Participatory Watershed Management PWM Project

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Participatory Watershed Management (PWM) Project
Community visions for watershed management
Linking forest and land use management to
economic development through community planning
Presentation at National
workshop Linkages of Forest Protection,
Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction- Issues
and Approaches in Vietnam Hà n?i, 2009
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Basic information

• Bá Thu?c is a mountainous district of Thanh Hoá
  with
• Total population
• 104.141 Per. (22.405 Hhs)
• 03 ethnic groups Mu?ng, Thái, Kinh who are
  living in
• 23 com./ town (226 villages)
• Total areas
• 77.522 ha
• Agriculture land 60.697 ha
• Including forest land 53.215 ha

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Introduction

• Participatory Watershed Management (PWM) Project
  is under the Civil Action for Social Inclusion
  (CASI) program of CARE International in Vietnam
• Implementation period
• 1/2007 12/2009
• Location 6 communes (Ban Công, Tân L?p, H?
  Trung, Luong N?i, Luong Trung và Luong Ngo?i) of
  Ba Thuoc district.

Project areas
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Immediate Objectives

• Participatory natural resource management and
  livelihood improvement systems operationalized in
  three watershed communities of Ba Thuoc district.

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Participation and sustainability

• PWM project using an inclusive, participatory and
  equal process, in which communities are presented
  with opportunities to
• develop a common understanding of the area and
  environmental issues,
• raise awareness,
• foster forums for discussion and
• access capacity building based on development
  visions identified by the communities themselves
  
• PWM project focuses on empowerment of communities
  to advocate their needs, rights and visions in
  regards to external actors and build capacity of
  the local authorities to enable them to better
  support and appreciate community participation,
  knowledge and contributions
• PWM project strengthens existing structures and
  processes, working with both sides of the table
  to foster equal respect and willingness to listen
  
• PWM project supports watershed management and
  protection activities which also contribute to
  improved sustainable agriculture practices.

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Topic for sharing and learning

• Participatory watershed
• management planning

Through visioning approach
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Why do we use visioning approach

• Unlike others, this methodology is
  Goal/vision-oriented thinking using appreciative
  enquiry rather than being problem-oriented
• The visualization of desired future conditions
  helps defining and clarifying the needs for
  change to reach the vision and the obstacles or
  problems in reaching there
• Places the envisioning of desired future
  conditions before diagnosis or action planning
• This methodology is working across administrative
  levels
• Linking between participants (establishment of
  partnerships) by tentatively matching offer
  (actions) of ones with demand (requests) of
  others to co-implement activities for the
  achievement of immediate objectives.

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Step 1 Presentation on current status of natural
resources management in sub-watershed area

• Workshop objectives and giving instructions for
  participants
• Present video clip on the current situation of
  natural resources management in 03 sub-watershed
  areas.
• Present video clip on the watershed management
  project in India implemented by IFAD

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Step 2 Discussion on current situation of
natural resources management in sub-watershed

• Present current situation (difficulties and
  potential) social economic conditions in
  sub-watershed area
• Group discussion on current situation and adding
  information in land use map.
• Present the results from group discussion.

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Step 3 Building vision for sub-watershed

• Participants discussed on What is a vision? Then
  a vision could be long term future situation for
  peoples lives, economy and landscape
• In order to develop vision for sub-watershed,
  participants answer the questions Where do we
  want to go? and how should our environment and
  children be in future? What should we do for
  planning to get the vision?
• Participants present their visions about
  sub-watershed according to their own painted
  pictures.
• Information presented by participants is
  aggregated in Vision statement

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Vision statement of Luong Ngo?i-Luong Trung
sub-watershed

• We wish we would have a happy life. Natural
  resources in the watershed would be preserved.
  Forests would be green forever to give us a
  sustainable eco-environment plants and wild
  animals such as deers, birds would grow and
  develop here.
• The forests would become gold and well-managed,
  exploited, protected sustainable to build our
  country, communes and villages.
• Streams would be full of water all the year round
  and irrigation systems would be built and managed
  to supply water for agriculture, aquaculture and
  water-bird.
• Pumping and electricity system would be available
  to supply enough water for poor families along
  the rivers to irrigate their fields. Clean water
  system for daily activities would be built to
  supply enough water for all people. Roads and
  bridges would be improved to help people travel
  back and forth, and transport goods and
  agro-forestry products.
• People would have income from forests,
  agricultural products and animal raising and
  aquaculture. Higher income would help the
  households build bigger houses and buy more means
  of transport (e.g cars). People would buy lorries
  and drive themselves to transport goods for the
  community with a reasonable price.
• Dan Long eco-tourist area would be built not only
  to generate more income for the villagers but
  also help visitors know more about our customs
  and culture, and then disseminate our image in
  broader scale. Village level factories or
  enterprises would be built and run to create jobs
  and thus bring about more income.
• More schools would be built and there would be
  good roads for children to go to school in rainy
  seasons in convenience. National standard health
  car station would be accessible for the
  villagers. The most remote villages would also
  have electricity.
• Cultural and entertainment areas and sport
  centers would be built to and accessible for
  local people. From the top of the mountains, we
  would see young couples and all families would be
  hand- in- hand, shoulder-to-shoulder and happy
  together.

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Step 4 Develop watershed management plan

• List out the vision from the vision statement
  that link to the current status of the watershed
  areas.
• Group discussion on how to move from current to
  future status by identify solutions/ activities
  and put time frame for the watershed management
  plan
• Present group discussion results and complete the
  watershed management plan.

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Step 5 Organize village meeting to agree on the
watershed management plan

• Watershed management plan is presented by
  community facilitator, then villagers contribute
  their opinions to the plan and agree upon
• Village development plan is prepared based on
  the watershed management plan where sustainable
  land use models and livelihood models is
  prioritized for the economic development purpose.
• Communities show their strong commitments to
  implement watershed management plan to improve
  their living conditions.

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Step 6 Support the implementation and monitoring
of watershed management plan
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• The Model in practice Experience from community
  based sub watershed management system in H?
  Trung-Luong N?i, Bá Thu?c district

Linking forest and land use management to
economic development through community watershed
planning
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Analyze current situation of watershed management
in H? Trung-Luong N?i

• SWOT analysis to assess the current situation of
  watershed management in the community.
• Establishment of sub-watershed management board
  at commune level to implement and monitor
  activities developed in the watershed management
  plan.

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Determine community based watershed management
system in H? Trung-Luong N?i

• Village meetings to determine watershed
  management system based on the watershed
  management plan.
• Watershed management system was further reviewed
  with the consultation from social economic
  development plan at all levels.
• Watershed management board propose agreed
  watershed management system to Ha Trung peoples
  committee for approval.

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The sub watershed plan covers

• Plant forest in watershed areas
• Facilitate communities to develop sustainable
  livelihood models such as SALT, production of
  organic fertilizer
• Facilitate process of establishment of needs
  based interest groups such as chicken raising,
  bee-keeping, bamboo generation, planting rattan
  nursery gardenetc.
• These groups will be further up-scaled its self
  to business enterprises
• Facilitate the establishment process of community
  based watershed management system (E.g. expand
  and repair Bai Moi irrigation dam in Man village
  and redistribute irrigation water to all
  downstream villages).

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Develop benefit sharing mechanism in the
watershed management system

• Watershed management board organize inter-village
  meeting with the assistant from H? Trung commune
  peoples committee (including Tré, Man, C?n và Cò
  Con village) to
• Establish mechanism for sharing responsibility
  of protection and plantation watershed forest,
  and
• Share benefit from Cai stream to Man, C?n và Cò
  con villages.

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Community level payments for environmental
services

• Tre villagers plant and protect the forest at the
  watershed source areas with labour contributed
  from the other 03 downstream villages (Man, Con
  and Co Con) who benefit from the resulting water
  from upstream in the afforestation process .
• In the Bai Moi dam construction process, all 3
  downstream villagers cover the labor input and
  local material for the construction such as
  bamboo, stone, brick and sandetc
• Villagers located at the Bai Moi irrigation dam
  in the middle of the watershed take
  responsibility for the management and operations
  of the dam and irrigation management following
  the community planned construction and repair
  work
• Villagers in Con and Co Con village are
  responsible for the dam maintenance fee in the
  later stages

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Inter-village benefit and responsibility sharing
agreements.
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Lessons learnt so far Difficulties and
challenges

• This is a new model promoted by PWM project,
  communities are not aware of the model
  effectiveness, therefore, it was hard to mobilize
  the participation of communities.
• Local government and communities alike are not
  familiar with participatory processes in which
  the result and plans are determined collectively
  and where land users are equal part of decision
  making. Therefore much awareness raising,
  confidence building and capacity are needed
• Social-environmental impact and potential impact
  of climate change are considered in the
  implementation process only, therefore, watershed
  management plan did not cover climate change
  impact related activities.
• Legal issues such as Land use rights, community
  fees which prevent landscape/watershed based
  planning and benefit sharing
• It takes time and commitment from not only local
  government agencies but also communities because
  model establishment included different stages and
  stakeholders in an unfamiliar process.
• This model has been successfully promoted in
  small scale with the assistant from PWM project.
  However, it takes time to see impact of the model

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Advantages and opportunities

• Mobilize the active participation of communities
  in the process (including feasibility study,
  proposal, implementation and monitoring)
• The watershed management system based on the
  communities' needs, therefore, it has strong
  support and commitment from communities
• This model is developed as an integral part of
  social economic development plan of the local
  communities.
• Contribute to long term environmentally
  sustainable land use management
• Linkage between benefit sharing and
  responsibility to ensure the sustainability of
  the model.

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Advantages and opportunities (2)

• Through application of this methodology, PWM
  project has facilitated local communities to get
  opportunity to raise their voices (including poor
  ethnic women) in the decision making process and
  
• Local communities will share responsibilities and
  benefits when they participate in all the stages
  of planning including watershed management system
  implementation
• In order for better living conditions and
  sustainable management natural resources.

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Participatory watershed management (PWM) project

• Thank you for your attention!