New Tree-Planting Monitoring App Launched for Coastal Forest Restoration (CFR)

The development, testing, and application of a new tree-planting monitoring app enables efficient data collection, monitoring, and reporting. Thus, it also allows for continuous learning and improvement of forest restoration strategies.

Coastal forests in Viet Nam, including mangroves and forested sand dunes, serve as crucial protection against extreme weather, erosion, and salinisation. These habitats also provide further ecosystem services to local communities and native biodiversity. After having experienced decades of degradation, the importance of restoring coastal forests for mitigating and adapting to climate change is now widely recognised. The areas in need of restoration is estimated to be 500,000 hectares along the country’s 3,200-kilometer coastline.

In this context, the IKI-funded project “Ecosystem-based Adaptation on the Northern Central Coast of Vietnam: Restoration and Co-management of degraded dunes and mangroves” was initiated in 2018. The project has developed a scalable proof-of-concept of restoring degraded coastal forests with native site-adapted tree species while working in partnership with local communities.

Now entering its final stage, the project will have produced more than 700,000 seedlings from over 20 different native species. This seedling production has helped to gather knowledge on the collection, production, and planting of these species which otherwise would have been lost. The seedlings have been planted in mixed-species clusters of 9-12 trees, mimicking natural growth patterns, across 450 hectares of severely degraded coastal dune forests in the three project provinces: Thua Thien Hue, Quang Tri, and Quang Binh.

The pilot sites have been heavily affected by typhoons, drought, and heat waves. Many lessons on how to further improve the approach have been learned and incorporated in the design, especially the focus on high-quality seedling production in the project’s partner nursery in Cam Lo/Quang Tri province. For an efficient monitoring and site-adapted selection of tree species in future projects, it is very important to have robust and timebound information on survival rates and success of the restoration effort.

To ensure accurate, reliable, and accessible tracking of key data on the restoration approach, a new monitoring app was launched in March 2024. The app launch involved in-the-field testing and detailed training with project staff. From this starting point, baseline data collection has begun and will continue to be rolled out over the entire project area in the coming months. The roll-out will be accompanied by capacity-building measures on community-based monitoring.

Figure 1: Nursery staff caring for seedlings in the project’s best practice nursery, Cam Lo (Photograph by Ho Ngoc Anh Tuan, 2023)

Following the baseline development, during which all planting clusters are being mapped, key metrics will be collected on a randomly selected sample of 10% of the clusters in each specific site. Such metrics include any specifics to the planting approach, the mix of species, variations in site conditions and the height and overall health of each individual seedling. The sample clusters will have these metrics tracked at regular intervals to monitor overall trends.

Through consistently collecting and analysing data on the project’s performance, the new app will facilitate ongoing learning and further refinement of the project’s coastal forest restoration approach. These insights will directly influence the projects’ future activities and efforts for upscaling in similar projects, such as the number and species of seedlings to be produced in the native tree species nursery in Cam Lo. With access to detailed species data, the best practice nursery can also adapt its processes to refine the treatment of seedlings during the production phase, further enhancing their performance in the field.

Figure 2: A member of the project team logs key data into the app interface (Photograph by Ho Ngoc Anh Tuan, 2024)

The app was designed to be user-friendly and easily accessible. Project staff can download the app onto their smartphone and data can be easily uploaded and downloaded from the database, facilitating real-time syncing of monitoring from different data collectors in the field. The app is currently intended for use by trained project staff but sets the foundation for further app developments that could facilitate community-based monitoring for future projects.

Figure 3: Clusters of native species seedlings planted by the project (Photograph by Ho Ngoc Anh Tuan, 2024)

If you want to know more about the project, please visit: Ecosystem-based adaptation on the northern central coast of Vietnam: restoration and co-management of degraded dunes and mangroves | Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative (IKI) (international-climate-initiative.com)