Soc Trang team: September 2013

Sunday 22 September 2013

Vo Thanh Van Co-management Signing Ceremony 22.09.2013

On September 22nd 2013, the official signing of the 3rd co-management agreement for Soc Trang province took place in Vo Thanh Van village, Cu Lao Dung district. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Project Management Unit of the Vietnamese-German technical cooperation project "Management of Natural Resources of Soc Trang Province" and other departments as well as representatives of Cu Lao Dung, Vinh Chau and Tran De district and neighbouring villages.

With the official signature of the Commune People´s Committee, the regulation of Vo Thanh Van Co-Management Group is now a legally binding document and members of the Co-Management Group as well as people from outside have to follow the rules provided in the regulation. This regulation is the result of intense work and a series of meetings between local authorities and local resource users in order to negotiate together an agreement for the future management of the mangrove forest of Vo Thanh Van village.

This is the third official co-management site in Soc Trang province, after the pilot-site in Au Tho B village (2009) and the 2nd Co-Management group in Mo O village, which was launched in April this year. The aim of mangrove co-management is to provide local communities with benefits through legal and secured access to natural resources in protection forests and at the same time to ensure sustainable use of the resources and effective protection of the mangrove forests. The latter is extremely important for the coastal zone of Soc Trang Province because of the negative impacts of climate change.