Policy on forest environment lease in national parks in the northern vietnam case study at ba vi, tam dao, ben en national parks

urism development in Tam Dao National Park, Giải pháp phát triển du lịch sinh thái tại Vườn quốc gia Tam ðảo, Journal of Forestry Technology and Science, No 01/2013 5. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2011), The Policies of forest environment lease to ecotourism business in National Parks of Vietnam, The summary record of workshop by National Economics University. 6. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet, Tran Quang Bao (2013), Models of exploiting forest environmental service for ecotourism service business in Ba Vi National Park, Ha Noi. Journal of Forestry Technology and Science, No 04/2013. Reports of Projects 1. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2009), Some solutions contribute to promoting linkages between the State, enterprises, farmers and scientists in the forest business in midland areas of northern Vietnam, University Project. 2. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2011), Some solutions in order to improve the policies for leasing forest environment in Ba Vi, Tam Dao Nation Parks, University Project. 3. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2011), Comparative studies in developing large wood in the mountainous area of the Northern Vietnam, Funded by JICA – Japan. 4. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2013), Research on methods of determining the value of land in agriculutural and forestry enterprises, Funded by Ministry of Science and Technology. 5. Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2013), Research on management policies of National Park to ensure sustained growth of Melaleuca in U Minh Thuong and U Minh Ha National Park, Funded by Ministry of Science and Technology. PREFACE 1. Rationale: Exploiting the benefits from National Park, particularly the value of forest environment services are interested in and experimented by many National Park in the world. Vietnam also allows the National Park to organize proactively in ecotourism business activities to generate investment income for forest protection and development. A new development trend in recent time is companies, organizations, individuals wishing to rent forest environment in National Parks for ecotourism business. Although the trend has been formed newly, this is a potential development trend and get the consensus of society. Besides, the forest environment lease is a method to socialize forest environment services which contribute revenues to be reinvested in forest protection and development by their own capital, reducing investment from the State. Though the State has adopted the policy of forest environment lease for ecotourism business in National Parks and this policy has been evaluated successfully in pilot National Parks for leasing but the policy has been implemented slowly. One of the main reasons is that the forest environment leasing policy has been incompleted, scattered in a number of different laws, lack of necessary regulations, or some inadequated regulations which cause difficulties for the development process. Therefore, the management plans, the legal framework and the policies for leasing forest environment are still an open question which should be the orientation of the management levels and forestry. From above issues, the research on the perfect forest environment lease policies in National Parks is necessary and urgent. This is the main reason to choose this problem as the subject of my dissertation. 2. Research Objectives: Researching on scientific base and the state of policies on forest environment lease for ecotourism business to propose a complete solution for leasing forest environment in National Parks in Northern region of Vietnam. 3. Research Objects: The dissertation focuses on policy research of forest environment lease for business purposes in National Parks in Northern region of Vietnam. 4. Research Scope - Space: Selected research areas are Ba Vi (Ha Noi), Tam Dao (Vinh Phuc) and Ben En (Thanh Hoa) National Parks. - Time: Research from 2002 when a pilot scheme of forest environment lease had been stated in some National Parks of Vietnam. - Research contents: + Rationale and practice base of policy for leasing forest environment in National Park. + The status of policy and policy implementation for leasing forest environment in Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Parks, results, restrictions and causes. + Solutions for completing forest environment lease policy in National Parks in Northern region of Vietnam. 5. New Scientific Contributions of Dissertation - In terms of theory: Systematizing theoretical basis for forest environment lease policy and leasing for ecotourism business purposes in National Parks. Summarizing the international experience for forest environment lease policy and drawing lessons for Vietnam. Synthesizing policy documents that relate to forest environment lease policy in Vietnam, analyzing the limitations and shortcomings of forest environment lease policy in national Parks. - In terms of practice: Assessing the implementation status of forest environment lease policy in National Parks; Evaluating the positive and negative sides in implementing forest environment lease policy in National Park; Evaluating the appropriateness of policies related to leasing forest environment in National Park; offering lessons learned in implementing forest environment policy in National Park. - Base on a theoretical and practical basis, proposing solutions in order to improve the policy and implementation of forest environment lease policy in National Park, Vietnam. 6. Researching methods 6.1. Methods of Collecting Information * Method of selecting study object: National Parks chosen in the research locate in various positions in the northern region. They have the potential to lease environment and deploy forest environment lease activities in various degrees. At each National Park, following information was collected: Information about the basic features of the National Park, the National Park management, ecotourism activity management and management of forest environment leasing. Besides, information on the status of implementation of forest environment lease policy in National Park and information about the participation of the parties in the implementation of forest environment lease policy were also collected. * Methods of collecting information: - Secondary information: Secondary information was collected through inheriting methods, research at desk, including: The relevant law documents; Information about summary and assessment of policy and the implementation of forest environment leasing policy; Documents and research results relating to the forest environment leasing policy; Reports from different levels of local government, the forestry management agencies, the research of National Parks. - Primary information: Information was collected through interviewing directly managers, interviewing people and participants who subject to the renting and leasing activities. Consulting ideas from experts through directly interviewing such as interviewing central level managers and scientists. Case study: comprehensive study in 3 National Parks, among them conducting in depth study of Ba Vi National Parks. The number of interview samples depends on the number of managing staffs and employees of Ba Vi National Park as well as the travel companies, expected number is about 100 people. 6.2. Information Processing and Analyzing: Information and data are aggregated and analyzed for each location and each content of the study. Specifically, the quantitative information (forms, data …) will be processed and integrated by the excel program. The methods of analysis: the method of economic statistics; the synthesis method, the descriptive method; the comparative method; the expert method. 7. Literature Review 7.1. International Researches There are only few studies on forest environment lease policy in National Parks. The dissertation reckoned up research projects related to the following areas: (1) Studies on the value of forests, environmental values of forests and forest environmental services: The studies confirmed that forests have many values, these values provide many different benefits, the full assessment of value of forest and forest environment is the basis for exploitation and sustainable forest management. But people are only interested in values of logging while the value of forest environmental services are really interested in lately. (2) The studies of exploitation of ecotourism services: The activities of ecotourism business, entertainment tend to rise and have increasingly high proportion of the total values of the forest. Leasing forest environment for ecotourism business has been considered as one of the important issues of forest management currently. (3) The studies of forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Parks: awareness of forest evironmental value has been getting more attention, which lead to changes in policy of forest management and forestry. State policies related to forest environment lease are not really suitable for practical requirements, specific policy. Therefore, the implementation of forest environment lease is small and spontaneous. (4) The studies of evaluation of forest service values and determination of forest environment lease price: quantify this value is relatively complex, specific assessment methods can be applied depending on types of goods and environmental services provided by. 7.2. Research results in Vietnam In Vietnam, there are some research projects related to the topic such as: (1) Forest management system in Vietnam; (2) Forest evaluation determination; (3) Forest rent. These researches point out several related problems, a certain aspect of the policy as well as certain experiences. Because of the demands for the integration process and economic development, the innovation, perfect theoretical and practical policy for forest environment lease policy is an inevitable trend in Vietnam today. 8. Dissertation structure Besides Preface, Conclution, List of references and appendices, the dissertation structure includes 3 chapters: Chapter 1: Rationale and practice base of policy for leasing forest environment in National Park. Chapter 2: The state and implement of policy for leasing forest environment in Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Parks. Chapter 3: Complete solutions for forest environment lease policy in in National Parks in Northern region of Vietnam. Chapter 1 RATIONALE AND PRACTICAL BASIS OF FOREST ENVIRONMENT LEASE POLICY IN NATIONAL PARKS 1.1. Forest environment rent in National parks 1.1.1. The concept and role of forest for society 1.1.1.1. The definition of forest: The forest is an ecosystem including forest, wild animals, forest micro-organism flora, forest land and other environmental factors. 1.1.1.2. The forest for society: Forest has 3 main roles including: (1) Providing forest products and non-timber forest products; (2) Protection role, protect ecological environment and provide forest environment services; (3) Role of society. 1.1.2. National Parks and their features in Vietnam 1.1.2.1. National Park: National Park is a part of special purpose forest, its functions are nature, natural landscape and biodiversity conservation. 1.1.2.2. Features of National Park:(1) National Park is a part of special purpose forest; (2) in undevelopment areas; (3) The majority of the National Park has a dual role (conservation combining entertainment, tourism. 1.1.2.3. National Park system in Vietnam: total of 128 forest purpose forests, including 30 National Parks, 48 nature reserves, 12 protected species areas, 38 protected landscape areas. 1.1.3. Forest environment and forest environment rent in National Parks 1.1.3.1. The concept of forest environment and forest environment services * The concept of forest environment: “Forest environment includes components of forest ecosystem: plants, animals, microorganisms, water, soil, air, natural landscape”(Decree No. 99/2010/Nð-CP). * The concept of forest environment services: “Forest environment services is to provide the use value of forest environment to meet the needs of society and people’s lives” (Decree No. 99/2010/Nð-CP). 1.1.3.2. The concept of forest and forest environment rent: “As a form of forest land use and forest of National Park, natural conservation area for organizations” (Decree No 104/2007/Qð-BNN). 1.2. Forest environment lease policy in National Park 1.2.1. The concept of forest environment lease policy: Forest environment lease policy is a set of policies, views, solutions, tools for impact on operations of forest environment lease in National Park to achieve proposedcriteria on the basis of ensuring the exploitation of forest environment service value for ecotourism business. 1.2.2. The basic elements forming policy for leasing forest environment: Determination of policy objectives, the text of the policy, certain rules for the implementation of the policy documents. 1.2.3. Organization system of forest environment lease policy in National Park: Government, Ministry of Agriculture and relevant Ministries, people’Committee of province, National Park. 1.2.4. The nature of forest environment lease policy in National Park: As a specific policy in forestry policy system, directly related to a specific object which is National Parks, but it is related to many other policies. Putting on real – life content of laws, state policies for forestry, forest socialization; Mobilizing the resources of society for forest protection and development, particularly attracting components of non-state organizations; Ensuring employees, who are directly involved in the production, can be paid for the creating value by themselves and inccordance with the true value of the forest; Improving capacity and effectiveness of management, forestuse and protection for forest owners; Exploiting the resources of forestry, forest environment (own resources) to develop new carriers in the economy (ecotourism). 1.3. Experience in developing and implementing forest environment lease policy in the world and Vietnam 1.3.1. Practical experience lessons in the world: Managing and developing consistent policy with National Park, combining state and private sectors in forest and land management, exploiting forest environment values in National Park, sustainable development of ecotourism in National Park, experience of valuable determination of forest environment services, development and completion of forest environment lease policy in National Park. 1.3.2. Practical experience lessons in Vietnam in perfecting forest environment lease policy in National Park: The National Parks of Vietnam have abundant natural resources, beautiful scenery, diversity of fauna and flora, combining with human ecotorism resources. Therefore,potential of ecotourism development is very great. At present, most of National Parks are having ecotourism business which is the first step to create the economic and social benefit. However, ecotourism in National Park ’have not been commensurated with the available potential while the nature of tourism development is spontaneous. With that existing problem, the policy of the state is to attract the various components of exploitation of forest environment service to enhance the forest value, looking for revenue sources for conservation, reduce the burden on the State. However, implementation is very difficult and having many problems. Many National Parks stop at programs and schemes because the activities are very new and in fact there is not much appreciated attention to have practical experiences. 1.3.3. Learned lessons in pefecting policy of forest environment lease: Through experience research in management of National Park, ecotourism activities, forest environment lease in Vietnam and the world, the dissertation drawn 14 research issues. Chapter 2 STATUS OF POLICY AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION OF FOREST ENVIRONMENT LEASE IN BA VI, TAM DAO, BEN EN NATIONAL PARKS 2.1. Overview of National park in the Northern Vietnam National Park in the northern region accounts for 50% of Vietnam’National Parks, diverse ecosystems, beautiful natural scenery, and rich human resources which having specific features of each regions. 2.2. Characteristics of Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Park which affecting policy implementation for forest environment rent and lease 2.2.1. History of research National Parks Ba Vi National Park was established on January 16th 1991, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Tam Dao National Park was established on January 24th 1977, under MARD on June 15th 1996. Ben En National Park was established on August 9th 1986, under MARD, this National Park was transferred to people’committee of Thanh Hoa province. 2.2.2. Status of land and tourism resources in Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Parks: The research National Parks have a large area of land, huge ecosystem diversity, many beautiful natural sceneries, rich human travel resources. However, to exploit them to meet the development of tourism, it need to invest funds to build, develop and embellish these resources. 2.2.3. Evaluation of own potential exploitation for ecotourism development in Tam Dao, Ba Vi, Ben En National Parks: The National Park has great potential for ecotourism development through exploitation of the natural elements, biological diversity, natural lanscape and human tourism resources. However, the exploitation of this potential depends on many factors such as geographical location, the attractiveness of natural resources, diversification of tourism products, local policies, the seasonality of tourism, linkage in tourism organizations. 2.2.4. The basic activities in research National Parks: Main activities are Management of forest protection, development, exploitation and management activities. In reality, the National Parks focus primarily on operations of forest protection and development, management activities of one career units while other activities are not interested to develop, especially exploiting forest environment services to raise revenue for the National Parks. 2.3. The policy of forest environment lease in research National Parks 2.3.1. Background of the forest environment lease policy in National Parks: Forest environment for rent in National Parks is one of the new points of the policy to encourage investment and development of special purpose forest. This policy is being completed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and MARD to exploit the forest environment services to raise revenue for forest workers, increase re-investment, reduce the investment of the State and improve implementation of social mobilization in forest protection and development. 2.3.2. The policy, the view of the Party and the State for forest environment lease in National Park: Forest environment lease in National Parks began in 2002 through the scheme “pilot of using special purpose forest environment for ecotourism development and vocational education” which is assigned to MARD to implement by the Prime Minister. The view of the Party and the State... “to encourage the development of activities for forest environmental services, ecotourism business in National Park suitably provisions of the law to create revenue for National Park, replacing investment of State budget”. 2.3.3. The goals of forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Park: Socializing forest environmental services in National Parks helps to reduce the burden of the State; to ensure that the workers are paid the forest value by their creation and people who are responsible for forest management can increase income; increasing the efficiency of the forest sector through the receipt of management skills and the investment from the private sectors; the development of ecotourism business based on the foundation of assets under public ownership, the equity capital of the National Park; increasing income for local people. 2.3.4. The system of legal documents relating to forest environment lease for ecotourism business in National Park: The law of forest protection and devlopment dated on February 3rd 2004 by National Assembly; Decision No. 18/2007/Qð-TTg dated on February 5th 2007 by Prime Minister; Decision No. 57/2012/Qð-TTg dated on January 9th 2012 by Prime Minister; Decree No. 23/2006/Nð-CP dated on March 3rd 2006 by Government; Decree No. 117/2010/Nð-CP dated on December 24th 2010 by Government; Decision No. 186/2006/Qð-TTg dated on August 14th 2006 by Prime Minister; Decision No. 104/2007/Qð- BNN dated on December 27th 2007 by MARD; Decision No. 24/2012/Qð-TTg dated on June 1st 2012 by Prime Minister. The legislative documents proposed the following contents: Regulations on management and use of special purpose forest, regulations on hiring special purpose forest environment, Mechanism of investment for National Park, Provision of organization for ecotourism activities in National Park, the degree of impact on forest environment in National Park, determining the rate of forest land area in National Park to build infrastructure, objects of hiring and lease for forest environment, the term of forest environment lease, price of forest environment rent, regulations of revenue use from ecotourism activities, regulations of project development for forest environment lease, regulations of sequences, procedures, authority for forest environment lease in National Park, regulations of check and supervision. 2.4. The status of the implementation of forest environment lease policy in Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Parks 2.4.1. The propaganda activities of plan development for forest environment in research National Parks: The propagation and dissemination of policy, plan development and plans for hiring remains slow. When implementing plan, it need to develop full contents of the plan as a business plan. 2.4.2. Identifying and selecting organizations for forest environment lease in research National Parks: The National Parks will provide criteria for hiring objects. Important criteria are capcity (financial, experience) ofensuring principles for operating lease (forest protection and development, conservation of natural resources and human resources, attracting community, local contributions,...). 2.4.3. Determining rent price and terms of contract for forest environment lease in research National Parks a) Determination of rent price for forest environment: Ba Vi National Park has established a Board of building plan to calculate rent price of forest environment based on Decree No. 48/2007/ND-CP on March 28th 2007 of Government, in 2008 price is determined at 409.408 dong. Ben En National Park has been using the comparative method to determine the rent price of forest environment. The unit that is chosen to compare is the Ba Vi National Park and the rent price is determined to be 606.247 VND/ha/year. The dissertation has taken a number of exiting method for determining rent price of forest environment. b) The order and procedures of implementing forest environment lease policy in research National Parks: Ba Vi National Park is the first unit assigned to pilot lease policy for forest environment. Ba Vi National Park has done a lot of work with many different procedures. The procedure is performed to ensure compliance with legislation and ensure strict legal. Ben En National Park has implemented more simple procedures than Ba Vi National Park but basically still ensured necessary order and procedure. c) The provisions in implementing forest environment lease policy in research National Parks: Ba Vi National Park has made provisions in detail in implementing forest environment lease policy, including: area for leasing, regulation on building of lease schemes, area measurement, inventory and assessment of the status of forest and land; records of land use planning in the lease area, the construction of buildings, ecotourism business organization, monitoring,... The povisions in implementing forest environment lease policy in Ben En National Park base on experience of Ba Vi National Park. Therefore, they are more adequate, especially regulations of ecotourism organization, local attraction, compliance of the national and local povisions, cultural value protection of local... However, these povisions need to be more detailed and include specific criteria to ensure favorable conditions for the inspection and supervison. The contents of ecotourism organization need to be detail, such as: implementation activities, organization, capacity,environmental impact assessment, using local labor and contributing to local,... d) The terms of forest environment lease: Area, term, location, levels of impact, price and method of payment for lease, settlement of the relevant assets, rights and obligations of each party. e) Result of signing a contract between the National Park and units of forest environment lease: Ba Vi National Park has selected 6 units those are eligible for forest environment lease and determined the boundary of these units. However, so far the Park has signed with only two organizations. One reason for the delay in signing the contract between the National Park and the travel companies is that the conditions in the contract with the travel companies are not close while there is no coordination between the National Park and local Goverment, not accurately assess the financial strength of the companies receiving rent. Two travel companies have sighned contracts comply with contractual commitments as acreage, protection and conservation of natural resources, construction area of infrastructure. 2.4.4. The inspection and supervision of the implementation of forest environment lease policy in research National Park: The contents of inspection include: the implementation of the park of planned contents, digital content of protection, afforestation and construction of infrastructure. The unit that are assigned to perform inspection is park rangers. They must have an annual report on the forest environment lease activities in the area, while arisen problem must be reported immediately to the leaders of park to solve. 2.4.5. The result of the implementation of forest environment leaw policy for ecotourism business in Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Parks 2.4.5.1. Ba Vi National Park a) The number of units of forest enviornment lease in Ba Vi National Park: National Park has allowed six units for pilot leasing forest environment on the area that used to be assigned to protect forest previously. Among six companies, two companies have implemented business activities well, while other companies are in the phase of investing in infrastructure so they have not got adequate facilities to conduct business activities. b) The area and location of forest environment lease in Ba Vi National Park: Total area of ecotourism zone that receives forest environment rent in Ba Vi National Park is 743.4 ha, including natural resources, planted forest, land without forest in ecological restoration zones. c) Revenue from ecotourism activities in Ba Vi National Park: Income from forest environment lease in Ba Vi National Park tends to increase but with small proportion. In contrast, revenue from ecotourism activities of leasing organization has increased which shows professionalism and the effect of investment of travel companies on contributing to make revenue of the companies for forest environment lease. Unit: Million dong Figure 2.1. Income from forest environmental lease at BaVi National Park Sourses: Ba Vi National Park [46] Figure 2.2. Income from Ecotourism at Ba Vi National Park of tourism companies Sourses: Ba Vi National Park [45] Revenue structure of the tourism companies are various, mainly from landscape ticket fees and accommodation services. The structure of income is different between the units of environment rent relating to the situation of investment and objectives of the business. Unit: % Figure 2.3. Revenue structure of Thien Son-Suoi Nga and Thac Da Ecotourism Companies Sources: Ba Vi District [45] d) Results of forest protection and development of forest environment rent units in Ba Vi National Parks: Forest development is interested in by rental units. Empty land area was planted supplementally by rental units from their own fund. After 8 years (from 2003 to 2011), the total forest area in the region has increased by 40,2%. A large part of empty land area has been replanted (207ha) and the remaining of 16ha has been used to build the infrastructure (accounting for 2,18%). Leased forest environment units have private security forces in conjunction with Park rangers so forest protection is done very well. The total cost of the annual forest protection of forest environment rent units is 690 million dong used to maintain full-time team of forest management and fire preventation. e) Result of tourist attraction in Ba Vi National Park: The number of visitors to the park increased tremendously after implementing forest environment lease policy. Implementation of tourism companies is more professional,especially companies have the financial resources to invest in technical infrastructure, creating beautiful man-made lanscape, investing forest regeneration so the number of visitors tend to increase over years. Unit: Visitors Figure 2.4. Number of visitors at Ba Vi National Park Figure 2.5. Number of visitors at Ecotourism Companies Sources: Ba Vi National Park [46] The number of visitors to the tourist areas have significant differencies (Figure 2.4). Attracting visitors to the resort depends on many factors, including rental location, financial capability and experience of business owners is crucial. f) The result of jobs and income generation for local people in Ba Vi National Park: Forest environment lease policy has created job for 1576 local people with stable earnings, including 490 employees in the regular payroll of the ecotourism area, 305 employees with infrequent work contract. Besides, creating thousands of indirect employment opportunities for local people as sales, travel guides, catering services,... which helping people increase their income, diverse revenue from contribute to the reduction of forest. g) The actual use of funds for forest environment lease in Ba Vi National Park: The total collected money from forest environment lease activities from 2008 to 2011 is 1.5582 million dong. Although thefunding from activities of forest environment lease is not much it does help the park have more funds to cover conservation and maintenace of park operations. h) Status of coordination between stakeholders in the implementation process of forest environment lease policy in Ba Vi National Park: Ba Vi National Park has participated in managing and guiding of ecotourism activities of forest environment rent units; People’Committee of Ba Vi district, communes have ecotourism sites to perform the management function of the State of economic, social, technical activities that affect forest; Households and individuals in the area are involved in service activities at the resort. However, to ensure the success of the policy, it requires closer collaboration through a co-management mechanism to enhance the accountability of the parties related to issues of forest resources management and use at the Park. 2.4.5.2. Ben En National Park: Ben En National Park has made a plan to lease forest environment and ecotourism area and has implemented specific activities to ensure the policy such as lease area planning, determination of rent price, looking for travel business units, determination of conditions for environment lease. However, the position of Ben En National Park is less favorable than Ba Vi National Park. In the area there are not many enterprises in ecotourism business activities, so looking for rental and investable units in the park is difficult. 2.4.5.3. Tam Dao National Park: Tam Dao National Park has many advantages in terms of location and tourist potential, but at present forest environment lease policy is still a part of the plan, although MARD agreed in the policy, due to the ojective and subjective reasons. Now, only Ba Vi National Park has already been implementing policy of forest environment lease, the policy implemented over a long period, sufficient basis to assess performance results and draw policy the lessons learned to improve policy. 3.5. Assess the impact of forest environment lease policy in Ba Vi, Tam Dao, Ben En National Park 3.5.1. The positive impacts: The result of implementation of forest environment lease policy in Nation Park shows that the policy have had positive impacts on all aspects of economic, society and environment such as: Reducing the investment of the State, contributing to forest development and protection owned by the State, helping to develop local livelihoods, impacting human resources in the region, contributing to job creation and income generation for local people, changing structure of revenue in National Parks. 3.5.2. The negative impacts of forest environment lease policy and causes 3.5.2.1. The negative impacts: Awareness of the forest environment lease policy is incomplete in the Board of National Park Management. The policy has not provided enough motivation to achieve its objectives. The regulations going along with the policy are not enough and may not have created positive impacts on forest land and resources while they still fail to promote the role of stakeholders in the policy implementation. The process of policy implementation meet difficulties because preparation part has not been done well, leading tonecessary conditions to implement have not been ensured while rent price and use of funds is not reasonable. 3.5.2.2. Causes of the negative impacts: Causes arising from policy development: No specific legal framework, many slow documents, incomplete guidelines, no specific criteria to ensure the necessary relations between lessee and lessor. Causes of the policy implementation such as: no staff trained to manage the rent operations, contracts not close,... Chapter 3 SOLUTIONS FOR PERFECTING FOREST ENVIRONMENT LEASE POLICY IN NATIONAL PARKS IN THE NORTHERN VIETNAM 3.1. Base of perfection for forest environment lease policy in National Park in the Northern Vietnam 3.1.1. The policy of the Party and the State affects the completion of forest environment lease policy in National Park: The policy of the Party and the State are presented in the development strategy of Vietnam’s forestry, strategies of exploitation and use of special purpose forest, the Law of forest protection and development, the Law of biodiversity and concretized in the underlaw. These policies confirm the low forest growth forestry, not to exploit the full value of forest, especially forest environment searvices. National Parks are wasting potential, relying too heavily on State, having low investment funds,... The view in next time: Forestry development from management, protection, development and rational use of forest resources; forestry development based on accelerating and deepening the policy of forest industry socialization, attracting investment resources for forest protection and development; increasing revenue from forest environment services; increasing revenue, diversing form of exploitation organization of forest environment services in National Park, offseting const, increasing revenue for force of forest management and protection, reducing pressure on the State budget, people protect forest directly who receive benifits from exploitationn of services, but ensure the povisions of law, regulations of protected area. 3.1.2. Context of home and world influences to the complement of forest environment lease policy in National Park 3.1.2.1. Advantages of the complement of forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Park: National Park management trend is changing gradually to combine conservation and exploitation of forest economic benefits, carry out commercial activities to support conservation activities; The values of forest environment services are increasingly appreciated and is a part of the general strategy of Government; Many National parks in the world and Vietnam have sucessfully exploited forest environment services for ecotourism business; The implementation of forest environment lease policy has adopted pilot projects of forest environment lease for ecotourism business in some National parks. These projects were assessed successfully and concluded not to affect the function of conservation. 3.1.2.2. The difficulties in improvement of forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Park in Vietnam: Because the particular nature of management, legal system, social and economic conditions differ between countries, the National Parks, it is difficult to have a common partern or make a general rule; the opinion of conservation is narrow and has no change in the management; the management boards of parks are not dynamic, not interested in exploiting the value of forest environment services and still rely on the State. The policy of forest environment lease is incomplete, not really suitable, has not many models to study, and need to learn from experience to complete the policy of forest environment lease in National Park in Vietnam. Besides, some difficulties are peculiar nature of Vietnam such as investment restriction for National Parks, diversity of management subjects, no methods to create incentives for National Park manager, capacity of officials,... 3.1.2.3. Awareness of the lessee and the lessor for goals, contents of forest environment lease policy in research National Park: Inadequate awareness for forest environment of forest managers, assessment of the majority of them on environment services has not exploited fully, the value of tourism and entertainment are just exploited, the consensus opinion of the policy content has made relatively clear. However, at evaluation time many relevant legal documents were enacted and Ba Vi National Park has also built regulations for forest environment lease of the Park. 3.2. The goals of complement of forest environment lease policy in National Parks in northern Vietnam: Strengthen State management for forest environment lease activities in National Park, ensuring sustainable development of forest in National Park, changing awarness of management levels and strengthen coordination of stakeholders, encouraging non-state elements exploit potential of National Park. 3.3. Some methods of complement for forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Parks in northern Vietnam area 3.3.1. Solutions related to policy development 3.3.1.1. Determination of policy goals: Exploitation of environment factors for lease in order to increase income for the forest management Boards and the forest workers; Performance of socialization of forest environment services in the framework of forest environment services; Generating revenue, reducing the burden of the State in forest protection and development for the forests where have multiple environmental services; Ensuring the natural resources and human resources conservation and development, biological diversity and environmental function of forest; Linking to community support, poverty reduction. 3.3.1.2. Ensuring uniformity in policy building: Building a system of uniform policies for policy promulgating level. Policies issued at different levels to ensure uniform legal, unification under a common goal, lower level on the basis of higher level, based on consistent basis effect object to be National Park. Policy should ensure the following requirements: ensuring policy harmonization between conservation and development; Creating a legal framework to ensure encourages for investors to combine travel and forest protection, especially in the private sector; The policy must address the potential conflicts among the goals of resources conservation and travel. Needing to build relevant policies synchronously as: land policy, benefit policy, buffer management policy, benefit sharing policy, investment policy, conservation policy, policy to attract the social sectors to participate in conservation and exploitation of the available benefits of the park,... 3.1.3. Complement of the content of forest environment lease in National Park: The construction and complement of policy content should be based on an assessment and a thorough analysis on the basis of field surveys and experience lessons in development and implementation of forest environment lease policy in National Parks in the world, base on the specific conditions of Vietnam, in each region, especially the lessons learned from the pilot project of forest environment lease has been summarized and evaluated. 3.3.1.4. Research, modification, additional regulations, guidance of policy implementation: Regulations on forest environment lease subjects; Regulations on the lease term, the lease termination; Regulations on the lease quota; Regulations on methods of determination and the cost to lease; Money management and use from forest environment lease; Rights and obligations of the lessee and the lease of forest environment; Sequence and procedures for forest environment lease; Mechanism of transfer of forest environment lease; Implementing organization for forest environment lease; the organization regulations for monitoring and content of monitoring. 3.3.1.5. Addition and complementation of legal documents: Need a separate policy for forest environment lease activities. Reviewing documents related to add, build guidable documents as Decree, circular of MARD, the text of the directly manage units as National Park. Some additional contents such as policy of investment source mobilazation for special purpose forest, buffer management policy, regulations on National Park’s capacity, regulations on infrastructure building for ecotourism development of National Park, regulations on training support of human resources for ecotourism development, specific rules of compensation level for infrastructure investment business in ecology forest when the State recovers land for other projects and the level of business’compulsory investment for forest conservation to be effective, coordination and regulation of relationship building between the participants to use the forest sustainably, regulations of income and expenditure mechanism related to forest enviroment lease. 3.3.2. Group of implementation solutions for forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Park 3.3.2.1. Decentralized administration of National Park: Need to develop decentralization mechanisms, creating a financial mechanism for National Park, ensuring responsibilities associated with specific tasks and powers for each level. In particular, it need to be strengthened to attract and increase accountability at all levels of government, specially districts and communes. 3.3.2.2. Review and implementation for certificate of land use rights for National Parks : Certificates of land use rights help the Parks to have the legal basis for implementation, signing contract with organizations, individuals wishing to rent forest environment. 3.3.2.3. Preparing the necessary conditions for policy implementation in the Park: Completing the National Park structure, determining the rights and responsibilities of the Park management Board for activities of forest environment lease. Training human resources in ecotourism development; Building infrastructure in National Park area to attract investor to rent forest environment; Conservation of biodiversity in order to generate attraction for investors and tourists; Aware education of forest protection and coordination of the community participation. 3.3.2.4. Preparation of the necessary procedures to implement forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in National Park: Ensuring legal and coherence of forest environment rent contract; Amending, supplementing the regulations and guidances to implement the policy. 3.2.3.5. Mobilizing stakeholders to exploit the forest environment on the basis of solving harmony of interests between stakeholders and ensuring sustainable development of the forest environment: There should be provisions to ensure the join between the parties involved in the forest environment lease policy on the basis of combination of rights and responsibilities of each party’rights; Solving the economic relationship between stakeholders. 2.2.3.6. Collaboration and benefit share between the park management Board and local government in forest management and benefits exploitation from forest: create appropriate mechanisms to encourage the participation of stakeholders in the local management of the park. The collaboration between people and communities is essential and through propaganda, education for people living in the buffer zone participate forest protection and development. The collaboration between the National Park management Board and local authorities on the basis of ensuring the benefit of the two sides. 3.2.3.7. Well organized inspection and monitoring for forest environment rent units: Forest environment rent units are checked, guided, consulted regularly to comply the approved plans through specialized department. When policy implementation needs to have the required impact assessment of ecotourism activities to conservation, economic and social development in the region. The assessment must be carried out regularly and immediately after signing the lease contract, in build of projects for forest environment lease. Ensuring to limit the risk of natural resource conservation. At all stages of the process of policy implementation need to be checked, monitored closely to ensure not to cause adverse effects to the forest environment and diversity in National Parks. CONCLUSION On the basis of the research contents, the author has completed the research objectives and the following conclusions: 1. Ecotourism business in National Park is a method of forest environment value exploitation, has been being applied in many countries in the world. Confirming the type of ecotourism is responsible for environment conservation and to improve livelihood of local communities. 2. Forest environment lease for ecotourism business is piloted in a number of National Parks in Vietnam and had certain results initially, contributing to reduce the burden on the state budget, creating financial sources to bring sustainable nature of National Park and attracting resources of private sector to invest in forest development and protection. 3. In Vietnam, there has not been separate legislation of forest environment lease for ecotourism business in National Park, creating a new legal framework for the initial pilot implementation of this policy, however the policy is revealed many limitations and inadequacies and have not met the practical requirements. 4. The policy of forest environement lease for ecotourism business in National Park should focus on the following contents: definition of policy objectives, ensuring main contents of policy (objects, limitation, price, limit, fund management and use, the rights and obligations of each party, order, procedure, contract transfer, implementation of activities, monitor, inspection for lease. 5. The solutions of formulation and implementation of forest environment lease policy for ecotourism business in life needd to focus on addressing the following issues: management decentralization mechanism of National Park based on responsibilites and certain powers, fitted with approciate investment mechanisms for National Park; Issuing cerficates of land use rights for the Parks; Completing the management structure at the Parks on a a consistent basis tend to associate with protection and exploitation of the value of forest. Strengthening dissemination of policy to related objects; Mobilizing participants to exploit the forest environment, especially the private sector; Education and awareness of forest protection and coordination of the implementation of forest environment lease policy of local communities; Training human resources in ecotourism development; building infrastructure in the park area to attract investors, strengthening inspection and supervision of the forest environment lease organization and ensuring legality and stricture of forest environment leases; co- ordination and benefit sharing with local governments.