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Abstract:
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This paper presents the findings of a study of impacts of doi moi reforms on forest use and management in Tu Ne Commune in Northwestern Vietnam. The paper explores the ways in which forest has been used and managed through different periods of time and the relative role of different institutions, illustrating how rights of access to forest resources were shaped and have transformed over time. The paper then examines the way the doi moi reforms and other factors have affected practices of forest management of the Muong people, an minority ethnic group in Tu Ne. It examines the rapid changes in local land use systems, ownership and management practices of forest in response to national policy reforms in the commune. It explores how the forest-related institutions have facilitated or constrained the ability of each group of people in the commune, as defined by gender, class, age and social status, to achieve their own resources while they experience environmental degradation and cope with regulations imposed from above on their use of these resources. The findings show how sustainable forest management has emerged in the context of post-socialist land use dynamics, how it adapts and transforms in this particular context, and how local people respond to this newly managed setting. |