Van Chieu Hoang : Project Update: May 2008

Un-structured interview a local resident at Ba Be National Park on 4 4 2008.

Since being approved for financial support by RSG (on 7 March 2008), the research project has been carried out for over 2 months. After pre-survey in Ba Be National Park and its surrounding communities to collect primary data, focus of the research has been revised and updated. It will concentrate on finding the relationship between local people’s livelihoods and the protected areas’ resources. At the same time, it will determine the feasible mechanisms to encourage active involvements of local people in the management of the protected areas.

From pre-survey, it has been realised that the level of negative relationship between local people and the protected areas is greater than that of the positive relationship. On one hand, protected area management has caused significant obstacles to local people’s livelihoods, at the same time protected area authorities have faced difficulties caused by local residents during their management of the protected areas’ resources. On the other hand, the cooperation between local people and protected area authorities has been still limited and unsustainable.