Consultancy announcement

Position: Team leader for developing GESI mainstreamed Sustainable Forest Management Plans (SFM Plans) for target communities in CFM demonstration sites in Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces for the USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project, RECOFTC Viet Nam

Sub-Activity Code: 1.2.5.1&1.2.6.1 Develop and implement GESI integrated forest management plans for demonstrating CFM communes

Estimated number of consulting days: about 58 person days, from June till September 2022

Application deadline: 5.00pm. Hanoi local time, 10 June, 2022

At RECOFTC, we believe in a future where people live equitably and sustainably in and beside healthy, resilient forests. We take a long-term, landscape-based and inclusive approach to supporting local communities to secure their land and resource rights, stop deforestation, find alternative livelihoods and foster gender equity. We are the only non-profit organization of our kind in Asia and the Pacific. We have more than 30 years of experience working with people and forests, and have built trusting relationships with partners at all levels. Our influence and partnerships extend from multilateral institutions to governments, private sector and local communities. Our innovations, knowledge and initiatives enable countries to foster good forest governance, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

The USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (The SFM Project) will work with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation, the degradation of natural forests, and poor plantation management. The Project will implement a “Green Prosperity” approach that strengthens local communities’ ability to protect their natural resource base and reduce emissions while building a strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods and equitable economic growth.

The SFM Project will work in seven provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam) and focus on five objectives:

• Improve and expand community forest management
• Increase conservation-friendly enterprises in forest-dependent communities
• Increase functionality of law enforcement system for forest crimes
• Improve production forest management practices
• Mobilize domestic resources for forest management and protection

The SFM Project is being implemented during the period 2020-2025 by DAI in collaboration with RECOFTC and Preferred by Nature as partners, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as the counterpart and the Management Board of Forestry Projects (MBFP) as project owner.

RECOFTC Viet Nam is now inviting applicants for a Team leader for developing SFM Plans for target communities in CFM demonstration sites in Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces.

Background

Background

Forest dependent communities’ participation is increasingly recognized as an important factor in effectively maintaining forests. Communities have been engaged into forest management and protection in various forms. Four main types of these engagements include: traditional community forests; introduced community forests; groups of households managing forestlands; and individual households, who all individually own forestland, collaborating in forest management.

Under the SFM Project, the concept of community covers two forms of local people's participation in forest management. The first modality is community forest management (CFM) in which residential communities/villages manage their allocated forests. This also covers the modality where communities manage household’s allocated forests as a community group (community forest household groups). The second modality is community-based forest management (CBFM) in which village communities manage contracted forests with protection forest management boards.

With CFM modality, local communities can access different financial sources, including but not limited to forest protection expenditures, PFES program, NTFP income, joint cooperation/investment and other credit programs to support communities to more effectively fulfill the roles and responsibilities of forest owners under CFM.

In order to strengthen the capacity of communities to manage, protect, sustainable use and develop the allocated forest resources, communities will actively develop SFM Plans with support from The SFM Project. Through this process, communities will effectively perform the role of forest owner to protect the forests, promote multi-purpose of forest, and protect the environment of the forest, increase the supply capacity of forest and ensure the long-term use of forest products, especially NTFPs. Communities can also effectively explore the potential of eco-tourism, cultural tourism, and environmental education. This process strengthens capacity of the community, towards self-sufficiency in part of financial resources through revenue from forest protection, from PFES, from sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products, from organizing ecotourism activities to contribute to economic development, poverty reduction, and sustainable livelihood improvement.

Composition of the consultant team:

In order to carry out the task of developing SFM Plans for communities whose allocated land and forests, the SFM Project recruits a CFM Consultant team including:

• Consultant 01: is the team leader, responsible for organizing, coordinating, assigning, checking and supervising team members during the implementation. The team leader will directly participate in the survey, development of intervention activities, coordinate forest inventory and synthesize the development of sustainable forest management plans for the selected communities.
• Consultant 02: is a team member, responsible for performing forest inventory tasks, with the participation of the team leader and consultant 03.
• Consultant 03: is a team member, responsible for carrying out the tasks of surveying, developing interventions, participating in forest inventory, developing village conventions/ regulations on forest protection and managements.

The CFM Consultant team will also cooperate with Expert on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) to ensure proper integration of GESI considerations into CFM planning processes.

Total expected LOE to develop SFM Plans for target communities who are allocated forests and land in two provinces of Quang Tri and Quang Nam is 164 man-days in which 64 man-days for Quang Tri and 100 man-days for Quang Nam.

Objective of the consultancy

Develop SFM Plans for the communities who are allocated forests through collecting, synthesizing and analyzing information/data according to current regulations in a participatory manner with integration of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) considerations. The GESI integration will need to ensure at least 35% of female and ethnic minorities’ participation into the formulation process who will be promoted to effectively participate into implementation of CFM activities. Women and ethnic minorities are also empowered to be presented in the management boards of CFM demonstration models.

The communities’ Sustainable Forest Management plans will be the basis for the implementation of tasks such as: forest protection and development, sustainable use of forest resources, capacity building for communities to ensure the good implementation of the SFM Plans in the future.

Tasks of the team leader, consultant 01

1. Organizing, assigning tasks, checking and supervising the activities of the consultant team: Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of team members

2. Collecting relevant information and documents:

• Collecting and synthesizing information and related documents to develop SFM Plans for the selected communities:
  
  • Information and data on natural and socio-economic conditions
  • Information and data on the current status of management, protection, use and development of community forests.
  • Other relevant information and documents.

3. Coordinating the implementation of forest inventory tasks:

• Coordinating with the Forest Inventory consultant to perform the following tasks:
  
  • Non-timber forest products inventory,
  • Forest plant inventory;
  • Forest animal inventory;
  • Determination of forest biomass and carbon stock.

4. Developing participatory SFM Plans for the target communities:

The formulation of SFM Plans for the selected communities follows “The CFM Manuals”, in which the target communities will participate in the process of surveying, including detailed interventions identified in SFM plans. The contents of the community’s SFM Plan include but not limited to the following:

• Formulation of a plan for forest protection and a plan for forest fire prevention and fighting
• Formulation of a forest development plan
  
  • Zoning to promote natural regeneration, zoning to promote natural regeneration with additional planting
  • Planting new forests, replanting forests
  • Taking care of and nurturing forests
• Development of a plan on forest exploitation and use
  
  • Bamboo exploitation plan
  • Plan to exploit non-timber forest products
  • Plan to harvest timber from plantation forests
• Analysis of costs and net profits
• A plan for monitoring, monitoring and evaluation
• Solutions to coordinate implementation with related stakeholders
• Integration of issues of gender equality and social inclusion in the development of a sustainable forest management plan (in cooperation with the GESI expert)

5. Conduct village meetings to reach consensus on the SFM Plans of selected communities

• Discuss on interventions, activities identified in sustainable management plans with local authorities, forest rangers and community members to reach consensus on the final SFM Plans of the target communities and submission to the Commune People's Committee for confirmation
• Handing over SFM Plans to communities.

Scale and sites for implementation

The CFM consultant team is expected to develop SFM Plans for the following 02 selected communities:

1. Community in Gia Giã village, H??ng Hi?p commune, ??k Rông district, Qu?ng Tr? province; Area: 1,626 ha.
2. Community in Pà Dá village, Cà Di commune, Nam Giang district, Qu?ng Nam province; Area: 3,251 ha.

Anticipated duration, level of effort (LOE), timeline and deliverables

Duration

The estimated time for the team leader to carry out this task is 58 man-days, expected to start in June 2022, and submit the final report on September 15, 2022. Details are in the following table:

LOE

No.	Items	Results	LOE
	Total		58
1	Preparation: Collect relevant documents, equipment, forms...	Documents, forms	2
2	Field work		30
2.1	1st Village Meeting: agreeing on contents, methods, implementation plan, collection of socio-economic information, community forest management, protection, use and development	Village Meeting Minutes agreeing on contents, approaches and implementation plan. Information on socio-economic, forest management, protection, use and development of the community	1
2.2	Participatory forest inventory		23
2.2.1	Forest area inventory	Updated current forest map	8
2.2.2	Forest stock volume inventory Investigation of forest regeneration	Sample plot data sheet	15
2.3	Survey and develop SFM Plans for communities		6
2.3.1	Survey and develop a forest protection plan and a forest fire prevention and fighting plan	Forest protection plan and forest fire prevention and fighting plan	2
2.3.2	Survey and develop a forest development plan	Forest development plan	2
2.3.3	Survey and develop a forest exploitation and use plan	Forest exploitation and use plan	2
3	Desk study		23
3.1	Forest inventory data processing	Tables, diagrams, results	6
3.2	Analyze and synthesize data for report writing	Tables, diagrams, annexes	5
3.3	Prepare draft SFM Plans	Draft SFM Plans	12
4	2nd village meeting: Collecting comments, revisions and agreeing on the Plan content and implementation plan	Meeting minutes	1
5	Finalize, confirmation and hand over the Plans	SFM Plans with confirmation from commune people committees	2

Implementation plan and deliverables

Schedule to develop SFM Plans for 02 communities who are allocated forest and land in Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces are presented in the table below:

No.	Items	Deliverables	Time	Approval mechanism
1	Develop a SFM Plan for community in Gia Gia village, Huong Hiep commune, Dak Rong district, Quang Tri province
1.1	Forest inventory, design intervention activities		05/7/2022
1.2	Develop a plan for the implementation of interventions. Write SFM Plans		15/7/2022
1.3	Village meeting, finalizing the SFM Plans	1. Village meeting minutes to agree on the Plans   2. The Plans with confirmation from communes	25/7/2022	Technically approved by RECOFTC/ The SFM Project
2	Develop a SFM Plan for community in Pa Da village, Ca Di commune, Nam Giang district, Quang Nam province
2.1	Forest inventory, design intervention activities		20/8/2022
2.2	Develop work plans for the implementation of interventions. Write SFM Plans		30/8/2022
2.3	Village meeting, finalizing SFM Plans	1. Village meeting minutes to agree on the Plans 2. The Plans with confirmation from respective CPCs	15/9/2022	Technically approved by RECOFTC/ The SFM Project

Requirements of deliverables

1. Village Meeting Minutes: in Vietnamese, 02 Minutes for each village

• 1^st village meeting: agreeing on contents, approaches, collaborating and implementation plan for the development of SFM Plans
• 2^nd village meeting: agreeing on the SFM Plans

2. SFM Plans: in Vietnamese, including 02 SFM Plans for the 02 target communities who are allocated forest and land, following “The CFM Manuals".

SFM Plans of communities are approved by PPMUs.

Required qualifications

• Vietnamese nationality only
• A master’s degree or higher, majoring in forest inventory and planning; forest protection or related fields
• Having at least 15 years of experience in the forestry sector, with priority given to sustainable forest management
• Having in-depth knowledge and understanding of community forest management; experience working with the community
• Having sound experience and expertise in forest inventory
• Experience and expertise in silviculture
• Demonstrated experience, skills in organizing, assigning and supervising work in the team
• Experience and skills in writing reports in Vietnamese; Able to use English at work

RECOFTC’s core values

At RECOFTC, our core values are the foundation of our culture and guide all our work. In addition to job specific skills and experience, the applicant should possess the following characteristics, attitudes and skills:

• Embrace innovation
• Adapt to, and learn from, challenges
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders
• Nurture commitment, responsibility and ownership
• Prioritize sustainability
• Cultivate participation, social inclusion and gender equity

How to apply

Interested individuals are requested to submit their CV and a cover letter indicating why they are suitable for this consultancy along with the expected fee or daily rate and current contact details of three references, to [email protected]. Please quote the consultancy title in the subject line of the email. Only shortlisted individuals will be notified.

For any further information you may need about the consultancy, please contact [email protected].

To learn more about RECOFTC, please visit our website www.recoftc.org

Organization: RECOFTC
Location:
Application deadline: 2022-06-10
Send application to: [email protected]