11 April 2014, Dalat, Lam Dong, Towards Transparency (TT), Transparency International (TI) and the International Center for Tropical Highland Ecosystems Research (ICTHER) organized a workshop on “Solutions to improve the transparency and accountability in REDD+ implementation process” at local level for government officers, INGOs, and related stakeholders involved in REDD+.
The workshop gathered 35 delegates from provincial and district agencies as well as local organizations, NGOs including Lam Dong Provincial Internal Affairs, Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund (VNFF), DARD, DONRE, Lam Dong Forest Protection Department, Lam Dong Forestry Department, District People Committee from Lam Ha, Lac Duong, Di Linh, Lam Dong Legal Advice Center, Lam Dong Forest Protection and Development Fund, Provincial and district Fatherland Front, CARITAS, SNV, UN-REDD programme team in Lam Dong.
The workshop created good opportunities for delegates to update on Provincial REDD+ Action Plan and lesson learned on the role of local community in monitoring the social – economic development program at district and commune levels. Through the workshop, all delegates contributed their opinion on assessment and identification of good models which is most suitable to apply in Lam Dong to improve transparency and accountability in REDD+ i.e. local monitoring and complaint mechanism.
Most of the comments were to improve and adapt the project with the local context in Vietnam. Some suggested that TI/TT should collaborate with SNV and UNREDD to avoid overlapped activities, especially the “report mechanism”, as well as to meet up with donors’ requirements.
Mr. Le Van Huong, Director of BiDoup Nui Ba National Park said: “It is good to learn from international experience, in particular the Malaysian forestry monitoring model “Forest Watch” and raise awareness for local communities in parallel. We need to detect any risks in communication capacity to minimize incorrect information disclosure to local citizen.” He also recommended TT/TI to review the current ambitious objectives within limited time frame. He highlighted the necessity to get engagement, support and efforts from related stakeholders to ensure effectiveness and successes of the project.