Posted on August, 30 2019

On 27th August, Hoa Loc Sustainable Forestry Cooperative, established and operated under the Forest Owners Sustainable Development Association of Thua Thien Hue province (TTH-FOSDA) with the support of WWF and IKEA partnership in the region, was honored to receive a visit from the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister, Truong Hoa Binh as a successful model of cooperative development and sustainable forest management following FSC forest certification.  

The sustainable forestry cooperative establishment model in Thua Thien Hue in 2018 initially started from a unified idea of WWF and TTH-FOSDA, and recieved positive support from Thua Thien Hue’s provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Forest Protection Department. Members of the Cooperative are diversified from mainly FSC forest smallholders to seedling production enterprises and timber processing companies. This diversity enables the whole supply chain’s responsibility, as well as ensuring the FSC certified forests are purchased and processed sustainably after harvesting. After one year of operation, with technical advisory support from WWF, the Cooperative has established a nursery garden to produce high quality seedlings with biodegradable seedling bags, set up local wood processing facilities oriented with FSC/CoC certified saw-mills, that connects their produced products to the credible FSC timber supply chain based on the demand of furniture manufactories; organized a series of training courses for members on sustainable forest management, silviculture technique, labor safety,etc. The Cooperative and its business created more jobs and income for their members, as well as local people.

Hoa Loc Cooperative with their 56 FSC smallholders, owning 515 ha forest, is one of the 35 sub-associations under TTH-FOSDA network in Thua Thien Hue province, an Association that manages 4,672 ha FSC forest belonging to 948 FSC forest smallholders. Hoa Loc Cooperative is the initiative and ambition of WWF aimed at moving forest smallholders, who occupied 37% of planted forests in Vietnam, toward sustainable forest production and access to a responsible supply chain. To date, the Central Annamites Landscape of Vietnam, under the support of the WWF and IKEA partnership, more than 21,000 ha of plantation forest has been FSC certified. In strategic planning however, the WWF and IKEA partnership targets the impact on a much wider scope at the national and Greater Mekong regional levels, which ensures an increase in the sustainability of global supply chains and supports local community livelihoods, while contributing directly to minimize deforestation in key landscapes and improving habitats for wildlife.

At the meeting, the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister, Truong Hoa Binh, had a chance to interact with members of the Cooperative and listened to their shift to-sustainability story. He concluded with a recommendation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Thua Thien Hue province who make the members and WWF so proud due to their identical viewpoint: “This is a great model and I recommend MARD to work with Thua Thien Hue province to study how to replicate this model national wide”. 

Also joining the trip with the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister was the Vice Chairman of The Government Office, the Deputy Minister of MARD, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee of Thua Thien Hue province, and leaders of related government agencies.