ-work-together-to-assist-disaster-prone-communities-in-Southern-Bangladesh
- http://www.undp.org.mz/en/Newsroom/News/Latest-News2/Innovative-approaches-for-natural-disaster-risk-reduction-in-Vietnam-Mozambican-delegation-brings-home-best-practices
- Vietnam
- http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/EAP/vietnam-disaster/
- http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/EAP/vietnam-disaster-2/
Comments
Samuel Adoboe, Ghana
Posted April 02 at 11:26 (GMT-6)
Wonderful approach of Co-management plus responsibility to
manage sustainably! thank you for sharing this with the group. I would
like to find out what the outcomes have been so far and what is the
duration of the partnership agreements?
Jyotiraj Patra, India
Posted April 02 at 19:52 (GMT-6)
Dear Thuy,
This is indeed an innovative approach to build disaster resilience through natural resource management. I shared a similar initiative being implemented around the Bhitarkanika Mangroves, a Ramsar Site in the coastal state of Odihsa, at the interface of mangrove conservation, disaster risk reduction and livelihood opportunities. One of the major challenge is with regard to identifying and ensuring the involvement and ownership of ‘local resource users’. In recent times coastal Odisha has witnessed large-scale conversion of mangroves and coastal vegetation for commercial shrimp farming and there have been massive financial investments by seafood exporters and other business groups all of who are ‘outsiders’. Community-based initiatives in such situations are often heavily influenced and impacted by these actors who perceive community-management and ownership as a potential threat to their business operations. Wondering if you came across such situations in the mangrove co-management project in the Soc Trang Province.
Thuy Duong Pham, Viet Nam (Vietnam)
Posted April 03 at 18:29 (GMT-6)
Dear Samuel, about the outcomes so far, we had the model developed first in Au Tho B village in Vinh Chau. Due to the success of mangrove co-management in Au Tho B village, since the end of 2011 the co-management model is being expanded to two more coastal villages. More information on the co-management in the pilot village is on the file attached here.
Attachments:
About the duration of the partnership agreement, for my understanding, it is open-ended.
Dear Jyotiraj, we also have some problems with outsiders. But here in Soc Trang, mostly the outsiders are also the poor people who want to catch the aquatic resources (not the rich business groups). Yes, i know it is hard...
