Consultation workshop on project development to promote sustainable agroforestry and green tourism livelihood models from community forest environmental service revenue in Ngoc Chien commune.

Attending the workshop were Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; leaders of several provincial departments and agencies; Tay Bac University and Ngoc Chien commune.

The leader of the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund presented the project.

At the workshop, the following activities were discussed: Raising awareness among the people of Ngoc Chien commune about forest management and protection, ecological environment protection, and biodiversity conservation; providing technical training on building economic development models; developing village regulations and conventions for forest protection and development linked to the effective management and use of forest environmental service fees for forest management and protection, and improving the lives of the people, in accordance with the socio-economic conditions of each locality; building livelihood development models adapted to climate change and sustainable green tourism through the effective use of forest environmental service fees to increase people's income and improve the ecological environment; building a network for learning/sharing experiences among communities with community forests in Son La; promoting agricultural products; disseminating/replicating initiatives within the province and sharing them with other provinces in the national network of community forest conservation areas…

The project duration is 17 months, from November 2025 to March 2027, with a total budget of approximately over 2.3 billion VND, of which over 1.1 billion VND is funded by the GEF SGP Program and 1.2 billion VND is counterpart funding from other sources such as: Forest environmental service fees, provincial budget, and community contributions.

The delegates attending the workshop.

Based on these working groups, delegates discussed, consulted, analyzed, evaluated, and proposed content that needs to be researched and supplemented to create breakthroughs in promoting the development of sustainable agricultural, forestry, and green tourism livelihood models from community-generated forest environmental service fees in Ngoc Chien commune.

Comrade Nguyen Thanh Cong delivered a speech at the workshop.

Speaking at the workshop, Comrade Nguyen Thanh Cong emphasized that Ngoc Chien commune ranks second in the province in terms of forest environmental service payments and has effectively used these payments to create, develop, and build infrastructure serving economic development. Ngoc Chien also possesses great potential for developing ecotourism, resort tourism, and community-based tourism associated with forest protection. He hoped that the project implementing units would continue to expand the scope of research related to biodiversity conservation and the preservation of traditional cultural features; the unique characteristics of Ngoc Chien commune; and promote the development of sustainable agricultural and forestry livelihood models and green tourism from community forest environmental service payments. This will help Ngoc Chien commune develop further in the future.