The Government of Vietnam is highly interested in improving coastal forest management, especially for mangrove forests. Decree 119/2016/ND-CP, approved by the Government of Vietnam in August 2016, focuses on policies for the sustainable management, protection, and development of coastal forests to support adaptation to climate change.
The Our Coast – Our Future pilot project promotes the design of coastal spatial scenarios and a spatial implementation plan as part of a participatory coastal spatial planning process that enables the adoption of a holistic approach to coastal forest management. By working with coastal communes, the creation of a district-level spatial implementation plan enables coordination and consensus over how to manage the coastal landscape to achieve the sustainable management of coastal forests.
The development of coastal spatial scenarios explicitly considers the relationship between forest rehabilitation and management, and multiple other uses of the coastal landscape for infrastructure, livelihood support, and income generation. By identifying the complementarities and conflicts between these different current and future interests in the coastal landscape, an integrated coastal resource management approach can be set into motion.
This Toolkit for Participatory Coastal Spatial Planning at the District Level promotes a tenure-responsive form of coastal spatial planning by identifying ways to improve the sustainability of coastal natural resources focusing on issues of access, use, management, and exclusion rights to specific resource areas. Once a spatial implementation is developed, the stage is set for creating a collaborative approach to mangrove management with key local stakeholders. Altogether, this provides an effective way of improving the sustainable management of vital coastal resources such as mangrove forests.
The Toolkit for Participatory Coastal Spatial Planning at the District Level is composed of three guides:
- Guide No. 1: Participatory Coastal Resource Assessment: Developing Commune Coastal Profiles in Vietnam
- Guide No. 2: Participatory Mapping: Creating Knowledge for Coastal Spatial Planning in Vietnam
- Guide No. 3: Building Coastal Spatial Scenarios in Vietnam: Supporting Planning in Coastal Landscapes at the Local Level.
The toolkit also includes two gender briefs and a lessons learned brief (forthcoming):
- Gender Brief No. 1: Why Gender Matters in Sustainable Coastal Resource Management within Vietnam’s Mangrove Forests
- Gender Brief No. 2: Positive Steps towards Gender Equality in Participatory Coastal Spatial Planning – Case of Tien Lang district, Haiphong, Vietnam
- Lessons Learned Brief (forthcoming)