The objective of the project “The future of the margins. Conflicts and alliances in ‘marginal lands’ in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines” is to analyze conflicts regarding ‘marginal’ land in Indonesia, Viet Nam and the Philippines, and to formulate ways and policies to overcome these conflicts for contributing to sustainable development and livelihoods improvement. This is an integrated project with the involvement of universities, research institutes, local NGOs in the Netherlands, Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

With the aim to integrate the information contributed by managers, policy makers, researchers and local stakeholders into a full proposal of the project ”The future of the margins. Conflicts and alliances in ‘marginal lands’ in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines”, an inception workshop will be organized from 23-26 January 2010 in Hue city. TBI Viet Nam, one of the project partners, will host this very important event.

On the 25^th and 26^th of November, a seminar on Strategic Environment Assessment and Climate Change (SEA and CC) took place. The event attracted nealy 70 participants from central and provincial levels of MARD, MoNRE, MPI, international organizations, universities, NGOs and research institutions.

Time: 25-26 November 2009
Location: Tay Ho hotel, Ha Noi

In an attempt to strengthen the awareness and practical application of the climate integrated Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), the Tropenbos International Viet Nam Programme (TBI Viet Nam), in cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ha Noi and the Department of Science, Technology and Environment/MARD, will conduct a two day seminar on Strategic Environmental Assessment and Climate Change (SEA & CC) in Ha Noi.

In December, TBI Viet Nam in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will organize a national workshop on “Forest Research and Poverty Reduction” in the Central and Central Highlands regions of Viet Nam. The workshop will contribute to the preparation of a research action plan for the National Forest Research Strategy until 2020. TBI Viet Nam is calling for papers from those interested in the workshop.