Sustaining conservation of protected areas and local livelihoods in northern Vietnam through collaboration between protected area authorities and local people

Protected areas, in the modem sense, have been established worldwide over the last 140 years. They have been established primarily to conserve natural values, especially biodiversity. Many protected areas are located in areas in which local people reside and from which they earn their livelihoods. The original and still dominant model of protected areas is of management by the State, and of strict exclusion of people and their activities, including resource extraction. However, in recognition of people's livelihood needs from, and potential contributions to the management of, protected areas, a new management approach has bee n developed in the last three decades. This more collaborative model seeks to integrate people's livelihood activities and management capacities in management arrangements for protected areas. This research investigates the relationship between local people and protected areas in Vietnam, where protected area management remains based largely on the original model of State authority and local exclusion. The thesis explores the question: How can protected areas in Vietnam be more effectively managed through collaboration betw een protected area authorities and local people, to meet the dual goals of enhancing conservation and sustaining livelihoods? The research was carried out through case study approach, focussing on three protected areas in the Northeast of Vietnam. These protected areas provide good examples of contradictions between conservation and livelihood needs. They are facing degradation threats due to intensive exploitation, yet local people retain their long- standing reliance on the protected area resources for their livelihoods. The research is framed in terms of Ostrom's model of social-ecological systems, and draws on each of the concepts of sustainable livelihoods, property right s and participation with in this context. This study finds that the major challenges facing protected area management in Vietnam are : (1) ambiguity over the rights of local people to access and use resources, (2) lack of strong enforcement to prevent unauthorised resource exploitation, and (3) ineffective collaboration between local people and authorities in protected area management. These challenges have resulted in intensive unauthorised exploitation of some protected area resources, and difficulties for local people's livelihoods. Results of this research suggest strategies for addressing each of these challenges: (1) the rights of local people to access and withdraw the protected area resources need to be properly defined and formally allowed to ensure sustainable local livelihoods, (2) strong enforcement measures need to be applied to unauthorised exploitation in order to deter destruction of the protected areas, and (3) participation of the local peopl e in the protected area management needs to be reorganised and strengthened, so that people's rights to protected area resources are linked to the irresponsibilities for the management of those resources. These strategies are consistent with the more collaborative models of protected area management, and suggest ways in which protected area policy and management in Vietnam could be reformed to better protect biodiversity and sustain local people's livelihoods. The results also illustrate how local-level research can inform, as well as being informed by, international approaches to protected area management