Payment for forest environmental services: Close monitoring, timely disbursement

(QNO) – In 2023, although the revenue from forest environmental services did not reach the set plan, the disbursement to beneficiaries of the policy was always timely, in accordance with regulations, and there were no problems or difficulties. This result was achieved thanks to the specialized departments of the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund strengthening the regular inspection and supervision of forest owners and communities assigned to protect forests.

In the annual work program, the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund always identifies, inspects and monitors the policy of payment for forest environmental services (PFES) as one of the important tasks that always comes first for the unit. In recent times, in mountainous areas, due to the coexistence of forest protection contracting models (forest owners contracting with specialized forest protection forces, forest owners contracting forest protection with groups of households and communities), the process of inspecting and monitoring payment progress requires stricter and more scientific requirements.

Officers of the Sao La Conservation Area Management Board directly pay for forest environmental services to the community contracted to protect the forest in Bhalêê commune (Tay Giang).

In early November 2023, the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund assigned specialized staff directly to A Tiep, Ta Lang and Dang villages, Bhalêê commune (Tay Giang) to inspect and supervise the payment of contracted money to three local communities. These three village communities were contracted to protect nearly 1,300 hectares of forest under the forest environment service payment policy.

In Ta Lang village of Bhalêê commune, in 2023, the community received a total of more than 171 million VND in DVMTR money. Mr. Alang Sen - Head of Ta Lang village affirmed that the payment of money by the Sao La Conservation Area Management Board and the Tay Giang Protective Forest Management Board is always public, transparent, harmonizing interests, creating long-term livelihoods for households in the community; thanks to that, the people are very responsible for the forest area assigned for protection.

Mr. Le Minh Phuc, an officer of the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund, said that during the recent monitoring of three communities contracted to protect forests in A Tiep, Ta Lang and Dang villages of Bhalêê commune, the unit paid the people more than 184 million VND, bringing the total advance payment for the year to nearly 745 million VND.

Co Tu people in Bhalêê commune (Tay Giang) gather at the traditional communal house to receive payment for forest environmental services.

^{[ VIDEO ] - Disbursing forest environmental service policy money to the Co Tu community in Bhalêê commune (Tay Giang) in early November 2023:}

The entire area assigned to the three village communities above is located in the forest area managed by the Sao La Conservation Area Management Board. Meanwhile, the owner of this special-use forest provides forest environmental services for an area of 15,384.77 hectares located on the two A Vuong - Za Hung hydropower basins and the Kon 2 hydropower basin. The total forest environmental services budget that has been provisionally advanced by the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund at this time is more than 9.4 billion VND.

In 2023 alone, the Sao La Conservation Area Management Board signed a contract to allocate 8,672.58 hectares of forest area to 16 communities, with the total advance payment (3 installments) to the communities to date being more than 4.5 billion VND.

With abundant financial resources from the forest environmental service payment policy, Quang Nam has strictly managed special-use forests in recent years.
In 2023, the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund inspected and supervised the payment of forest environmental services to many forest owners and 12 People's Committees of communes assigned to manage and protect forests. Specifically, it inspected the protection forest management boards of the districts: Nam Giang, Dong Giang, Tay Giang, Nam Tra My, Bac Tra My and Phuoc Son; supervised the Sao La Species Conservation Area Management Board, Phu Ninh and Quang Nam Coastal Protection Forest Management Board, Elephant Species and Habitat Conservation Area, Song Thanh National Park, Bach Ma National Park.
In addition, the unit also inspected the payment of forest environmental services at 12 commune People's Committees assigned to manage and protect forests (including Tien Lanh, Tien Ngoc, Tien Hiep (Tien Phuoc), Phuoc Gia, Thang Phuoc, Que Luu (Hiep Duc), Duy Son (Duy Xuyen), Dai Quang, Dai Dong, Dai Son, Dai Lanh, Dai Hung (Dai Loc) communes) .

Regarding the assessment of forest environmental service payments, Mr. Huynh Duc - Director of the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund acknowledged that most forest owners have done a good job of forest protection and management in the area of forest environmental service provision as prescribed in Decree 156/2018/ND-CP of the Government. Forest owners have paid forest environmental service fees to communities, contracted households and specialized forest protection forces in a timely and complete manner according to the signed contracts.

“This year, due to regular inspection and supervision by the unit, along with specific guidance from the relevant departments, the forest protection teams and stations have recorded and stored complete records, made monthly patrol plans and assigned very detailed patrol schedules to each specialized forest protection officer,” said Mr. Duc.

However, the Quang Nam Forest Protection and Development Fund also frankly pointed out limitations such as some forest owners have not yet prepared a final report on the forest service fund; slow implementation of the plan for using the forest service fund; and slow payment to the forest protection force. In particular, the People's Committee of Dai Son commune has not yet signed a contract with the Forest Protection Team in 2023.

Forest protection officers and forces in Song Thanh National Park patrol the hydroelectric reservoir basin.

To develop a system of tools to monitor the policy of payment for forest environmental services, the Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund in collaboration with the Sustainable Forest Management and Biodiversity Conservation Project recently organized a workshop to pilot the software to monitor and manage payment records. Here, delegates contributed their opinions on the pilot use of new software to operate unified monitoring of forest environmental services in 2024.

The monitoring software will help the Forest Protection and Development Fund from central to local levels promptly update the database of information on changes in area, forest status, forest patrol logs, payments, etc., helping to improve efficiency in the policy implementation process.

In 2023, the total area of forest environmental service payment in the province is more than 312,157 hectares. Of which, 11 forest owners representing organizations are contracted to protect 297,409.56 hectares; 13 forest owners are People's Committees of communes assigned to protect 9,879.4 hectares; forest owners are 18 communities assigned to protect 4,868.30 hectares. As of the end of November 2023, the total revenue from forest environmental service payments is more than 169 billion VND, reaching 91.58% of the annual plan.

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