Vietnam High Conservation Value Forest Toolkit - HCV Resource ...

introduce appropriate methods/techniques to be used and will not go deeper into explaining
them in detail.
• In some situations, one or more HCVs might be NOT present. It does not mean the users
skip identifying these HCVs. Whereas, the users have to answer all questions relevant to
each HCV and always employ the precautionary principle.
The final sections of the toolkit deal with management and monitoring. It is not within the
scope of the toolkit to give detailed instructions on how to manage and monitor HCVF.
Instead, some general information on the sort of approach to management and background on
how to set up monitoring programs is provided.
Resources
The resources needed to complete an assessment are relatively modest and can depend on the
size of the area. In general however some resources will be needed for all analyses:
The assessment team should consist of both ecological and social experts who preferably have
expertise in the area of forest in question. Especially, the social experts should have experience
in participatory consultation methods. The team should also include representatives of the
SFEs and/or agencies whose forest is being assessed such as SFE staff, DARD and DONRE
staff, etc. Additional team expertise including a mapping/GIS expert and a hydrologist is
preferable, but is not essential.
The amount of time needed is dependent on the size of the area, the number of villages, the
amount of data already available and the degree of thoroughness to be taken. Some things will
however need to be considered: i) time must be spent with stakeholders at the beginning and
end of any work to explain the process and to brief the results; ii) the ecology experts will need
to spend some time in the field looking for values, but most of this information could be
obtained from secondary sources; iii) the social experts will need to visit each community
likely to use the forest area. At least one day of consultation will be needed per village to
gather the bare minimum of information.
Other resources: In the preparation and completion of any HCVF analysis access to written
and on-line resources would be a great help. Maps of land cover, land use, villages,
infrastructure, topography, sites of socio-cultural importance will also be extremely useful.
Precautionary approach
One important component in the identification, management and monitoring of HCVF is the
precautionary approach. HCVFs are, by definition, the most important forests from a
conservation or social perspective (depending on the HCVs identified). Therefore, it is
critically important that the values identified are not lost. But with the current level of
knowledge about forests and how they function, it is not possible to be sure in every case that a
particular management strategy will work. Therefore, it is essential to use the precautionary
approach when dealing with HCVFs.
The precautionary approach operates both when identifying HCVs and when managing already
identified HCVs:
• Assessing the presence of HCVFs: where doubt exists as to whether an attribute, or
collection of attributes, are sufficient to signify HCVs, then the toolkit user will treat these
attributes as HCVs, until information becomes sufficient to prove otherwise. This should
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