6 March 2014, EU FLEGT Facility news - A series of capacity-building initiatives are underway in Vietnam with the aim of supporting the development of the country's timber legality assurance system.

The Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) is organising consultation workshops with representatives from government, the private sector and civil society. The aim of the workshops is to review all elements of the proposed legality assurance system, national traceability system and risk-based classification system.

At the same time, a Vietnamese NGO, Centre for Sustainable Rural Development, is undertaking activities designed to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations and communities to participate in the VPA process. Planned activities include training on how to conduct a grassroots communications campaign and on participatory approaches for community consultation and research. The organisers anticipate that trainees will launch a grassroots communications campaign following training.

In another initiative, Vietnam's Center for Education and Development is training industry associations and local media organisations in how to get involved in and report on FLEGT, Vietnam's VPA and related issues. The aim of the initiative is to encourage small and medium forest enterprises and larger businesses to become better informed and more engaged. All three initiatives are funded through the EU FAO FLEGT Programme.

Source: http://www.euflegt.efi.int/home