| The project will
focus on ways and methods that will help to improve the conservation
of natural resources in and around protected areas on the one
hand and on the other hand the livelihoods of local people whereby
the assumption is that these two (improved conservation and
improved livelihoods) are linked to each other. It aims to increase
awareness amongst policy-makers, decision makers and management
planners of the need for integration of conservation and socio-economic
development aspects.
Such an approach, better balancing and integrating conservation
and socio-economic development aspects in and around protected
areas (in national park core zones and buffer zones) requires
relevant, timely and accurate quantitative and qualitative
data and information not only on the location and extent of
deforestation and forest degradation processes, but also on
the driving forces behind them and the likely requirements
of local communities for forest and tree related products
and services in the foreseeable future. Such data and information,
essential to policy-makers, decision-makers and management
planners, have so far only been collected and generated to
a limited extent, are not accessible or not available in the
right format. Project activities
The project will focus on the collection and analysis of
especially geographical or spatial data of both a bio-physical
as well as socio-economic nature and related to forest and
tree resource condition, use and management in both the core
zone as well as buffer zone of Bach Ma National Park, including
making an assessment of the risk of further degradation and
potential for further development.
Data collected and analyzed will be incorporated in a common
and standardized spatial database or GIS which should constitute
the basis for an effective system for collaborative planning,
management and monitoring by the stakeholders involved such
as management board of the protected area, local authorities
in the buffer zone, local communities, etcetera, which in
turn should lead to a more sustainable use of resources in
protected area and buffer zone.
The project will have a strong emphasis on the use of geo-information
technology (remote sensing and GIS) including a large component
related to knowledge, skill and technology transfer and the
related human and institutional capacity building through
formal and informal education and training at various levels
(awareness level training for policy/decision-makers, technical
level training for management planners). Through these seminars
and workshops the project intends to build a platform of geo-information
users in Hue with different levels of GIS knowledge and skills
thus gradually embedding the use of GIS for natural resource
management into the prevailing institutional set-up/structure.
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