THE PROJECT FOR AFFORESTATION ON THE COASTAL SANDY AREA IN SOUTHERN CENTRAL VIETNAM (PHASE II)

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THE PROJECT FOR AFFORESTATION ON THE COASTAL SANDY AREA IN SOUTHERN CENTRAL VIETNAM (PHASE II)

I. General information:

1. The project is under the Grant Aid Program by the Government of Japan, which is implemented by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

2. The Exchange of Notes were signed by Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat.

          - The first time was on November 20^th, 2008 about the basic design of the project.

          - The second time was on July 6^th, 2009 about the project implementation.

3. The project reforests 414.49 ha of coastal protection forest in 05 communes of Duc Pho district, Quang Ngai province.

4. Implementation duration: 2010 - 2014.

5. Total project budget: 105,081 million VND, equivalent to USD 5,073,194:

         -  Non-refundable aid: 385,564,000 Yen, equivalent to USD 4,728,000

         -  Reciprocal capital: 7,150 million VND, equivalent to USD 345,194

(The exchange rate is applied as the announcement of the Ministry of Finance in May 2011)

6. Project’s objectives

6.1: Overall objective:

         Reforesting 414.49 ha of coastal protection forest in Quang Ngai to eliminate damages by sand moving and typhoon from the sea in order to protect people, village, the residential area and the cultivating area; as well as minimization of damages to National Highway No.1 and railways, which play an important role for transportation in Vietnam, and other infrastructures.

6.2: Specific objectives:

+ Improving agricultural productivity of the area behind the planted protection forests. Creating favorable conditions to use the waste land and badlands which have not been used for agricultural production and fuel-wood plantations.

+ Creating job opportunities and income for local people through forest planting, tending and protection.

+ Providing fuel and organic products for local people through management and effective use of coastal protection forests.

+ Contributing to improve biodiversity, environmental protection on the coastal area in ​​Southern Central.

II. The results of project implementation

1.     Reforesting 414.49 ha of forests.

2.     Construction of 15.19 km of operation roads.

3.     Construction of 1 lookout tower in Pho Vinh commune, Duc Pho district.

4.     Construction of 07 big and small size of signboards:

-         02 type 1 - signboards in 02 districts of Quang Ngai province.

-         05 type 2 - signboards in 05 communes of Duc Pho district.

III. The impacts of the project

Although the project has been only implemented for 5 years, the project’s planted trees in many locations have grown well (especially in Pho Vinh commune), hence the project had positive impacts about economy, society and environment on the invested area. Specified as below:

1. Economic impacts:

          Before implementing the project, due to the severe weather conditions, wind blowing strongly, sand moving, the field and crops were damaged. Since the forests were planted until now, the planted trees have grown vigorously and had dense of foliage, which created protection forest ranges in order to stop sand moving, therefore the abandoned fields have been used to increase agricultural production area, which contributed to change the land use structure, transform the plantation structure, increase the forestry land area, change the economic structure in a positive way, diversify jobs, raise the individuals and households’s income in the project communes.

2. Social impacts:

          Thanks to the protection forest ranges which help to minimize the damages of typhoon and strong wind from the sea so as to protect trees, houses, farms, the achievements of labour in planting rise, corn, yam, cassava, as well as protect cattles, chickens, ducks… make people not to emigrate. Due to the training courses, propaganda, the project helped to improve the awareness and information approach ability of communities, affect the jobs, labor, rural career structure, narrow the gender inequality, attract people’s interest in joining project.

          In addition, the project forests also contribute to protect civil and national construction, railways, roads …

Especially, when the tsunami occurred, the windbreak trees  play an important role in minimizing damages by tsunami.

3. Environmental impacts:

          The PACSA2 project reforested 414.49 ha in Quang Ngai province, contributing to increase forest canopy density and biodiversity, improve soil erosion and land degradation, maintain and protect the quality and reserve of water, have positive impacts on the environment and marine creature protection.

          Thanks to the protection forest ranges, the environmental problems have been eliminated such as: sand moving, wind blowing strongly from the sea, especially if tsunami happens.