Part 1 – A Rapid Participatory Biodiversity Assessment - IUCN

IUCN Rapid Participatory Biodiversity Assessment
Field Stakeholder Meetings
Two stakeholder meetings were held, one each in Salavan and Savannakhet provinces. The
purpose of these meetings was to brief participants on the plantation project, explain IUCN’s role
in carrying out a rapid and participatory biodiversity assessment in the relevant provincial districts,
and generate support from government officials for the assessments, especially through provision
of secondary information to IUCN. The meetings were also intended to understand the views and
concerns of provincial and district officials regarding the plantation project.
The reconnaissance mission also enabled to plan out and finalize the survey methodology to
gather relevant information on biodiversity, within the limited time and financial constraints, and
also finalize the survey schedule.
2. Field Assessment
To ensure a representative and integrated social/biodiversity approach, the field methodology
placed an emphasis on fewer but more detailed and in-depth engagements with local villages.
The following process was adopted for the two field missions in Savannakhet and Salavan:
Village selection
The overall scale for this assessment is set at the district level and as such the selection of field
sites/villages was done using a representative landscape and ethnicity approach identifying:
o Key land-uses and ecosystems in the district
o Ethnicity of villages in the district
o Land suitability identified by Burapha (if completed)
o Feasibility of access to the village at the time of assessment
A pre-mission team representative was sent to the provincial and district offices 3 days ahead of
the main assessment teams, to carry out the following preparatory tasks:
• Ensuring that all the appropriate paper work for the field assessment was completed;
• Identifying appropriate provincial and district staff to accompany assessment teams
• Completing initial village selection based on the above criteria.
Assembly of the assessment team
The assessment was lead by an experienced multi-disciplinary team consisting of a mix of
international and local biologists, social specialists, foresters and assessment managers.
Name Designation & Affiliation Project Role
Dr Nathan Badenoch Programme Coordinator
IUCN Lao PDR
Project Team Leader
Mme Latsamay Sylavong Country Representative,
IUCN Lao PDR
Social and Forestry Specialist
Dr Channa Bambaradeniya Coordinator - Regional
Species Conservation
Programme, IUCN Asia
Lead Biologist
Mr Tom Callander
Programme Officer, IUCN Lao
PDR
Project Coordinator
Mr Xiong Tsechalicha Senior Programme Officer,
IUCN Lao PDR
NRM and EIA specialist
Mr. Chay Noy Sisomphane Department of Forestry - Field specialist: Biodiversity
Division of Forest Resource
Conservation(DFRC), MAF
Assessment
Mr. Bounhom Thepphavong Land Use Planning and
Development Department
Land Conservation
Field Specialist: Forester
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