and Terms The equivalent in various currencies of SDR23.91 million ($33.0 million equivalent) from the Bank's Special Funds resources, with a repayment period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years and a service charge of 1 percent per annum payable semiannually.
Period of Utilization Until 31 December 2003
Implementation
Arrangements The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has established a Project Management Office headed by a project director in Hanoi. The director will be assisted by provincial-level officers at each of the subproject sites in implementing the day-to-day activities under the Project. A Project Steering Committee will be organized at the national level, headed by the vice minister (in charge of Forestry) to provide overall policy guidance to the Project.
Executing Agency Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Procurement The Project requires (i) services for land survey, land-use classification, and land allocation; (ii) tree plantation establishment and maintenance; (iii) civil works for rehabilitation of rural infrastructure such as minor irrigation works and village access roads; and (iv) procurement of equipment and materials. The goods and services will be procured in accordance with the Bank's Guidelines for Procurement.
Procurement One international consulting firm will be engaged to provide 288 person months of consulting services (126 person-months of international consultants and 162 person-months of domestic consultants) to be recruited as associates of the international firm to assist MARD in the implementation of participatory land allocation, supervision of Project implementation, appraisal of subprojects, and establishing a monitoring and evaluation system for the Project. In addition, three individual consultants (two international and one domestic) will be engaged for a total of 18 person months to evaluate the performance of state forest enterprises and recommend areas of improvement in their operations. The consultants will be engaged in accordance with the Bank's Guidelines on the Use of Consultants, or other arrangements satisfactory to the Bank.
Estimated Project
Completion Date 30 June 2003
Project Benefits
and Beneficiaries The direct economic benefits expected from the Project will accrue from the net value of incremental output of fuelwood, timber, and agroforestry products. While control of soil erosion is a direct Project benefit, it has not been included for lack of needed data for quantifying it. About 112,000 person years of employment will be generated by the Project over the six year implementation period. The economic internal rates of return for the core subprojects range from 13 percent to 27 percent.
The Project beneficiaries (totaling about 80,000 households) comprise mostly the inhabitants of forest based communities, including ethnic minorities. They will participate directly during the planning and implementation of the Project, and will be granted long term land tenure.