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Abstract:
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Developing alternative livelihoods outside protected areas can reduce local dependence on forest resources whilst reducing poverty. Such are often referred to as "integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs)". Up to date, it is estimated 30 different ICDPs had been, being and will be implemented in national parks/nature reserves or buffer zones of protected areas in the whole country. Over the last decade, a large proportion of investments in biodiversity conservation have adopted the ‘integrated conservation and development’ (ICDP) approach. However, experience from Vietnam has shown that such initiatives do not address the key threats to biodiversity which do not arise from local communities but from people living elsewhere and/or from land-use and development planning decisions of other sectors (e.g. agriculture, infrastructure). It is clearly that these threats should be solved.
Approach and tools using in evaluation of project impact are different and changed depending upon type of projects. However, there is no commonly tools applied and accepted by concerned stakeholders for evaluation of ICDPs. In the context of this paper, it is presented two main methods and tools which are commonly used in evaluation process of ICDPs, including: (i) stakeholder consultations and field checking; and (ii) consultation workshop. Methods and tools present in this paper based on experiences synthesized from evaluations of over 40 ICDPs, including (i) biodiversity conservation projects, (ii) development projects, and (iii) integrated development and conservation projects (ICDP). The paper consists of the following parts: (i) background, (ii) biodiversity and sustainable development, (iii) summary on integrated conservation and development projects in Vietnam, (iii) approach and tools using in evaluation of ICDPs, and (iv) lessons learnt from evaluations of ICDPs in Vietnam. |