Co-management meeting in Cu Lao Dung

8^th negotiation meeting

Time: 9:00 – 11:15 Date: 15.05.2013
Place: An Thanh Nam Commune People’s Committee, Cu Lao Dung District

The meeting started with a review of the last discussion after a long break. In the last meeting, we identified how people collected the main resources such as crabs, shrimps, fish and we agreed on banning some harmful methods such as push net, chemicals, electric devices, the 12 hell gate in the co-management area. Printouts of the resource use calendar were distributed to participants. Then we continued to discuss on tools and methods people use for the rest of the resources in the calendar. Results of today’s discussion on resource collecting methods are summarized in the following table:

Resources	Collecting method	Regulation/Modification
Mangrove worm	- Digging by hoe (harmful as destroying mangrove roots and young plants; not important income source, local people don’t use them but sell to buyers from outside).	- Using hoe, spade to dig for mangrove worm will be forbidden (It is forbidden anyway by state law).
Big black clam	- Using hands (rare resources)	- No further regulation needed
Dry, dead wood	- Using hands, knife, axe (to cut big branches of dead woods into smaller pieces)	- Knife is allowed - Axe, saw will be forbidden
Bee honey	- Climbing up the trees using torch to create smoke to chase the bees away and then using knife to take out the honey	- No further regulation needed
Sea-snake	- Using hands, not inside the forest but outside towards the sea	- No further regulation needed
Rat	- Using traps	- No further regulation needed
Eel-like	- Using hands	- No further regulation needed

When talking about dry wood collection, people showed interest in the energy-efficient stove (like in Au Tho B). We noted this down as idea for consideration in supporting them.

We also started to discuss about the new chapter on rewards and penalties. As reward for good practices, outstanding performances, we tried to follow what is already available in the locality for sustainability in the long run (after end of the project). It is recognised that Kiem Lam has a reward scheme related to forest protection and Sub-DARD has a reward scheme related to aquatic resources. There are basically 2 types of reward, immediate reward for those who discover illegal actions and yearly evaluation reward at the end of the year. In most of the cases, people receive certificates and about 200,000 – 300,000 VND. This discussion is not yet finished as not many members of the local authorities were present today.

Then we talked about what happens if member of the co-management group violate the rules:

- 1^st offense: the violator will be educated and s/he will have to write and sign a commitment that the regulation has been understood.

- 2^nd offense: the membership card will be confiscated for 3 months and the violator will be informed that next time a vote will be held about a potential exclusion from the group.

- 3^rd offense: a vote will be held with the group whether to exclude the violator from the co-management group or not.

- If the person continues to violate the rules s/he will be dealt with by local authorities.