How are Women Adapting to Climate Change in Giao Luc, Vietnam?

Working with our partner organization, CGFED: www.cgfed.org.vn and PlanetForward.org, PISA visited Giao Luc Commune in Nam Dinh Province to find out first hand how communities are adapting to climate change www.asiapacificadapt.org  While climaWe learned that the women of Giao Lac have three main adaption strategies:

• Migration to the city to find employment;
• Seeking alternative livelihoods such as embroidery and sewing to supplement their incomes;
• Using traditional desalination methods to address saltwater incursion into the paddy fields.

To try and get a deeper understanding of how women are adapting, PISA interviewed three generations of women in two families as well as an eco-tourism entrepreneur, and researchers from CGFED, who are tracking these changes in the community.  Stay tuned to see PISA’s video in the fall.

What emerged is that today the women of Giao Luc are using migration as a primary adaptation strategy.  Traditionally, only men left the commune for work in the city.  Young women reported that they observed changes in the weather such as hotter summers, colder winters, and more storms and flooding.  These shifts have reduced the reliability of the rice harvest and introduced new challenges from pests and salt-water incursion.  While women reported that the last harvest was bountiful, all noted that over the last 7-10 years, the harvest has been unreliable and that instead of two annual crops only one could be harvested.  Climate change is contributing to a feeling of uncertainty about the future and reduced security.

When women of working age leave the community for employment in Hanoi, they leave behind the elderly, infirm, and children as well as mothers with infants.  In sum, they leave behind the most vulnerable members of the community and arguably those least prepared to deal with natural disasters and food insecurity.  When climate scientists say that vulnerable communities (link to WB or RB report) will suffer the consequences of climate change disproportionately this is exactly what they mean.

Adaptation strategies are happening at the household level.  PISA learned, for example, that a traditional, low-cost method of desalinating the soil is to use limestone.  The stone is heated and made into a paste that is transferred to the paddy field to leach out salt and prepare the field for rice planting.  When questioned about where this idea came from, villagers told PISA that this method had been used by their grandparents and was being reintroduced by women in the community who grew up seeing this low-tech, low-cost strategy in action.  Household adaption strategies are clearly playing an important role in attempts to build community resilience.  As in this case, PisaSpeak will explore how a varied mosaic of community-based adaption strategies can inform a more effective national adaptation strategy.

Working with our partner organization, CGFED:www.cgfed.org.vn, and PlanetForward.org, PISA visited Giao Luc Commune in Nam Dinh Province to find out first hand how communities are adapting to climate change: www.asiapacificadapt.net. While climaWe learned that the women of Giao Lac have three main adaption strategies:

• Migration to the city to find employment;
• Seeking alternative livelihoods such as embroidery and sewing to supplement their incomes;
• Using traditional desalination methods to address saltwater incursion into the paddy fields.

To try and get a deeper understanding of how women are adapting, PISA interviewed three generations of women in two families as well as an eco-tourism entrepreneur, and researchers from CGFED, who are tracking these changes in the community.  Stay tuned to see PISA’s video in the fall.

What emerged is that today the women of Giao Luc are using migration as a primary adaptation strategy.  Traditionally, only men left the commune for work in the city.  Young women reported that they observed changes in the weather such as hotter summers, colder winters, and more storms and flooding.  These shifts have reduced the reliability of the rice harvest and introduced new challenges from pests and salt-water incursion.  While women reported that the last harvest was bountiful, all noted that over the last 7-10 years, the harvest has been unreliable and that instead of two annual crops only one could be harvested.  Climate change is contributing to a feeling of uncertainty about the future and reduced security.

When women of working age leave the community for employment in Hanoi, they leave behind the elderly, infirm, and children as well as mothers with infants.  In sum, they leave behind the most vulnerable members of the community and arguably those least prepared to deal with natural disasters and food insecurity.  When climate scientists say that vulnerable communities www. adb.org/Documents/Books/Economics-climate-change-SEA/defaultwill suffer the consequences of climate change disproportionately this is exactly what they mean.

Adaptation strategies are happening at the household level.  PISA learned, for example, that a traditional, low-cost method of desalinating the soil is to use limestone.  The stone is heated and made into a paste that is transferred to the paddy field to leach out salt and prepare the field for rice planting.  When questioned about where this idea came from, villagers told PISA that this method had been used by their grandparents and was being reintroduced by women in the community who grew up seeing this low-tech, low-cost strategy in action.  Household adaption strategies are clearly playing an important role in attempts to build community resilience.  As in this case, PisaSpeak will explore how a varied mosaic of community-based adaption strategies can inform a more effective national adaptation strategy.

Southeast Asia Climate Impacts

To some observers, Asia, with its geographic, economic, ethnic, religious, and historical diversity, and home of two of the world’s fastest growing economies, China and India, offers a volatile, messy, and worrisome stew that inevitably will produce instability.

This gloomy outlook, often articulated by Western pundits, is countered by an opposing but equally unbalanced optimism, that pits economic dynamism (double digit growth in China, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore) against the historical record that time and again illustrates that profound economic disparity between countries coupled with external threats  (such as unchecked climate change) and weak security mechanisms spell instability.  The sunnier outlook assumes economic growth will trump any potential conflict. However, it fuels nationalist tendencies that favor short-term economic priorities over longer-term stability.

If we accept the prevailing hypothesis in Asia that global problems are inherent in bi-lateral and multilateral security agreements, climate change and its ancillary concerns with energy, health, and food security may offer greater scope for cooperation if a new regional security architecture were developed.  Conversely, while “space” may have expanded for increased levels of cooperation at the regional level, a countervailing trend of heightened potential for conflict at the bi-lateral level exits in parallel.  To wit, China has offered economic incentives to Thailand in return for its support of proposed hydro-dams that may soon dot the Mekong River.  While these incentives may ensure cooperation between China and Thailand, they serve as irritants to already tense relations with Thailand’s neighbors along the Mekong, namely, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

While the current regional security architecture as manifest within ASEAN and built by international organizations such as ARF and APEC, may have sufficiently maintained stability in the post-colonial and pre-9/11 period, the economic and political ascension of China and complex challenges of climate change, present new aggravation that threaten to undermine regional security.  China’s role in the region will, arguably, be determined by a new set of bilateral agreements based on country-specific calculations that are driven by mutually agreed upon cost-benefit calculations.  Such agreements are likely to fit within a foreign policy constellation that is fueled by China’s development agenda with heavy emphasis on economic and security considerations.   Simultaneously, historical disagreements over territory, resources, and sectarian allegiance that at times eclipse national boundaries (witness: the five southern provinces of Thailand; Mindanao and Negros in the Philippines; and Aceh in Indonesia), could be exacerbated by the challenge of climate change.  The confounding nature of climate change is the very fact of its sprawl.  It is a complex trans-boundary issue that requires a cooperative approach to finding solutions amidst a simultaneous anxiety to secure natural resources to fuel national economic growth. To date, the preeminent forums for climate change debate and policy-dialogue, notably the Bali Agreement (2007), Copenhagen (2009), and Cancun (2010) have largely been mired in a schism between countries favoring mitigative approaches (largely for G-7 countries) and those in favor of adaptive measures (the LDC’s).  The difficult business of trying to wed these perspectives into a coherent policy for adoption at the regional level has been sidelined as bi-lateral disagreements between major powers, in particular, China and the US, have drained energy out of the IPCCC negotiations.

How can we encourage Asia’s emerging economic leaders namely, China and India, to offer the world a model of innovation and cooperation that paves the way for effectively addressing the sprawling challenges of global climate change?

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters, a green building opened in 2001

A host of new studies indicate that the gloom of the overall housing market has not dampened the green building sector. Last year’s Green Building Market Impact Report found a 40% jump in LEED-certified square foot totals over the previous year, with predictions for continued robust growth. Comprising 800 million square feet in the U.S., green buildings have saved 15 billion gallons of water, 2.9 million tons of carbon dioxide and 25 million tons of waste. Additionally, the report predicted strong growth in China, India, the Middle East and Europe. A more recent projection estimated that “green building will continue to grow more than 60 percent in 2010,” in spite of stagnation of the housing and credit industries.

These studies have heartening implications for the wider field of sustainable growth and environmental remediation, particularly in the field of GHG emission control and green development. In the absence of expansive, top-down mandates such as the one that the COP-15 failed to provide, cities, municipalities and business groups are shouldering some of the burden. Using a series of incentives and tax write-offs – such as these offered by the City of Seattle – cities are realizing a double benefit from encouraging green building. Such development not only brings much-needed employment, but the long-term savings in utilities, health and pollution are now starting to offset the up-front construction costs. In a recent profile of Casa Feliz, a new green affordable housing development in San Jose, the Wall Street Journal put simply the bottom line: “Not only are green buildings better for the environment, but they make better financial sense, too…because they come with lower water and energy bills and lower tenant-turnover rates.”

A LEED Platinum certified house in Santa Monica, CA

In the otherwise continuous flow of grim and dispiriting news on the global environment and climate change efforts, the rosy horizon for the green and sustainable building industry is a significant point of hope.

Editor: Suzanne Kelly-Lyall, Deputy Director PISA

The COP-16 conference, slated for November 29^th in Cancun, Mexico, seems to be raising fewer hopes than the last round, likely because of the widely publicized and underwhelming results of COP-15. Policy makers on both sides of the Pacific can reasonably ask what can be expect from this next round of negotiations?  Will we see progressive action from the bloc of Asian nations that allied themselves with China in Copenhagen? Or have events in the last year given rise to a new approach to climate negotiations?

Even without the unfortunate example of the last round of UNFCCC meetings, there are warning signs aplenty that delegates at Cancun could come away with a feeling of déjà vu. Some of the largest polluting nations are already trying to backpedal from previously made commitments and downplay expectations. Todd Stern, President Obama’s chief climate negotiator, has already stressed the importance of not letting “expectations far outstrip what can be done.”  The need for leadership on setting realistic carbon reductions, fixing a carbon price, and making a financial commitment to the proposed UN Adaptation fund for countries most in need, Bangladesh for example, is paramount.

In spite of these obstacles, the possibility of real progress at Cancun is not entirely absent. At a recent ASEM meeting (Asia-Europe meeting), Asian nations not only stressed the importance of emerging from the COP-16 with a binding decision markets. In a show of regional leadership, Singaporean minister Lim Hwee Hua even spoke of increasing reduction commitments, “as industries and citizens grow more accustomed to carbon constraints and as technology enables us to do more.” ASEAN as well has gone on record stressing the need for a legally binding agreement as a key step for moving forward.

In contrast to the gloom and doom predications being trumpeted by media and policymakers alike, Cancun may offer ASEAN countries the opportunity to press for real change.   Showing leadership in carbon reductions and pressing for set carbon pricing are two ways in which ASEAN might shift the dialogue away from US/China negotiations and move debate into concrete steps that will improve the lives of the regions most vulnerable groups.

A Traditional Cookstove Setup in Vietnam

The recent news from the Clinton Global Initiative that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is committing $50 million to funding clean cookstoves is fantastic news for the poor in developing nations, particularly women and girls. Spearheaded by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (run by the United Nations Foundation), this initiative will address a pervasive problem that kills over 2 million people a year and sickens countless others.

The topic of cookstoves is one near and dear to PISA: using money provided by a micro-grant at the 2009 PISA Summer Institute on Global Climate Change, a team of academics and researchers from Vietnam embarked on a project to bring clean cookstoves to the village of Ban Nhop, Vietnam. In fact, less than a month before Clinton’s announcement we posted an interview with project lead Dr. Doan Duc Lan about his progress. The team has already completed GIS map surveys, sociological assessments of the village, has designed four improved cookstove models and begun training villagers on their construction. As this project moves forward it is gratifying to see a figure like Secretary Clinton affirm the importance of our work.

A Model of a New Brick Improved Cookstove in Vietnam, developed by Dr. Lan's Team With Support from PISA

One feature of the Global Alliance’s plan is a public-private partnership that will, “work with public, private, and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves in the developing world.” Unlike PISA’s effort – a public-nonprofit collaboration – the Global Alliance plan will, according to the New York Times, use an, “entrepreneurial model in which small companies manufacture or buy the stoves close to their markets.” Such an approach holds promise and peril. Private companies may have resources and assets unavailable to even nonprofit groups with big-name endorsements. There is, however, a risk that a profit motive could introduce a barrier to obtaining the cookstoves. Many of the 3 billion worldwide users of these stoves are simply too poor to buy cleaner, greener alternatives, however they are priced.

In the wider view though, any effort to introduce more efficient and pollutant-free stoves is an important step. We look forward to updating you as the Ban Nhop moves forward and scales up.

Much of Asia is already densely urbanized and becoming more so; the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) predicts that in the next quarter century, developing nations in Asia will see a 66% rise in urban populations.

The region plays host to several “mega-cities” – Jakarta, Bangkok, and Shanghai among them.

Building resilient urban spaces entails an new  level of cooperation among government agencies, civil society organizations and the private sector.  Climate disasters will manifest in the form of sea level rise, strengthened cyclonic storms and flooding, abrupt demographic changes and refugee crises, emerging disease vectors and food supply failures. The scope of the problem calls not only for forward-thinking urban managers but also ones who can work effectively with regional and national leaders.   PISA is partnering with the Southeast Asia START Centre and Chulalongkorn University to address this emergent area of concern with the Regional Leadership Institute on Climate Change (RLICC),  Chiang Mai, Thailand.  An intensive program for policy-makers, climate experts, and those working to build urban resilience in the region.

The effectiveness of city plans and preparations are dependent on local variables; nonetheless, PisaSpeak believes a comparison of urban plans is revealing. Bangkok, Thailand is at high risk of climate-related disasters: according to Porntep Techapaibul, Deputy Governor of Bangkok, the city is at risk from sea level rise, flooding and increased incidence of Dengue fever and leptospirosis. The city’s preparedness measures tilt toward long-term GHG mitigation. Techapaibul’s multi-step global warming alleviation plan includes transportation system improvement, promotion of renewable energy, building retrofits, solid and wastewater management and expansion of green areas. The Bangkok Metropolitan Area 2007-2012 global warming action plan lists five steps: reducing energy consumption, joint GHG reduction, promotion of “the sufficiency economy,” GHG absorption and raising public awareness. Bangkok is investing heavily in ecological improvements and emissions mitigation; less is said of specific changes to the city’s health response or flooding control.

Flooding in Hanoi in 2008

In contrast, city mangers in Hanoi, Vietnam are investing heavily in adaptive measures. While not as vulnerable as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi still stands to suffer considerably from flooding and resultant disasters. Already Vietnamese officials such as Deputy Ngo Van Ny are factoring climate change into their discussions of future growth and expansion of urban areas. Current preparedness measures for the city of Hanoi eschew long-term GHG mitigation for immediate readiness. Among the city’s current goals are increasing flood prevention probability, strengthening dykes along the Red River, channelization, dredging and other upstream flood control measures and improving peri-urban sewage irrigation and waste processing.  Due to Vietnam’s growing awareness of its vulnerability and its partnership with multinational organizations, its cities may emerge as leaders in the field of preparation. Indeed, the World Bank’s Resilient Cities Program has selected Hanoi to be included in its pilot program.

Building cities able to withstand multiple shocks imposed by an unpredictable climate will require significant resources, a weighty challenge for developing nations. Fortunately, as organizations such as the World Bank, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center’s Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network begin making inroads on the task, cities will have a greater pool of experts on which to draw and lessons learned to study. If the demographic projections for Asia are correct, much will depend on their ability to do so.

“There is every reason to believe that as the 21st century unfolds, the security story will be bound together by climate change… Climate change is a security issue because if we don’t deal with it, people will die and states will fail” – John Ashton, UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change

What is human security? This concept – raised last week with regard to natural disasters in Pakistan and elsewhere – is increasingly prevalent and yet still hazily defined. It is important to flesh out the details for two key reasons. First, human security will become increasingly necessary and prominent as climate change-related events become more frequent. Accordingly, states and international organizations will need a clear and precise definition if they are to enact policies. There is no reason why human security cannot follow the model of conventional security, where specific vulnerabilities are identified and funds allocated to address the shortcoming.

The three fundamental pillars of human security are natural resources and ecosystems, food, and health. Each of these three alone or in concert with the others can lead to profound population insecurities which in turn threatens state health. United Nations University writer Christian Webersik identifies climate change as a variable that can drastically undermine each of these pillars, with stark consequences. “A poor response to natural hazards,” he writes,  “may create anti-government grievances in societies with weak governance structures and stricken by political violence and poverty.” The loss of dwelling areas or habitats (Pakistan), the scarcity of food resources (Bangladesh) or the prospect of expanded disease vectors all represent bridges between human and conventional security. Center for a New American Security fellow Christine Parthemore points out that at least 11 violent conflicts since 1990 have been driven by the degradation of natural resources.

The common thread between the three main aspects of human security is climate change. Even in the absence of precise climactic predictions there is nonetheless ample evidence to show significant detrimental effects on all natural resources, food and health security simultaneously. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) put it succinctly: “Most of all, [climate change] is a human issue, where the livelihoods of numerous communities are threatened and their security is at stake.”

This tripartite casting of human security may allow states and multinational organizations greater leeway in boosting aid – rather than individual mandates to protect a forest resource or boost agricultural yields, a more holistic view of human security offers the possibility of a robust and comprehensive adaptive strategy. The payoff – in terms of productivity gains, disasters avoided or mitigated and societal instability averted – will be ample.

Edited by: Suzanne Kelly-Lyall, Deputy Director, PISA

A spate of summer natural disasters is keeping the link between climate-related events and human security front-page news across the globe. The catastrophic flooding in northern Pakistan that has killed, displaced, or otherwise affected a staggering 17 million people is only the most recent disaster in a season of climate-linked events. It follows hard on the heels of massive wildfires in Russia and devastating landslides in China’s Gansu province that have killed at least 1,239 people. Last week flooding in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province displaced villagers, shut down schools and municipal services and heavy rain threatened to shutdown Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

A Pakistani Man Is Rescued From Flooding by a Rescue Helicopter

Even as President Obama delivers a highly-publicized address on peace and security in Iraq, the widespread devastation wrought by fire, oil and water this summer raises a crucial question: has human security been too long eclipsed by conventional security concerns? A close look at the numbers reveals the disconnect between the soaring sums allocated to conventional security and the comparatively paltry amounts earmarked for human or environmental security. This year alone, Pakistan’s defense budget will rise 17%, to $5.2 billion USD. Pakistan is beset by a multitude of conventional security threats such as the persistent Taliban insurgency. In terms of sheer devastation and societal harm, one week of flooding has far surpassed anything the Taliban could accomplish. While the U.S. is the lead donor in the flood relief effort, the need for a longer-term commitment to human development remains.  So why isn’t the money there?

Pakistan is by no means alone in this dilemma. Much of the developing world – and particularly South and Southeast Asia – is highly vulnerable to climate related or mitigated disasters.

Without neglecting the very real challenges posed by insurgency, civil war, or external invasion, the time has come to begin shifting resources toward human and environmental security.

The Aftermath of a U.S. Drone Attack in Pakistan

Hearts and minds are not won with weaponry but instead with true security:  access to clean drinking water, arable land, sufficient public health infrastructure, and the possibility of a stable, conflict-free environment.  As the chief architect of the Marshall Plan, US policy-makers learned long ago that military support and police training should not be the legacy of war and do not lead to successful post-conflict reconstruction.  Instead, an unwavering commitment to building the requisite infrastructure for economic development and political stability is of paramount importance.  Pakistan’s frailty as a state together with a colonial legacy that left in place irrigation systems from the turn of the century combined with a near-feudal land management system, created the circumstances in which a climate-related event was transformed into a catastrophe.

Dr. Doan Duc Lan, Team Leader meeting with Ms. Hong, Vietnam Women’s Union

The ICS project is the result of a PISA-sponsored mini-grant competition to foster local, community-based responses to threats posed by a changing climate. In particular, PISA is committed to using the results and findings of this pilot project – summarized below by Dr. Lan – to enhance dialogue between donors, policy makers and researchers.  Pending funding, the project will be scaled up under Dr. Lan’s direction by expanding into other communities in Vietnam for which deforestation and climate threats pose ongoing challenges.   The project has benefitted immensely from Dr. Lan’s steadfast leadership, his capacity to meet unanticipated challenges to project implementation, and deep commitment to alleviating economic and social inequities in Ban Nhop.  The realization of the ICS project weds environmental stewardship to social justice as it seeks to empower the community while protecting the vital Son La National Forest area.

Ban Nhop Village

The Ban Nhop project is a concrete example of the way in which PISA creates real world opportunities for program delegates to test what they have learned during PISA’s Leadership Institute on Global Climate Change.  The outcome this intensive, cutting-edge curriculum on climate change combined with the opportunity to develop practical, solution-oriented projects will help inform climate policy dialogue in Southeast Asia.  PISA alumni maintain contact with each other across government agencies, citizens’ associations and research units, thus serving as an informal body for information sharing, policy dialogue, and mentoring.

Reported by: Jon Ehrenfeld, Senior Writer

Edited by: Suzanne Kelly-Lyall, Deputy Director, PISA

PISA Interview with Dr. Doan Duc Lan, Team Leader, Ban Nhop Cook Stove Project, Son La Province, Vietnam

1. Could you provide a brief summary of the Ban Nhop project to date, including your goals and how you imagined the project would run?

Ban Nhop (Son La Province, Thuan Chau District, Chieng Bom Commune) now has 84 households of Thai people. They live in an area that’s close to the Copia Nature Reserve. It is obvious that exploitation of natural forest for wood, farming, land and firewood is a danger for the Nature Reserve. The goal of our project is to prevent local people from cutting down trees inside natural forest by development of improved cookstove [ICS] models.

We successfully completed a forest survey, a GIS map of the forest situation, sociology assessment and firewood consumption survey in Ban Nhop.

The Improved Cookstove

We successfully introduced the following ICS models: brick (for livestock food cooking), iron, ceramic and concrete. The masons of Ban Nhop have been trained to build brick and concrete ICS. Up to the present, the householders in Ban Nhop have built 60 brick, 4 concrete, 30 iron and 7 ceramic ones. In the future, we’re going to provide 42 households with concrete ICS.

The local people said that improved cookstoves help them to save time and firewood. Despite the above mentioned success, we are faced with some problems: ICS can get some cracks, and the concrete tolerance is not durable in conditions of high heat and long use.

2. Can you describe why you chose to focus on the cookstoves and what the larger impacts will be of introducing the ICS?

In the rural mountainous areas of Northwest Vietnam, energy for cooking and heating mainly comes from forest firewood and burning crop residues. In Ban Nhop, every householder consumes 8.4 kilograms of firewood per a day on average and 20 kilogram maximum (for householders owning livestock). It means that firewood exploitation can badly affect natural forests, especially in the context of current rapid population growth.  According to the sociology survey conducted in March 2010, there were 75 householders, but now there are 84.

Using ICS contributes to reduction of firewood consumption, so it helps protect natural forests and reduces greenhouse gases (GHG). Because of ICS’s applicability, simple technique and low cost, there’s no doubt that ICS is a very good solution for the local people.

3. Suzanne and Linda were particularly interested in the impacts a project of this sort could have on empowering local girls and women. Could you describe that, and discuss the importance of women to projects of this sort?

Traditionally, collection of firewood and food cooking are mainly done by local girls and women. Using the ICS can help them to save time, labor and reduce lung-related diseases caused by dust and smoke. We need to research more deeply to get exact conclusion about the degree of these diseases.
4. What does local resilience mean to you, within the context of climate change? How does a project like this create it? Does this fall under the category of adaptation to climate change?

Increasing temperature creates long hot weather, lack of water for domestic use and farming, and water for hydro-power production. It is that hydro-power reduction that seriously affects rural, urban areas and industrial zones. That’s why forest protection, especially watershed forests in the Northwest of Vietnam, is essentially important. Our project provides protection to 323 hectares of watershed forest in Ban Nhop. I strongly believe that our project falls under the category of response to climate change.

5. This is a local project, supported by a comparatively small grant from a small organization – what does this say about the future of climate change research and adaptation, specifically that of micro-funding?

Although our project is small in scale, it provides connection among local authorities, local people and scientists to find out a solution to energy consumption issue in mountainous area and forest protection in the context of climate change. Our project is building and improving the capacity of community and stakeholders. In the context of micro-funding, I suppose that future research should focus on sustainable livelihoods and capacity building of local partners for the purpose of helping them find out the solutions best applicable to their local condition.

6. How do you plan to scale this project? What lessons does the ICS program have for people interested in local projects that they can scale up?

At first, we need to evaluate the project again to get experiences in order to perfect the ICS production technique. Then, we can continue conducting our project in minority groups living near other natural forests such as H Mong, Dao or Sing Mun communes….

When conducting local projects, it is necessary to study and take all aspects into consideration such as natural condition, sociology, economy, human resources for designing reasonable activities. The participation of the community to survey, project conducting process, contribution of labor and finance will decide the sustainability of the project.