Ecotourism consultant (RECOFTC)

CONSULTANT TERMS OF REFERENCE

At RECOFTC, we believe in a future where people live equitably and sustainably in and beside healthy, resilient forests. We take a long-term, landscape-based and inclusive approach to supporting local communities to secure their land and resource rights, stop deforestation, find alternative livelihoods and foster gender equity. We are the only non-profit organization of our kind in Asia and the Pacific. We have more than 30 years of experience working with people and forests and have built trusting relationships with partners at all levels. Our influence and partnerships extend from multilateral institutions to governments, private sector and local communities. Our innovations, knowledge and initiatives enable countries to foster good forest governance, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

At RECOFTC, our core values are the foundation of our culture and guide all our work. In addition to job specific skills and experience, the applicant should possess the following characteristics, attitudes and skills:

• Embrace innovation
• Adapt to, and learn from, challenges
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders
• Nurture commitment, responsibility and ownership
• Prioritize sustainability
• Cultivate participation, social inclusion and gender equity

B. PROJECT BACKGROUND The USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) will work with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation, the degradation of natural forests, and poor plantation management. The Project will implement a “Green Prosperity” approach that strengthens local communities’ ability to protect their natural resource base and reduce emissions while building a strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods and equitable economic growth.

The Project will work in seven provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam) and focus on five objectives:

1. Improve and expand community forest management
2. Increase conservation-friendly enterprises in forest-dependent communities
3. Increase functionality of law enforcement system for forest crimes
4. Improve production forest management practices
5. Mobilize domestic resources for forest management and protection

The Project will be implemented during the period 2020-2025 by DAI in collaboration with RECOFTC and Preferred by Nature as partners, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as the counterpart and the Management Board of Forestry Projects (MBFP) as project owner.

C. DESCRIPTION OF CONSULTANCY SERVICE:

1. Background

In recent years, the active participation of communities living near the forest in forest management and protection has become increasingly recognized as an important factor in effectively maintaining forest resources. Communities have participated in forest management and protection in various forms. There are four main types of participation, including i) community forest management, ii) community-based forest management (forest protection contract), iii) group of households managing forest land, and iv) individual households, all of which own forest land individually, but cooperate in forest management and protection.

According to the Project, the concept of community forestry includes two forms of local peoples' participation in forest management. The first approach is community forest management (CFM), in which the village communities manage their allocated forest. The second approach is community-based forest management (CBFM), in which the village communities protect contracted forest with forest owners such as protection forest management boards. This method also includes the communities collectively manage and protect forests allocated to households.

The Project focuses on supporting to strengthen the sustainable management, protection, use, and development of the forest resources allocated to the communities such as protecting the entire forest, bringing into multi-purpose forest ecosystem services; increasing the supply capacity, and ensure the long-term use of forest products, especially NTFPs, towards self-sufficiency in part of financial resources, contribute to economic development, poverty reduction, and stabilization of community lives. In addition, the Project focuses on effectively management of the potential eco-tourism, cultural tourism, resorts, and environmental education in the Project's target CFM sites. This is also the foundation for developing community tourism based on the communities' cultural values and the natural landscape managed by the communities. In this context, RECOFTC Viet Nam seeks to recruit a consultant team to support communities in CFM sites in developing sustainable forest management plans integrated with ecotourism activities.

This activity shall directly contribute to the key indicators, out of 11 performance indicators of the Project, as follows: indicator 2: Number of institutions with improved capacity to address sustainable landscape issues; indicator 3: Number of laws, policies, regulations, or standards addressing sustainable landscapes formally proposed, adopted, or implemented; and indicator 8: Number of hectares under improved natural resource management, safeguards or sustainable business practices.

2. Purpose of the consultancy assignment

Serve as an Ecotourism consultant to develop a section of community-based ecotourism as parts of the sustainable forest management plans for the communities of But village, Nam Xuan commune, Quan Hoa district and Pa Ban village, Thanh Son commune, Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province.

3. Consultant team

The consultant team comprises of three experts, as follows:

• Team leader cum community forest management consultant, responsible for coordinating, assigning, verifying, and supervising team members during the implementation process. S/he shall implement two trainings on participatory forest inventory for the selected communities, and directly participate in surveys and development of intervention activities, coordinate in forest inventory tasks, consolidate and developing sustainable forest management plans (SFMPs) for the communities. The Team leader shall establish and/or re-enforce the institutional capacities of the communities which collectively manage forests allocated to households to development and implement SFMPs.
• One (01) consultant on forest inventory as a team member, responsible for forest inventory tasks with the coordination and participation of the team leader, and
• One (01) consultant on community ecotourism as a team member, responsible for developing a section on community-based ecotourism to integrate it into the sustainable management plan.

The consultant team will also work with the onboarded Project's Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) expert to ensure the integration of GESI into the SFM plan.

The total Level of Effort (LOE) for this consultancy assignment is 109 person-days, of which LOE of the Ecotourism consultant is 29 person-days.

4. Expected results/Deliverables

4.1. Expected results

Two SFM plans associated with the development of community-based ecotourism activities of two communities in But village, Nam Xuan commune, Quan Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province and Pa Ban village, Thanh Son commune, Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province are completed and confirmed by the respective Commune People's Committees (CPC).

4.2. Deliverables

One narrative report describing detailed plans of community-based ecotourism activities in the two selected communities.

5. Scope of work and location

• But village, Nam Xuan commune, Quan Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province; with an area of 1,600 hectares of forests.
• Pa Ban village, Thanh Son commune, Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province; with an area of 266 hectares of forests.

6. Tasks

The Ecotourism consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks but not limited to:

• Develop an outline of community-based ecotourism development plans
• Develop a detailed activity plan for the plan development
• Collect secondary documents as a basis for developing the interview forms and necessary information for plan development
• Prepare and conducts interviews with local authorities, local people, businesses, tour operators, tourists etc.
• Survey and evaluate the potential of eco-tourism in the forest area of household groups: Natural resources (Rivers, streams, lakes, mountain peaks, forest resources, spots with beautiful views, etc.) and Cultural resources (tangible and intangible culture)
• Identify potential tourist spots and attractions as a basis for eco-tourism development; Identify potential tourist routes to exploit tourism; types of cultural tourism, resorts, cuisine...
• Develop narrative reports on the development plans of community-based ecotourism for the period 2024-2028
• Coordinate with the team leader consultant and other team member to integrate community-based ecotourism into the SFMPs period 2024-2028
• Coordinate and provide information to the forest inventory consultant to develop a set of maps, including a map of the current status of tourism resources, a tourism spatial planning map for tourist attractions, and sightseeing sites, map of tourist routes.

7. Level of Effort (LOE) and Deliverables

8. Qualifications

• Being Vietnamese
• Having a university degree or higher, major in tourism, natural resource management or relevant areas
• Having at least 10 years of experience in tourism in projects/programs in natural resource management, with at least five years of experience in eco-tourism and/or community tourism, preferably in Thanh Hoa province.
• Demonstrated experience in development of at least one plan on ecotourism/community tourism
• Experience and ability to work with local community groups
• Experience and skills in writing reports in Vietnamese; being able to use English is an advantage.

9. How to apply and requested documents

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For any further information you may need about the consultancy, please contact .

To learn more about RECOFTC, please visit our website www.recoftc.org.

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