Co-management plan to protect Soc Trang's mangroves
More than 3,000ha in the Mekong Delta city of Soc Trang's mangrove forest will be co-managed by local authorities and Vo Thanh Van Hamlet coastal forest co-management group, which includes over 750 local residents.
This means that local communities will share decision-making power, management responsibility and accountability. The move aims to provide local communities with legal access to natural resources in protected forests while ensuring that the resources are used sustainably.
It is part of a Vietnam-Germany technical co-operation project that started in 2007 with the goal of protecting the coastal wetlands of Soc Trang province for the benefit of the local population.
The forest co-management model has played an important role in mangrove forest protection in recent years. Thanks to policies that limited access to forests and mandated sustainable use of resources, the mangrove areas in Soc Trang have been protected while local people have enjoyed higher incomes from them, according to Bianca Schlegel, the project technical consultant.