REPORT ON
GENDER ANALYSIS IN FORESTRY SECTOR
In Yen Son commune, Bao Yen district, Lao Cai
province

Lê Thị Mộng Phượng (team leader)
BYFC staffs (team member)
SRD project officer (team member)
TFT project officer (team member)
Oxfam Quebec project officer

Hà Nội, May 2011

Page 1 of 28


Acknowledgement
First of all, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Oxfam Quebec who
provided us the opportunities to carry out this analysis.
We sincerely wish to acknowledge the Management Board of BYFC who had
given us favourable conditions, arranging logistics and supporting us during our
data collections in the commune.
We would also like to thank the villagers and communal authorities who had
attended our interviews and group discussions. We greatly appreciated their
openness to share the precious information.
On behalf of the team
Lê Thị Mộng Phượng

Page 2 of 28

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement ...................................................................................................................... 2
Table of Contents......................................................................................................................... 3
Executive summary..................................................................................................................4
1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 5
Background.............................................................................................................................. 5
Objectives of the analysis........................................................................................................ 6
2. METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................................. 7
Total............................................................................................................................................. 7
General information of the field study area - Yen Son commune ............................................8
Advantages and difficulties of the analysis............................................................................. 8
Advantages...........................................................................................................................8
Difficulties........................................................................................................................... 8
3. THE RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS................................................................................... 10
Gender in politics................................................................................................................... 10
Gender in community............................................................................................................ 10
Gender in family.................................................................................................................... 11
Tradition and customs influencing on gender equality .......................................................... 12
Gender in agricultural and forestry production .....................................................................12
Domestic violence..............................................................................................................13
Gender in forestry sector....................................................................................................13
4. EVALUTAION OF BYFC ACTIVITIES.............................................................................. 17
Gender in management Board of BYFC................................................................................17
Gender in Human resources in the company level............................................................... 18
Gender in Human resources in the production workshop level............................................. 18
5. RECOMMENDATIONS....................................................................................................... 20
Reommendation to BYFC..................................................................................................... 20
ANNEXES................................................................................................................................. 21

List of Abbreviations

BYFC

Bao Yen forest company

SRD

Center for sustainable rural development

TFT

The forest trust

OQ

Oxfam Quebec

FGD

Focus group discussion
Page 3 of 28


WU

Women’s Union

DARD

Department of agricultural and rural development


LUC

Land use certificate

OGB

Oxfam Great Britain

TOT

Training of trainer

Executive summary
The objectives of the analysis was to find out current gender issues in Yen Son commune, Bao
Yen district and to raise and increase knowledge of OQ’s partners on gender issues. The
analysis was also expected to provide recommendations for OQ that will help the organization
better develop and mainstream gender more effectively in the project activities.
This analysis analyses the existing gender status of the commune with focus on gender in
forestry; evaluating impacts of BYFC activities on women and men in gendered perspectives.
Information from this analysis has shown that men still dominate forestry sector workforce.
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Their participation in this sector is regarded as main contributor to family income since they
can do activities (including wood and bamboo logging) that generate better income than
women. While women’s involvement is under-valued or unrecognized as they are involved in
non-forest product collection (vegetables, herbs, mushroom …). At the same time, they have
to do hard with long-hour and patient tasks. In the forestry service sector, women are primarily
employed as hired workers or in support roles. They are rarely appointed for technical or
management positions.

Regarding capacity building in forestry sector, as gender mainstreaming has not been paid
attention in the local government’s policies or plans, almost training courses were attended by
men because they were family heads and expected to obtain the knowledge better than
women.
With recommendations from the analysis, hopefully in the future, these recommendations will
be implemented that will support gender equality more promoted.

1. INTRODUCTION

Background
Gender mainstreaming is a cross-cutting theme in all programmes/project of Oxfam Quebec as
well as its partners. We believe that development of a society cannot occur in a context of
increasing inequality between women and men, nor without improved equity and increased
participation of women.

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The forestry sector is traditionally male dominated and although women’s work in that sector
consumes a lot of time and energy, it generates low income. It is rarely recognized, or seen as
less valuable work, and depreciates their involvement as such. A study on gender factors in
agriculture and forestry extension conducted in 1998 in Northern Vietnam, under the VietnamFinland Forestry Sector Co-operation Programme, found that the roles, responsibilities and
access to and control over agriculture-forest resources are often different for men and women,
according to their traditional roles and division of labour. Women had fewer opportunities than
men to receive extension services, participate in training courses and have access to credit.
Activities for increasing women’s income were not available. The study concluded that
consideration of gender issues is crucial when developing an efficient and effective extension
system to respond to farmers’ needs in agriculture and forestry.
Since February 2011, Oxfam Quebec has collaborated with Center for Sustainable Rural
Development (SRD) and The Forest Trust (TFT) and Bao Yen Forestry Company (BYFC) in

implementing the Integrated Forest Management Project in Bao Yen district, Lao Cai
province. This project supports Oxfam-Québec’s new Gender Justice policy, adopted in Feb.
2010, especially our second commitment regarding the support to partners for the
implementation of organizational and developmental policies and practices that will foster
gender equality and the advancement of women's and girls’ rights.
Within the framework of the mentioned project, the consultant provided 3 working days for
gender analysis in forestry sector. She worked as team leader and facilitated the questionnaire
review sessions.

Objectives of the analysis
•
•

•
•

Identify gender issues or situations in Yen Son commune that represents the ethnic and
socio-economical diversity of Bao Yen district, Lao Cai province.
Build partners’ capacity, with respect to gender issues, by involving them in the gender
analysis process. Ensure ownership of the partner on the gender component of the
project.
Assess recent impact of BYFC activities on men and women (both their staffs and hired
workers/villagers).
Receive recommendations from the analysis to better integrate gender in the project
activities.

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2. METHODOLOGY

With a view to increasing partners’ knowledge on gender, this analysis was carried out by
trainees (who already participated in the training organized in Mar.2011) and SRD, TFT, and
OQ project officers.
In pursuing this objective, following methodology was applied:
•

The facilitator refreshed contents of the training on gender basic concepts introduced in
March 2011.

•

There was a review session for participants to access the relevance of developed
questionnaires to their localities. Then participants were seriously coached to how
facilitate and collect data from the interviews/FGDs.

•

The FGDs and interviews facilitated by participants were led by the consultant and project
officers of SRD, TFT, and OQ.

•

At FGD and interview completion, a debriefing was organized to collect data and
information from the interview conductors.

Information and data were collected from in-depth interviews and FGDs attended by 04
following groups:
(i)

In-depth interviews with Vice director, some staffs of BYFC, vice chairman of communal

People’s committee, and agricultural extension officer.

(ii)

FGDs with WU staffs at village level.

(iii)

FGDs with communal authorities: chairman of People’s committee, agriculture extension
officer, legal officer, WU officer, village heads, and judicial officer.

(iv)

FGDs with hired workers/farmers in which they were separatedly divided into male and
female groups.
Number of participants (FGDs and in-depth interview)
Table 1: Number of participants taking part in the FGDs and interviews
Kinh ethnic

Tày ethnic

Total

Men

Wom
en

men


women

men

women

FGD

29

12

17

0

0

12

17

Interview

11

10

1


8

1

2

0

Total

40

22

18

8

1

14

17

Types of group

In analyzing the data and information, following issues were addressed:
•

Analyzing gender division of labor at family level and forestry production level.


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•

Analyzing the access, control over, and benefit (of men and women) from forestry
products and forestry production

•

Analyzing policies of the local government regarding to land-use planning and forest
protection

•

Analyzing influenced factors on gender equality

•

Analyzing BYFC activities (focusing on contracts with hired workers) with regards to
gender.

•

Analyzing secondary information and data provided by the commune (mainly about
social-economic situation).

General information of the field study area - Yen Son commune
Yên Sơn is a mountainous commune with 4.0 km far from the district center. This commune

covers an area of 2,649ha of which 2,045.7ha is forestry land. There are 7 ethnic minorties
living in the commune, including Kinh, Day, Muong, Dzao, H’Mong, Nung, and Tay. Each
ethnicity has their own characteristics that contribute to diversified and mutli-cultural
activities.
Yên Sơn has population of 2,225 (equal to 517 households). There are unequal population
density within the villages, approximately 70 persons per km2. People at working ages are
1,124 (equivalent to 50% of total population). Of this number, agricultural laborers account for
86,8% (976 workers). Information on forestry employment is not available.

Advantages and difficulties of the analysis
Advantages
During the course of the analysis, following advantages were observed:
•

Full support from OQ, TFT, SRD, Management board and staffs of BYFC.

•

Direct participation and effective coordination of 10 BYFC staffs who took part in the
analysis process, including: Hoàng Văn Cương, Phạm Xuân Quý, Nguyễn Trịnh Thái
Ninh, Nguyễn Khắc Hậu, Hoàng Thị Yên, Lương Xuân Bách, Nguyễn Văn Toàn, Phan
Văn Nhạc, Phạm Quốc Đảm, Lê Tiến Hân.

•

Full support from Yen Son commune authorities to organise the field meetings with the
local participants.

Difficulties
•


Short time of the analysis has limited the team to explore further information at other
aspects (social issues, other minorities, ...).

•

Necessary secondary information was insufficient, such as education. Statistic information
was not disaggrated.
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•

The analysis conducted in parallel with the election preparation, leading to unvailability of
some communal officers.

•

The gender basic concept training and gender analysis were not organised back-to-back, as
a results, some participants forgot what they have learnt (from gender basic concept
training).

•

Participants were not familiar to facilitate group discussions or how to better raise
questions in the interviews.

•

As Yen Son commune was in the progress of ‘cultural commune’ selection, the consultant

team had difficulties in exploring such sensivitve information as domestic violence,
social evils...(In order to be certified as ‘cultural village’, there should be no domestic
violence or similar issues happening in villages, this made the authorities fairly
undisclosed the information).

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3. THE RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS

Gender in politics
Female proportion in management positions (30%) was slightly higher comparable to other
communes. However, women remained holding less important positions such as WU staff,
Population and Family Planning staff, judical staff,.. ect. Meanwhile other managing seats
were appointed for males such as chairman of People’s committee, People’s Coucil, ...
“In comparison with other communes, the numbers of women in our management
boards was quite high, around 30%. In the past, the rate was very low. Recently, we
paid particular attention in building women’s capacities, recruiting women to replace
some positions that were previously predominant by men like agricultural extention
staff, judical staff, ... However, women’s positions were still less important than men.
For future plan, we already designed some quotas, built their specialty capacities to
promote them at higher level, hopefully we will have women in People’s commiitee or
People’s coucil as leaders...” (Male, Age: 50, education degree: 7/10- communal
authority group).
The explanation was that high-degree holder women migrate to work and the remaining
women hold lower degree than men. There are few famle members in the communal
Communist Party. Moreover, attention to build women’s capacities has not been significantly
paid.
“The reason why we lack of female officials was that we have not sufficiently paid
attention to build women’s leadership capacities to be recognised for manament posts.

In the past there was also a female vice chairwoman of communal Peole’s Committee
but she already retired.” (Male, Age: 50, education degree: 7/10- communal authority
group).

Gender in community
The analysis information indicated that men are heads and representatives for both in family
and community issues. Ex: Men are the person to sign contracts with BYFC or attending
community events/activities.
“All the contracts were entitled the family heads who are male (up to 90%).
Communal authorities often send invitations of meetings, loans/credit related-activities
to the family heads instead of other members.” (Female-male group)
“Regarding to community activities, either women or men can participate in weddings
or funerals but husbands will act as representatives while women’s involvement are
considered as additional attendances or to support logistics only.” (Local authority
group).
Concerning about roles of women and men in community, men would engage in important
issues/activities that required leadership and decision-making (meetings on village
convention/regulations) while women involved more in ffinance - related activities.

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“Men often participate in meetings where we discuss about our village
convention/regulations to come up to some decisions. Normally, family heads will be
invited as they need to sign on behalf of their families for what we have com up to.
However, there are more women (up to 70%) involving in BYFC related- meetings and
they also raise a lot of questions related to their families’ benefits.” (BYFC staff).
Most of women could participate in community meetings without family’s objection except
some H’Mong ones. These women would be violently treated, even beaten by their husbands
of they tried to go...

“Domestic violence remains happening in H’Mong ethnic minorities. Husbands often
prevent their wives from coming to village meetings. If women insisted to go, their
husbands will shout or beat them. Positively, this issue doesn’t happen in every
family.” (Women, age: 51, education degree: 10/10)

Gender in family
- Decision making in family:
With family financial issues, women were money keepers (except H’Mong ethnic) and
responsible for day-to-day expenditure. What to buy and how to spend the money was brought
to table for discussion and agreement but husbands were predominant to decide.
“In almost every family, husbands are considered as money makers and wives as
money keepers. Men often let theirs wives keep money as women are said to be good at
keeping money but husbands will be final decision makers for how money will be
spent.” (Female group).
Women are responsibly predominant for housework (making up to 70-80%).
The FGDs and interview information demonstrated that women took charge of child caring,
cooking, clothes washing, wood collecting. Men could support their wives but they would
consider their support as “help” women, not their tasks. Housework remained considered as
women’s tasks.
“In our village, child caring, clothe washing or wood collecting are mainly relied on
women and girl children.” (Male group).
There was a tendency of housework sharing in nuclear young families
Housework sharing has positively changed with more participation of husbands in doing
washing, child caring …in small and young families – nuclear families.
“In the past, men would not do housework but now young husbands in small families
will support, such as taking children to school, taking care their wives when they
deliver…” (Female group).
There remains male priviledge in the analysis area.
It was believed that men were patrilineal descents who would worship the ancestors and take
care their parents when they become old.

“Most of the families regardless minorities, prefer sons to daughters. They believe that
when parents become elderly, they will be taken care by their sons, not their daughters
who will leave the families soon after they get married.”. (Female, male, and authority
group)

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Tradition and customs influencing on gender equality
There remained tradition and customs having negative influences on gender equality, which
could be observed in the settings of around 30% of Tay female minorities were not allowed to
have the same dinning tables with their fathers and brothers in-law. This has caused less
involvement of women in family issues, creating no opportunities for them to voice. The
situation was particular worse in multi-generation families. For this minority, women remain
facing up to ingrained gender stereotypes and partriachy systems.
Furthermore, it was clearly distinguished the positions of men and women. There would be
seperate dinning tables for them, women often had their meals in the kitchens while men’s
were on main tables.
“This custom has lasted for thousands of years and remains taking place in about 30%
Tay minority families. When the bride moves to her husband’s house, she is supposed
not to have meals with her father and brother in-law. There is discrimination against
women, leading to their poor involvement in decision making, also meaning that only
men or the fathers (in multi-generation families) will have power.” (Men, age: 50,
authority group)
“If there are any community parties organised, almost Tay and H’Mong women will
have seperate dinning tables, or having their meals after men finish theirs, or at the
kitchen. Even women have to eat remaining food left by men.” (Female group).
Male preference:
For H’Mong and Dao minorities, they strongly preferred sons to daughters. They would like to
have not one son but many for ‘safe reason’ (in case of death). If they couldn’t have sons, they

could adopt or buy and priotize sons to daughters.
“H’Mong and Dao prefer sons to daughters, if they can’t deliver sons, they will adopt
or buy. Normally they would like to have many sons for ‘safe’ (in case they may lose
any), in our village, many families bought 2 sons and all property will be given to
adoptive sons and nothing is given to their daughters.” (Female, age: 30, education
degree: bachelor)
Inheritance given to the sons
Almost the parents would inherite residence land, agricultural land, and forestry land to the
sons, not the daughters. If the daughters got married, they were given some small gifts such as
clothes, blankets, ...ect. There was few daughters inherited agricultural land, exceptionaly
some families occupy lot of land.
Seriously, H’Mong women were not allowed to keep money and had no power in the family.
“You are literate and you always stay at home, therefore, you don’t need money. As a
result, I (husband) will keep and spend money”. (Female group).

Gender in agricultural and forestry production

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There was discrepancy in gender division of labor. Men were responsible for such heavey
tasks as land preparation, carrying, ... while women did ‘light’ jobs that required longer hours
and patience like weeding, forest caring.
“Women work more at family level, like husbandry. They cultivate maize, beens, and
cassava. Men focus more on forest activities. Both men and women can work as hired
workers, men can work as porters/transporters, women do lighter tasks which are
available near their homes. Their contribution to the families are the same.” (Male
group)

Domestic violence

Domestic violence remained happening and getting more serious in H’Mong and Dao ethnic
minorities. However, the analysis team had difficulty exploring in-depth information on this
issue as Yen Son commune is in the process of being certified as ‘Cultural village’.
“Domestic violence still happens in H’Mong and Dao minorities in particular. For
example: after coming home from meetings, women are often insulted or beaten by
their husbands. Similarly if they try to stop their husbands from gambling. There are
village reconcilation to solve this issue and they hardly bright these cases to commune
level.(Female, age: 51, education degree: 10/10)

Gender in forestry sector
Gender in access and control over land
Land use certificates (LUC) were entitled both husbands and wives (valid from 2004).
However, having names in LUC didn’t really improve women’s positions as men reserve the
rights to sell, buy, and inherite the land.
“Before 2004, only family heads were the land owners of LUC. But since 2004 up to
now, both men and women have their names in LUCs.” (Famle, age: 54)
“Since 2004, LUC titled both men and women names but women’s roles were not really
changed. Men will be the persons to decide the land for selling, buying or transfering,
…” (Land management officer)
- Unequal allowance of land in divorce
There were at least 3 divorce cases for past 10 ten years. The spouses would divide the
property themselves, however, women would hardly benefit from their shared property in
most of the case.
“There was a case that vife took a bank loan for her husband’s 6 year-Medicine studies.
At the study completion, the husband got married to another woman but they were still
in debt to the bank, so they had to sell all land, house to pay off. And the husband was in
charge of feeding 2 their children. This result in the fact that the wife had nothing with
her then.” (Land management officer)

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Gender in land use planning
In 2004, in collaboration with Hanoi Agriculture of University, the commune planned the land
use, which was revised in 2010. The information of land use plans were disseminated and
puplicly listed. In land use planning – related meetings, women accounted for 50% - 70% in
some other communes.
During land-use planning process, top-down approach was applied, which has limited
villagers’ involvement. There were only some steps (like planning on the maps) carried in
households allowing more men’s participation.
“There were dicussion among the couples of how to use or cultivate the land but men
are the final decision makers.” (Land management officer)
Gender in agriculture and forestry training
There was few training on forestry organised in our commune, since 2005, only 2 training
on cinnamon and Acacia auriculiformis plantation were organized in 2005 and 2008
respectively. Men benefited more from the training, making up 70%. Traditionally, the
training often enrolled fewer women than men who were regarded as family heads and also
invited and expected to sign contracts.
“Cinamon plantation project funded by the province was introduced in 2008. Men
were invited to sign the contract and to attend training. If men were not available,
women can replace, however, participants were almost men, accounting for
70%”(Male, age 45, education degree: 10/10)
The training was claimed to be very theoretical and not participatory. While women were
normally less knowledgeable than men and busy with housework so they often let their
husbands to attend the training.
“The training was very theoretical and crowded. Women were not familiar
communicating with such many peoples, they were also very shy, many of them are not
fluent at Kinh (Vietnamese) language (H’Mong particular), so they hesitant to take
part in the training.”(Man, age 50, education degree: 10/10)
Regarding BYFC’s training, the training and coaching sessions were usually organized backto-back, which were highly appreciated by participants as they found the knowledge

understandable. Female propotion in the training changed seasonally, more men at crop
seasons and more women at non-crop time as men looked for job outside their homes.
“We often organise training and coaching (or farmer-field school) together in the
fields. Therefore, either men or women can practise and apply what they have learnt.
However, male and female proportions of these activities depends on training
organisation timing.” (Male staff of BYFC)
Gender in benefiting forestry products
Men were mainly in charge of exploiting and also benefiting forest products while women
picked up non-wooden forest products (bamboo, medicine, vegetables, ...) The table below
showed more details on this situtation.
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Table 2: Gender in accessing and benefiting forest products
Activity
Men
Home
%
Sell
%
consumption

Wood
exploitation
Bamboo

90%

Young bamboo
Mushroom

Medicine
Cooking wood
Vegetable

20%
40%
50%
30%
20%

100
%
100
%

20%

Women
Home
consumption

Sell

10%

100%

80%

100%


100%
100%
100%
40%

80%
60%
50%
60% 70%
100 80%
%
[Source: Group discussion by female farmer group)

10%
100%
100%
40%

90%
60%
100%

The figures demonstrated that men tended to sell their exploited wood for cash. Although men
only focused on some items of wood products (mainly wood and bamboo), these products
were costly higher than the ones women picked up. Compared OGB gender analysis
conducted in 2005, there was a tendency of ‘market-oriented’, farmers intended to sell what
they exploited from the forests and apparently, their products were less valued.
Gender in forest protection
According to BYFC leaders, there were 2 activities contracted with villagers: ‘lump-sum

forest plantation’ and ‘lump-sum forest protection’.
Regarding to forest protection, the security guard teams were set up with men only. Forest
owners also signed contracts with family heads/men for forest protection.
In order to be selected for ‘lump-sum forest protection’, by the program 661 and 327 1 hired
workers should meet following criteria: i) Male dominant worker households; ii) Availability
as always; iii) High accountability. Then the village meetings would be organised to select
successful households. Such criteria has prevented the involvement of female-headed
households. It was revealed that community and communal authorities relied on men’s
capacity of forest protection more than women, meaning that more opportunities will be given
to men.
“Women are not believed to be capable of protecting forests. They are weak, scare of
iilegal loggers, and regularly accompanied by police securities for safe reason. Wome
are not expected to protect forests. In the past, women were selected to the protection
team but they failed to perform their tasks, they were busy with housework and lacked
of time. Women are only able to participate if there are both men and women in the
security guard teams.”
“There were 17 households, of which 16 men signed contracts and registering for
lump-sum forest protection (for the program 661 with 50,000/ha/year). Either men or
women could sign the contracts, every family members will participate in forest
Program 661: issued on 29th Jul.1998 to cover 5 million hecta of new forests
Program 327: Covering every bare mountains and hills by green trees

1

Page 15 of 28


protection but only men will patrol the forest. 100% team leaders of BYFC protection
teams are men.”
When participating in forest protection, women’s involvement were considered limited.

“There are some other forms of forest protection that women can joint, like preventing
cattle from getting into the forests (not to destroy young forests in particular) but they
cannot prevent iilegal loggers, it was very dangrous for them so men have to take this
task.”
Gender in forest plantation
Table 3: Gender in forest plantation

Activity

Men
%

Women
%

Decision making to receive the 60%
contracts
90%
Signing the contracts

40%

Contacting with BYFC

90%

10%

Particiting the training
Receiving salary from BYFC


30%
90%

70%
10%

Managing the salary/income from
BYFC
Land preparation
Receiving trees
Planting forest
Forest caring: watering, weeding,
fertilising......
Patroling forest

10%

90%

30%
50%
50%
30%

70%
50%
50%
70%


90%

10%

10%

Who works more and why?
Women:
who
would
provide
consultaton to men
Men:
They
are
family
heads/representatives.
Men: better at dealing with issues if
any
Women: direct producers.
Men: better at calculation, contract
owners.
Women: better at managing how
money spent.
Women: more hard-working
Both men and women
Both men and women
Women: more hard-working
Men: have more time and stronger...
(Source: male and female group)


The table has presented the difference in forest planting. Men were in charge of more
important tasks (correspondance with suppliers, forest patrol, ...) while women were engaged
more in long-hour tasks (caring, watering, training, ...). Men tasks were recorgnised as
managing or coordinating responsibilities and women’s tasks were considered as
implementing ones. It can be seen that labor allocation in forest plantation fairly depended on
characteristics of gender, men and women relationship.
“Gender division of labour in forest plantation remains traditional, men do such heavy
taks as land preparation, exploitation but their working hours may be fewer as they
spend more time for breaks (tea, smoking,...) while women can do other tasks as men
do (planting, caring, harvesting) but women are supposed to be responsible for patient
and long-hour tasks, like watering, weeding,...” (Male and female group).

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There was an interesting finding that in the case of men migrated to work, almost women
would attend BFYC forest-related meetings. Therefore, when signing the contracts with
BYFC, husbands would consult with their views. Given this fact, women might have better
opportunities to enhance their positions.
“There are more women taking part in our forest-related meetings as men work
outside their homes/villages. Therefore, there are mutual agreements among
themselves in signing the contracts with BYFC, which will facilitate our contracts’
process”. (Female and male group).
Gender in accessing to market
The interviews showed that having opportunities to travel, to work outside homes and to
communicate with many people have enabled men to better access market information.
Reproductive tasks (housework, child care, ...) has limited women’s access to this information.
Moreover, women are not very interested in market information.
“Market information, particularly forest market, is more accessable to men as they are

not fully engaged in of housework, child care, ... They have more time and more
chances to contact to different people while women usually stay at homes. Men are
mainly repsonsible for selling value products (wood, bamboo). (Male and female
group)

4. EVALUTAION OF BYFC ACTIVITIES

Gender in management Board of BYFC
Management board includes 3 male leaders: 1 director and 2 vice directors.
Men hold almost leaderships and only 3 women are positioned at (01) Head of financing
division and (02) managers of production divisions.
According to BYFC leaders, as the company lacked of female forest-specialised staffs, they
could not promote women to management positions. On the other hands, being a female staff,
women will have to interrupt their contracts at their maternity leaves, then they are considered
not suitable for leader seats.

No
1
2
3
4
5

Table 4: Management positions of the company
Sex
Position
Male Female
Director
1
Vice director

2
0
Office heads
3
1
Managersof production divisions
3
2
Managers of processing divisions
3
0

Total
1
2
4
5
3

Page 17 of 28


“Our company is a forestry company whose sector is male dominant. So for we
haven’t had enough key female staffs to promote. We have promoted 2 women as
production team leaders, and we appointed men for 3 production managers who are
working in harsh conditions that women cannot take over.” (Male, age: 53)
In the future, the company will have difficulties recruiting female staffs as there is a tendency
that women will not specialise in this sector. This may cause gender imbalance in forestry
sector.
“Frankly, even we would like to promote women to important positions, we have few

choice as there are hardly female students applying to Forestry university. If any, after
university graduation, they will look for stable jobs in cities or change their career
objectives.” (Male, age: 53).

Gender in Human resources in the company level
The company has 24 permanent staffs of which 8 are female (33,3%). Women are often
assigned for less dynemic and traveling tasks meanswhile men take over higher-paid jobs and
having opportunities for promotion.
“Female staffs are usually oppointed for stable and ‘lighter’ jobs with less travel. As
free of housework, men will take field-based positions or with frequent travel to the
fields. They will be built their speciality capacities and receiving higher income than
women.”(Male, age 53).

Gender in Human resources in the production workshop level
The workshops involve 270 hired workers of which 141 have long-term contracts (52%) and
129 is seasonal/short-term contracts. Women account for 40%. As the short-term contracts
only last for 3-6 months, the hired workers will not be paid for insurance.
Maternity leave: this leave is complied with Law on Labour, women will take 4 paid-months
of maternity leaves. If the child is sick, they also take paid-leaves.
Annual training: training on working skill improvement, safety at works, labour hygience, and
fire regulation are annualy organised for all staffs. This is madatory activity for both male and
female staffs.
Annual technial Initiative contests: yearly contests are openly organised for both men and
women. So far, only men have participated as there are few female staffs in technical
divisions.
Recruitment: Sex allocation is noted in this process. Other divisions can receive either men or
women but strong preferance will be given to men for technicial division which requires
frequent travel and base in the field if required.
Division of labour: the model is traditionaly allocated, men do heavey tasks because they are
stronger (working with machines, cutting wood, producing chopsticks, ..) women do lighter

tasks as they are more patient and skilled (sorting out chopsticks, ...).

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Remuneration: male and female staffs are equally paid according to their responsibilities.
Vacation: 7-day vacation is annualy organised for staffs (man/woman 50:50). In order to
decide who will be sent to this vacation, there is a yearly staff selection to choose the most
outstanding staffs for the holidays.
BYFC activity impacts on women and men: Many hired workers acknowledged that since
working for the company, women have become more confident and skilled. The spirit of
working team has enabled women improve their capacities, their understanding and
knowledge about forestry sector. They are better aware of the importance to protect the forest.

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5. RECOMMENDATIONS
•

More gender equality training and gender analysis should be organised, focusing on
characteriestics of Dzao, H’Mong ethnic minorities.

•

Organise gender training/gender awareness raising for agriculture and forestry
extension officer of DARD.

•


Organise gender training of trainers (TOTs) for BYFC staffs then they can be able to
develiver training at village level.

•

When contracting with villagers, BYFC should sign with both wife and husband to
ensure their equal benefits from the contract/BYFC activities.

•

Organise gender training for head villages and communal authorities so that they will
be able to integrate gender in their socio-economic development plans.

•

Raise awareness and promote gender equality and domestic violence prevention.

Reommendation to BYFC
•

Opportunities and conditions should be created and offered to women so that they can
participate in the contest “Promoting initiatives on technology in forestry sector”
organised by BYFC. The participants can be divided into a mix ‘male-female’ groups
for men and women equally take part in.

•

More women should be appointed/recruited to management boards. Female workers
should be more offered opportunities/priorities. Ex: according to Law on Labor, fitting
rooms should be built for female workers.


•

If possible, pay attention to set up forest protection delegations with those who are
nex-to-door to make sure that they remain their availability and quickly spread the
information among one another.

•

Mainstreaming some Laws, including Law on Labor, Law on family and marriage,
Law on domestic violence prevention, and gender equality awareness into BYFC
activity plans

•

Organising annual health check-up for both male and female staffs.

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ANNEXES
Annex 1: Questionnaire for FGDs and interviews
This is a set of questionnaire that was accordingly separated to different parts for each
FGD/interview
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR GENDER ANALYSIS
Name: .................................................................................................................................................
Age: .................................................................. Sex: ..........................................................................
Position: ..............................................................................................................................................
Minority: ............................................................................................................................................
Village: ................................................................................................................................................

Tradition and customs influencing on gender equality
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Have you ever heard about Law on gender equality? If yes, which sources?
Are there any customs in your villages that have influences on gender equality?
Has the implementation of Law on gender equality faced with any difficulties?
Do you acknowledge that Law on gender equality are beneficial to your villagers
What about female proportion in local management boards, is it higher or lower than
male? Why?
Are important positions in the state organisation dominantly occupied by men or
women? Why?
Which policy should be issued to create opportunities and favourable conditions for
women to have seats in the local management positions?
How to increase female proportion in village and commune management boards.?

Forestry projects in Yen Son commune
9.
Is there any forestry projects in this commune for 3 years backward?
10.
How did men and women benefit from that project?
11.
Who (men or women) was invited to attend project training? What was the difference,
please explain?

Access and benefit from forestry products:
Gender in benefiting from forestry products
Activity
Male
Men %
Home
consumption
Wood logging
Bamboo
Young bamboo
Mushroom
Herbs
Wood collecting
Vegetable
….

Sell

Women

Female
Home
consumption

Sell

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Roles of women and men in protecting forests:

12.
13.
14.
15.

What are forest protection activities in your commune, please specific?
Who (men or women) are more engaged in protecting forest? Why?
How many current forest protection team? Who are team leaders – men or women?
Why?
How many participants in each team and percentage of men and women?

Fire forest prevention:
16.
Are the exercises on fire forest prevention annually organized? Are men or women
involved more these activities? Why?
17.
If the forest is on fire, men or women will participate in fire extinguishment? Why?
18.
Do men or women more access to information on fire prevention? Why? Please
specific information channels of village/commune on fire prevention.
19.
Do men or women often attend forest – related meetings? Why? Please mention about
proportion.
Protecting forest by lump-sum contracts
20.
Will women or men represent their families to sign the contracts? Why?
21.
Do women or men manage income from protecting forest? Why?
22.
Are there any difference between ethnic groups in managing and spending their

income?
ACCESS TO SERVICES RELATED TO FORESTRY DEVELOPMENT
Training to transfer science technology in forestry production:
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.

29.
30.
31.

Do women or men usually participate in forestry training? Why? Please specific
percentage of women and men.
Where were the training organized? How many participants in each training?
Which languages (minority or Vietnamese) the trainer delivered?
What about training approach? One-way approach or training with coaching (including
practice in fields), please specific?
Are the training contents illustrated by visual tools?
What are difficulties of women and men in participating forestry training?
Bank loans for forestry development
Do women or men sign contracts of bank loans (through AgriBank)? Why?
How do women and men borrow capitals from WU and FU? Who decides to manage
or spend the money? Why?
What are difficulties of women and men in borrowing money for forestry production?

Page 22 of 28



Market information
32.
33.

Are men or women more knowledgeable about market? Why?
How men and women access to market and sell their forestry products, who is better?
Why?
Contracting with BYFC:
In your family, who (wife or husband/man or woman) is responsible for signing
contracts with BYFC?
Who goes to BYFC to receive fees/salaries of the contracts?
Who often communicates with BYFC? Why?
Who often attend forestry training organised by BYFC? Why?
How forest-related tasks are allocated to each family members.

34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
Activity

Men %

Women
%

Both
M &W


Who does more and
why?

Decision making to plant for BYFC
Signing contracts
Communicating with BYFC
Attending BYFC training
Receiving salaries from BYFC
Managing the salaries
Doing
forest-related
activities
(watering, weeding, fertilizing, …)
Preparing land
Receiving seeds
Planting forest
Patroling in forest
..........
39.
40.
41.
42.

Are there any jobs that both women and men can do but women will receive higher
salary or vice versa? If yes, why?
Concerning growing forests, are there any discrepancy between female and male hired
workers?
Regarding planting forests, are there any difficulties facing men or women? If yes,
please specific?

Do you have any recommendations that enable women and men equally benefit,
access, and control over forest resources?
EVALUATION ON BYFC ACTIVITIES

43.

Working for the company as hired worker, what would you say about BFYC forestrelated activities having impacts on men and women (generating income, having
opportunities to join community activities, raising awareness, etc.)
Page 23 of 28


44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.

Forest planting task is more suitable to men or women? Why?
With current workshop stations (paper, wood, and chopstick manufacturing,…) are
there more men or women in these stations (or who can do these tasks)? Why?
Does the company have any policies/ regulations for separate men or women? If yes,
please specific?
Are there any activities/tasks that the company motivates women to participate?
Since working for the company, how women would say about their
improvement/change?
According to you, what should the company do to allow both men and women equally

benefit from forest activities?
Do you have any suggestions/recommendations to BYFC current activities?
Do you have comments on current policies/regulations of the company to men and
women (benefit package, leaves,…)
Are there any solutions/actions that the local authorities should take to allow both men
and women equally benefit, access and control over forest resources?

Page 24 of 28


Annex 2: List of participants for FGD and individual interview (5 list)
List 1: List of local authorities participating in FGD (10 participants)
Address
Name
Sex
Ethnic

No.
1

Male

Tày

. Hoàng Viết Chứ
2

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Female


Tày

. Hà Thị Viện
3

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Male

Tày

. Hoàng Văn Cương
4

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Female

Tày

. Nông Thị Rét
5

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Male

Tày

. Bàn Tài An
6

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai

Male

Tày

. Phạm Xuân Quý
7

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Female

Tày

. Nguyễn Thị Mỹ
8

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Female

Tày

. Giàng Thị Hoa
9

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Female

Tày

. Nguyễn Ngọc Lan Thương
1 Nguyễn Thị Đảm


Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai
Female

Tày

Yên Sơn, Bảo Yên, Lào Cai

0
.

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