Bio-diversity

Forest fire is one of the disasters that can cause substantial damage to lives, properties, and the environment. Since 1998, there have been severe forest fires in many provinces and cities of the country. Melaleuca cajuputi forest fire in U Minh Thuong in April 2002 was the most damaged. Phu Tho is a mountainous province that has rich biological resources in special use forests such as Xuan Son National Park and Den Hung (Hung Kings Temple). The forests exhibit high biodiversity but are degraded in size and quality as a result of various reasons, including forest fires. Large area of the natural forests is fire-prone bamboo and woody forests. Furthermore, Phu Tho has a large area of planted forests for paper production material, such as Eucalyptus and pine species, which are susceptible to wildfires. In 1998, there were 29 forest fires that burned 164.9 ha of forest. The majority of the forest fires was caused by human activities such as vegetation clearing and burning for reforestation, slash and burn farming, bee burning, children playing with fires and fire spread from neighbouring provinces. Den Hung is a historical and cultural relic located in 7 communes of Lam Thao and Phu Ninh districts. The temple has an area of 1,689 ha, among which 538 ha are forest of histrocial and cultural significance and 1,151 ha are the outer perimeter. Den Hung is a national tourist attraction. There are 2.000 - 3.000 tourists a day on the average and the figure is much higher on the 1st and the 15th day of the lunar month. On the annual commemorations, the number of visitors reaches millions of people. Large crowd of people around with activities such as smoking and incense burning puts the surrounding forest at high risk of fire. The major issues in forest fire management are as follows.- Lack of awareness among the local governments and community, espcially at communal level, about responsibilties and mandates in forest fire management and forest protection in general; lack of awareness-raising activities to promote active participation of community in forest fire prevention and control. - Lack of a professionally organized system that could regulate the central provincial district communal level to forest owners for forest fire prevention and control and forest protection ; unclearly defined functions, responsibilties and lack of incentives for forest fire prevention and control and forest protection Lack of investments to develop human resources and build neccesary infrastructure and facilities for forest fire prevention in critical forest fire prone areas ; limited fund allocated to forest fire prevention and control and inadequate equipment and facilities for forest fire prevention and control.The project aims to develop a demonstration model in Hy Cuong Commune to strengthen responsbilities and promote the role of the local governemnt and people in forest fire management. It gives priority to awareness-raising, capacity building activities and and testing incentives to encourage community participation in forest fire prevention and control. The project is expected to distill lessons learnt and experiences from the demonstration model in Hy Cuong Commune and replicate them in the other communes of Den Hung, hence contributing to the development of the strategy and action plans for forest fire prevention and control of Phu Tho Province.

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