The USAID project will focus on biodiversity conservation – restoring degraded ecosystems and protecting large areas of flora and wildlife from development – while giving local residents incentives for resource management.

USAID Promoting Biodiversity While Raising Incomes of Rural Poor

Friday, July 27, 2007

Vietnam and the United States will launch a major conservation program on August 1 that will preserve the biodiversity and improve natural resources management in Vietnam’s largest river basin. The Dong Nai River Basin Conservation Landscape Project, which will be funded by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will also raise the incomes of the region's rural poor.

The goals of the $4-million program in Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Lam Dong provinces include restoring and maintaining the area’s ecosystems, promoting sustainable financing for conservation, improving the livelihoods of poor residents, and strengthening environmental governance and institutional management.

The project will focus on biodiversity conservation – restoring degraded ecosystems and protecting large areas of flora and wildlife from development – while giving local residents incentives for resource management.

Reducing poverty, especially among women living in the heavily forested areas of Lam Dong province, is a primary goal. The region has been designated a pilot province to promote sustainable financing for biodiversity and resource conservation. In return for adopting sustainable land-use practices, upstream villagers will receive payments for environmental services from downstream users. Incomes of those participating are expected to rise by 25%.

"This program creates a situation where both the residents and the environment benefit,” said Jonathan M. Aloisi, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy. “People will earn more without exploiting natural resources."

The project is funded by USAID and jointly sponsored by Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Winrock International, a nonprofit organization specializing in rural development and sustainable resource management. The program will be jointly implemented by the ministry and Winrock with the Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) playing key supporting roles.

These groups plan to establish the legal protocol for generating economic incentives to conserve biodiversity and watershed conservation values in the forest-protected areas. Particular attention will be paid to generating tangible economic benefits from production, protection and special-use forests to offset the opportunity costs of converting them to agricultural use. The project plans to create models that can be replicated across Vietnam and the region through the Asian Development Bank Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative.

FURTHER READING

• Asia Regional Biodiversity Conservation Program (107 KB PDF)
• Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) (85 KB PDF)

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