Landscape: Kon Ka Kinh National Park (KKKNP) has the size of area of 41,913.78 ha, of which more than 90% (39,324.02 ha) of the area covered with natural forest. It is located 3 districts including Mang Yang, KBang and Dak Doa of Gia Lai province. The park has diverse flora and fauna with high biodiversity conservation value and beautiful landscapes.
Flora and Fauna
The park’s natural forest composes of typical tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems and has the unique biological characteristics of the Central Truong Son landscape. KKKNP has many endemic and threatened species, including 29 species in the IUCN Red List, 138 higher plants and 34 mammal species in the Vietnam Red Data Book and 30 species in Decree No. 06/2019/ND-CP.
Major Impacts/ challenges The natural values of Kon Ka Kinh National Park are facing threats from anthropogenic and natural disturbances, mainly from illegal logging of forest products, encroachment and forest fires.
Executive Summary
The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) addresses the biodiversity challenges across Southeast Asia by working on regional strategies towards the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The ASEAN Heritage Parks[1] (AHP) Programme is one of the flagship programmes of ASEAN to promote biodiversity conservation and improve the livelihood of AHP communities by developing and enhancing the capacity of AHP managers and multiple other stakeholders involved, including the communities that depend on the forest and other natural resources.
The Small Grants Programme (SGP), with assistance of German Financial Cooperation (KfW) supports efforts to protect biological diversity in AHPs, while simultaneously assisting livelihood development in and around select AHPs. Since 2017, in the second phase (SGP II), this financial cooperation extends its support to participating AHPs in Vietnam.
In Viet Nam, Kon Ka Kinh National Park (KKKNP) and three (3) other AHPs, Hoang Lien National Park (HLNP), Chu Mom Ray (CMRNP) National Park, and Ba Be National Park (BBNP) have been selected for implementation of the SGP II.
The overall programme objective is the protection of biological diversity and the sustainable management of natural ecosystems in the ASEAN region and to contribute to the improvement of livelihoods of the local population. The SGP II aims to:
- Improve biodiversity protection in line with the interest of local population directly dependent on selected AHPs and adjacent areas;
- Improve the livelihood of local communities directly dependent on selected AHPs or adjacent areas;
- Improve capacity and coordination for biodiversity conservation of AHP system in Viet Nam, including monitoring and evaluation system;
- Strengthen the role of ACB in promoting biodiversity protection among the ASEAN Member States (AMS).
The SGP supports a co-management approach for government-managed protected area landscapes and adjacent areas through multi-level co-management as means to link the protected area officials with the local stakeholders. It highlights eight thematic fields of protected area management: i) General Park management, ii) Wildlife research and monitoring, iii) Law enforcement, iv) Habitat and species management, v) Community outreach and conservation awareness, vi) Community development, vii) Ecotourism, and viii) Sector policy development; introduces the concept of establishing protected area working groups; and linking the core zone and the buffer zone agendas, comprising key landscape stakeholders.
This 5-Year AHP Participatory Small Grants Action Plan (PSGAP) provides a strategic framework for implementing SGP II and clear guidance to the development of small grant supported projects. It also serves as a reference for projects planning of relevant stakeholders. The PSGAP adopts a participatory planning approach that will actively engage all stakeholders to ensure the involvement and acceptance of all stakeholders to the small grants action plan.
The PSGAP aligns with the AHP’s national Sustainable Forest Management Plan (SFMP) and annual local Social-Economic plans that are developed by local authorities.
The PSGAP is implemented by Contracted Service Providers (SP) of the respective participating AHPs with the support of international Consultants.
The PSGAP is required to conform with the appropriate KfW Sustainability Guidelines[2] for implementing international projects through a supporting Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF). The SGP II Environment Social Due Diligence (ESDD) identified overall project risk rating as Category B+ (substantial risk) under the KfW Sustainability Guidelines. Given the anticipated contextual risk, and the risk associated with grant selection and specific activities, the ESMF details the generic procedures of addressing these risks as well as the implementation of ESMF monitoring in SGP II.
Based on the rapid assessment findings of law enforcement and practice in the 4 AHPs, and discussion with KfW, the PMU and ACB decided to exclude most of the law enforcement activities.
The ESMF and the PSGAP both outline stakeholder engagement at site-level, ensuring that there is inclusive stakeholder engagement, in particular gender and ethnic minority, in the grant projects, and allows for stakeholders’ ability to provide feedback and/or grievance, which are policy requirements in the KfW Sustainability Guideline.
The PSGAP aligns its SGP packages for investment with the findings of the ESMF. Selected grant projects shall not foresee having more than moderate risks. SGP packages rated low risk will require a minimum Environmental and Social Code of Practice (ESCOP). Those packages rated moderate risk will require a site-specific Environmental Social Management Plan (ESMP). In addition, Grantees, SPs and relevant authorities shall be capacitated in addressing the associated risks of environmental and social impacts of the anticipated activities.
Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is an instrument to assert indigenous peoples’ rights/ethnic groups/local communities (communities) in development activities in their territories. FPIC builds on the process of meaningful consultation and is established through good faith negotiation (Annex 1). Grant supported projects in SGP II which involved ethnic minorities are required to adopt this engagement approach prior to project implementation.
The primary beneficiaries of the programme are the local communities and CBOs in AHPs and adjacent areas with strong vested interests (short to medium term income generation opportunity and longer-term natural resource sustainability) in the project interventions offered. Other groups such as ethnic minority groups, women, youth, and other the vulnerable communities are actively encouraged to participate in project planning and implementation.
Other core partners / beneficiaries that will be institutionally strengthened within the scope of the SGP are professionals and executives of the environment, forestry, water, energy, and other relevant sector authorities at the national level; the nature conservation administrations; the management of AHPs; as well as universities and NGOs. Local government field staff (agriculture/forestry technicians) engaged in community-based resource management shall be capacitated to provide the required extension support. In addition, village leaders, key farmers, local businesses and cooperatives, CSOs and NGOs are also seen as target group for capacity building.
KKKNP is located in six communes, including Ayun, Dak Jo Ta (Mang Yang district), Kon Pne, Kroong, Dak Roong (Kbang district) and Ha Dong (Dak Doa district) in Gia Lai province. The central part of the park is located in Ayun commune, Mang Yang district, about 50 km northeast of Pleiku city.
The park covers an area of 41,913.78 ha and is divided into 3 subdivisions, including:
- Strictly protected subdivision (SPS)
- Ecological restoration subdivision (ERS)
- Administration, service and tourism subdivision (ASTS)
The buffer zone of Kon Ka Kinh National Park includes 18 hamlets and villages in 7 communes, including Ayun, Dak Jo Ta, Ha Ra (Mang Yang district), Kon Pne, Kroong, Dak Roong (Kbang district) and Ha Dong commune (Dak Doa district).
KKKNP is located in the highland with tropical monsoon climate. The region has complex topography and many different high mountain belts. These factors create a complex structural diversity combined with the climatic factors resulting in a rich and diverse flora, fauna and habitat diversity. In terms of flora, KKKNP is the area of the following flora systems.
- The flora of the Northern Vietnam system that is often distributed in areas affected by the tropical wet and rainy climate regime.
- The flora of the Yunnan – Guizhou system and the foothills of the Himalayas that have coniferous species of conifers such as Podocarpus imbricatus , Dacrydium pierrei and Nageia wallichiana
- Flora of the Malaysia – Indonesia system that have representative species of Dipterocarpaceae such as Anogeissus acuminata, Parashorea stellata and Shorea siamensis.
- Flora of the India – Myanmar system that have representative species in in the family Combretaceae and Lythraceae.
KKKNP is a centre of endemism, restricted-range species, has numerous less-well studied taxa likely to reveal new species and contains a number of globally threatened species including large charismatic mammals and birds.
The total number of higher plant species recorded in KKKNP is 1,754 species, belonging to 753 genera and 181 families, accounting for about 14% of the national flora. The park currently has about 1,629 species of angiosperms, 16 species of gymnosperms, and 109 species of ferns. There are also 91 species of lower plants belonging to 39 genera and 26 families, among them there are 66 species of mosses (Bryopsida) belong and 25 species of Marchantiophyta. The number of woody tree species has accounted for 46%, herbaceous plants have accounted for 25% and other plants have accounted for about 29%. Currently there are 138 endemic and threatened higher plant species listed in the Vietnam Red Data Book and IUCN Red List present in the park.
88 species of mammals are recorded, belonging to 26 families and 8 orders. The fauna has high conservation value with 29 endangered species in the IUCN Red List, 34 species in the Vietnam Red Book and 30 species in Decree No. 06/2019/ND-CP. Four species of particular concern include Northern buffed-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus annamensis), Gray-shanked douc langur (Pygathrix cinerea), Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis) and Giant muntjac (Megamuntiacus vuquangensis).
There are 326 bird species belonging to 53 families and 17 orders are recorded. The park has identified 43 threatened bird species, accounting for 13.2% of the total bird species in the park. Among of these bird threatened species, there are 12 species in the IUCN Red List (2016), 12 species in the Vietnam Red Data Book and 19 species listed in Decree 06/2019/ND-CP.
There are 77 reptile species are recorded belonging to 12 families and 2 orders. Among them, there are 8 rare species listed in the Vietnam Red Data Book, 10 species listed in Decree 06/2019/ND-CP and 11 species listed in the IUCN Red List (2016). The park has 58 species of frogs belonging to 6 families and 1 order. The park has recorded 321 species of insects belonging to 10 different families of Lepidoptera order.
There have been a limited number of studies conducted in the park. In each instance these studies have identified new species and it is reasonable to surmise that future studies will increase the knowledge of the number of species and likely identify species unknown to science. Certain taxa have received very little attention.
KKKNP faces numerous challenges due to climate change, anthropogenic pressures, insufficient resources for management and historical events. The promotion of intensive agriculture places increasing pressures on the natural values of the AHP. Infrastructure and agricultural development threaten to fragment the integrity of the larger ecosystem.
The policy and planning framework, which provides the rationale for the trade-offs between ecosystem resilience and economic development, leans towards investment in economic development, often at the expense of biodiversity conservation and the ability of the ecosystem to continue to provide the goods and services which underpin life processes.
Furthermore, geographic location and topography place many of the buffer zone communities at a disadvantage in economic terms as well as access to basic services, often resulting in a high dependency on forest resources, higher levels of poverty and food insecurity. This places members of ethnic minorities at a particular disadvantage.
The diverse ethnic make-up of the buffer zone communes creates different challenges and opportunities in relation to forest management due to their different tenure, cultural approaches to farming and common pool resources management and gender equality. However, in many of the areas where pressure is most intense on the AHP (i.e. close to the core zone boundaries) there is a degree of cultural homogeneity.
KKKNP is relatively small in ecosystem terms resulting in genetic isolation, greater “edge effects”, higher risk of species extinction and increased vulnerability to stochastic and catastrophic events. In summary, they are highly vulnerable and will likely experience high rates of habitat fragmentation, degradation and species extinction in the near future, processes which will be exacerbated by climate change.
Tourism development offers a number of opportunities to improve socio-economic conditions of buffer zone communes. However, this requires a strategic vision which incorporates the aspirations of local communities, the need to attract external investment and the resilience of the ecosystem to buffer and absorb these pressures without loss of natural values and functions. This strategic vision still needs to be developed, integrating the AHP into the local socio-economic development with guidelines based on the socio-ecosystems ability to maintain its key components and functions. Thus, there is a need to develop a framework for tourism and eco-tourism which acknowledges the necessary limitations to maintain the natural values as opposed to investment-led development objectives.
All these issues taken together reflect the need to use the small grant facility, effectively a financial tool; to support the growth – institutional, agency, community and private sector capacities, material resources and tools, technology, know-how, relationships and social capital – of a larger planning and management framework that provides the space and rationale for these trade-offs in order to make the system, core and buffer zones taken together, resilient. From the perspective of the ACB SGP, “resilience can be defined as the capacity of a system to undergo disturbance while maintaining both its existing functions and controls and its capacity for future change”[3], moreover; “resilience is determined not only by a system’s ability to buffer or absorb shocks, but also by its capacity for learning and self-organisation to adapt to change”[4].
The proposed small grant packages are therefore tailored, within the overall envelope of the grant, to support the stakeholders in this process. There is a focus on building technical capacities in areas such as biodiversity information and database management because these are some of the tools necessary to support decision-making and planning. Besides, there is also an emphasis on the processes which build social capital, the networks and relationships, which are a prerequisite for collaborative planning and building in resilience. There is an emphasis on awareness raising, especially as it relates to the alarming and urgent risks posed by climate change, along with the need to make collective decisions to avoid, mitigate and adapt to the inevitable impacts of global warming.
Finally, there is an emphasis on poverty alleviation and gender equality. Gender equality will be mainstreamed in all of the SGP activities as a core objective of the AHP programme, recognising not just the unverality of gender equality, but also that; women play an important role in the management of biodiversity and in rural circumstances women often have a high dependency on biodiversity and other natural resources for their livelihood security and its sustainable management is of real and practical concern to them. To this end the SGP packages selected reflect this emphasis on capacity building, awareness raising and process alongside the agreed 60:40 split[5] in favour of livelihood investment. Table below provides an overview of the grants prioritization in different thematic areas.
[1] AHPs are defined within the ASEAN context as “protected areas of high conservation importance, preserving in total a complete spectrum of representative ecosystems of the ASEAN region”. The establishment of the AHPs intends to present the uniqueness, diversity, outstanding values, and the importance of the conservation areas. This effort is one of the important strategies to tackle the challenges on the environmental degradation in the ASEAN region, as well as part of ACB’s contribution in the region.
[2]https://www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de/PDF/Download-Center/PDF-Dokumente-Richtlinien/Nachhaltigkeitsrichtlinie_EN.pdf
[3] Gunderson, L.H. (2000). Ecological resilience – in theory and application. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31, 425-439.
[4] Gunderson, L.H. and Holling, C.S. Eds. (2002). Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Washington, DC. Island Press.
[5] Packages addressing eco-tourism are essentially addressing socio-economic/livelihood needs.
| HIGH PRIORITY (B) | ||||
| General Park Management | Wildlife research and biodiversity monitoring | Community Outreach and Conservation Awareness | Community Development | Sustainable ecotourism development |
| B-1/ Participatory Threat Reduction Assessment | B-4/ Promotion and development of local products, traditional handicraft and techniques | |||
| B-2/ English language skills training for AHP staffs | B-5/ Training of AHP staffs on ecotourism management and participatory threat reduction | |||
| B-3/ Capacity building for financial planning of AHP | B-6/ Exchange trip to other National Parks on the topic of ecotourism and destination management, and enhance co-operation between national parks, private sector and international institutions | |||
| B-7/ Training of nature tour guides (with specification on primates) | ||||
| B-8/ Awareness raising campaign to promote sustainable ecotourism | ||||
| B-9/ Ecotourism and Biodiversity Day | ||||
| B-10/ Promotion of cultural / traditional heritage of KKKNP | ||||
| MODERATE PRIORITY (C) | ||||
| General Park Management | Wildlife research and biodiversity monitoring | Community Outreach and Conservation Awareness | Community Development | Sustainable ecotourism development |
| C-1/ Strenthenning value chain approach for NTFP, local agricultural and traditional products | C-2/Capacity Building of minorities (esp. women) in commercialization of rural and nature-based tourism using social media platforms | |||
| C-3/ Development of primate souvenirs as part of KKKNP branding | ||||
HIGHEST PRIORITY (A) | ||||
| General Park Management | Wildlife research and biodiversity monitoring | Community Outreach and Conservation Awareness | Community Development | Sustainable ecotourism development |
| A-1/ Capacity building of AHP management in grant proposal identification, writing and management | A-2/ Strengthening capacities in survey, monitoring and reporting | A-6/ Training in outreach and community relations for AHP staffs | A-9/ Support for Women’s groups | A-16/ Development of visitor information and facilities for KKKNP |
| A-3/ Monitoring the efficacy of regeneration and forest enrichment interventions. | A-7/ Awareness programme on KKKNP natural values | A-10/ Supports for development of sustainable agriculture | A-17/ Workshops on sustainable ecotourism | |
| A-4/ Strengthening connectivity | A-8/ Awareness of climate change | A-11/ Support for commune cooperatives | A-18/ Ecotourism website of KKKNP | |
| A-5 / Species recovery plan | A-12/ Commercialization of NTFPs | |||
| A-13/ Skill training of Bahnar basket weaving, brocade and music instrument production | ||||
| A-14/ Small scale (village and individual) composting | ||||
| A-15/ Micro-support for community development |
| ACB | ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity |
| ADB | Asian Development Bank |
| AHP | ASEAN Heritage Park |
| ASTS | Administrative Service and Tourism Subdivision |
| ASEAN | Association of South East Asian Nations |
| ERS | Ecological Restoration Subdivision |
| BZ | Buffer Zone |
| CEEFES | Center for Environmental Education and Forest Environmental Services |
| CBD | Convention on Biological Diversity |
| CBO | Community-Based Organization |
| KKK | Kon Ka Kinh |
| KKKNP | Kon Ka Kinh National Park |
| CPC | Commune People’s Committee |
| RPS | Strictly Protected Subdivision |
| CSO | Civil Society Organizations |
| DARD | Department of Agriculture and Rural Development |
| DCST | Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism |
| DONRE | Department of Natural Resources and Environment |
| DPC | District People’s Committee |
| ĐT | Provincial road |
| ESDD | Environment Social Due Diligence |
| ESCOP | Environmental and Social Code of Practice |
| ESMF | Environmental and Social Management Framework |
| FES | Forest Environmental Service |
| FFPF | Forest Fire Prevention and Fighting |
| FPD | Forest Protection Department |
| FPIC | Free, Prior, and Informed Consent |
| GIS | Geographic Information System |
| GPS | Global Positioning System |
| GRDP | Gross Regional Domestic Product |
| IER | Institute for Environment and Resources |
| IPLC | Indigenous people and Local communities |
| IUCN | International Union for Conservation of Nature |
| KfW | German Financial Cooperation KfW |
| MARD | Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development |
| MCST | Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism |
| M&E | Monitoring & Evaluation |
| MONRE | Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment |
| MoF | Ministry of Finance |
| MoU | Memorandum of Understanding |
| ND-CP | Decree of the Government |
| NGO | Non-Government Organization |
| NP | National Park |
| NTFP | Non-Timber Forest Product |
| NRDP | New Rural Development Program |
| OCOP | One Commune One Product Program |
| PCEMA | Provincial Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs |
| PFES | Payment for Forest Environmental Services |
| PMU | Project Management Unit |
| PPC | Provincial People’s Committee |
| PR | Public Relation |
| PSGAP | Participatory Small Grant Action Plan |
| QD-TTg | Decision of Prime Minister |
| QD-UBND | Decision of Provincial People’s Committee |
| SGP | Small Grants Programme |
| SGP II | Small Grants Programme Phase II |
| SFMP | Sustainable Forest Management Plan |
| SMART | Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool |
| SP | Service Provider |
| UBND | People’s Committee |
| VND | Vietnamese Dong |