Changes in property rights, forest use and forest dependency of Katu communities in Nam Dong District, Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam

Sustainable participatory management and conservation requires an understanding of site-specific, rights structure, resource use and resource dependency patterns over time. This paper documents these issues by examining the resource use pattern overtime by the Katu people in Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province, central Vietnam, before and after allocation of natural forest to the households of the community. Household interview, key informant and group discussions were used for data collection and crosscheck. Descriptive analysis and pairsample T-test are main tools used to explore those parameters. We found a weak performance of property rights and differences in the De facto to the De jure rights of forest recipients. On contrary to the increased rights, forest use and forest dependency of local people have been reduced due to the degradation of resources, and availability of alternative opportunities from emerging agriculture and animal grazing options. Considering dynamic nature of resource dependency overtime, it is necessary to consider in the post-allocation programme which embrace the local context to have better forest protection and management as well as the satisfaction of local people on the forest resources they manage.