Government reaffirms help for villagers' timber management
Government reaffirms help for villagers' timber management
The government will continue to assist communities in managing their utilisation of timber while identifying potential commercial uses, a concerned official said.
Head of the Village Forestry and Non-Timber Forest Product Management Division under the Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr Oupakone Alounsavath made the comment at the recent launch of a Thematic Expert Group on Village Use Forest (TEGVUF) workshop.
TEGVUF was established to define what constitutes legal timber from forests managed by local communities and to identify the scope of village use forests, including forest land of individuals and households.
The potential for commercial use of timber by local communities and villagers as a means to increase their benefits from forest management was assessed during the workshop.
It also served to build awareness among concerned stakeholders, particularly local villagers on the use and trade of forest resources. Meanwhile identification and consolidation of laws, rules, regulations and guidelines regarding the legal and sustainable timber utilisation in forest and forest land are required.
Dr Oupakone explained that to improve sustainable forest management and good forest governance, the process could start from the village level as villagers can take a lead role in forest protection.
By getting villagers involved, we can improve the procedures of timber utilisation in the way villages use forests and of individual landholders, to be consistent with the laws and regulations.
This is to ensure that village forests are protected and developed to be a sustainable timber supply source for villagers and communities as well as an income source to improve their livelihoods, he said.
TEGVUF is part of the Lao EU-FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade) Process as part of the preparation for the first face to face negotiation on a FLEGT VPA (Voluntary Partnership Agreement) between Lao PDR and the European Union (EU).
