The impacts of devolution policy for mangrove forest management in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam - Data devolution in commune level

Mangrove forests are known to provide many ecological services and sources of livelihood to local community. The policy of contracting mangrove forest to households for management fails to conserve as farmers tend to convert mangrove to other uses. We proposed the following research objectives: [1] examine the impacts of devolution policy and other institutional measures on mangrove forest areas at commune level; [2] examine the impacts of devolution policies, institutional and economic factors on the mangrove coverage of mixed shrimp-mangrove systems. Mangrove forest indicators of analyses at both household and commune level in the South Vietnam are measured in two aforementioned ways. One is self-reported, by farm managers in household data and by Forestry Management in commune data, and the other is calculated using satellite images. We planned to collect 5-year (2011-2016) data from 110 communes for this project. Out of the 100 communes, we have been able to collect data for 83 communes in 4 provinces, including Trà Vinh, Bạc Liêu, Kiên Giang and Cà Mau.红树林（Mangrove forests）素来可为当地社区提供丰富的生态服务与生计来源。将红树林承包给农户开展管护的政策未能实现保护目标，原因在于农户往往会将红树林改造为其他用地类型。本研究设定如下研究目标：[1] 探究权力下放政策及其他制度措施对乡级行政单元内红树林面积的影响；[2] 探究权力下放政策、制度与经济因素对虾塘-红树林复合系统红树林覆盖度的影响。针对越南南部农户与乡级两个层面的红树林分析指标，本研究采用前述两种方式进行测算：其一为自主申报数据，农户层面的数据由农场经营者上报，乡级层面的数据由林业管理部门上报；其二为通过卫星影像计算得到的测算数据。 本项目原计划从110个乡级行政单元收集2011至2016年的五年期数据。在已启动采集的100个乡级单元中，我们已成功获取其中83个的相关数据，覆盖茶荣（Trà Vinh）、薄寮（Bạc Liêu）、坚江（Kiên Giang）与金瓯（Cà Mau）4个省份。