Tourism development opportunities materialized, thanks to Mariam, the rescued baby dugong's video buzz. Native Trang province people, trained and employed in the tourism industry elsewhere in the country, came back to their hometown to open and run a homestay. They work with their relatives in the villages to provide services to their guests. These small family businesses have generated alternative incomes to local community members and helped to mitigate the conflicts related to the ban of destructive fishing gears and practices.

The government decided to act in order to prevent further destruction of natural resources. A new management policy was created and implemented, that banned destructive fishing practices, such as trawling in seabed areas, harmful fishing gears along with the offshore and coastal areas. 

At the time, it negatively impacted local fishers, which generated social conflicts. The local Fishery Association and the government together tried to find solutions to mitigate the effects on certain groups of fishers’ livelihoods. At the same time they engaged in law enforcement activities together with the authorities.

Three-levels of a Co-living community

By implementing a three-level urban renewal strategy of shared neighborhood, shared courtyard, and shared building, the scattered and limited spaces in the Fayuan Temple area are organized.A top-down communal living system is established to solve the difficulties of residents' relocation, outdated infrastructure, and the protection and utilization of historical buildings. 

Shared Neighborhood

We analyzed the activity paths of different groups of people in the Fayuansi neighborhoods. The clear functional division of different areas leads to lack of intersection among various groups, which invisibly forms social barriers and is not conducive to long-term development of the city.

In the shared neighborhood, the entire block is taken as a shared space and considered as a whole, with a management center as the core to lead the co-living system. By dispersing the public functions throughout the block, the daily life of the local residents in the block has been transformed into a distinctive experiential tourism product. Overlapping activities are happening in composite physical spaces, which generates continuous energy for the neighborhood.

Shared Courtyard

The current living condition inside the courtyards is barely acceptable. Illegal construction such as kitchens and bathrooms has become a common phenomenon and the importance of public spaces are severely downgraded. There is hardly any public spaces left other than basic transportation space. 

Most of the young generations have moved out. Among the remaining residents , elderly and young children are the majority as well as some short-term tenants. The continuous reduction of vitality among the neiborhood has become an attention-grabbing problem.

While improving the overall courtyard environment, priority is given to ensuring the basic living needs of residents. This project adopts a four-step (evaluation, repair, demolition, and addition) measure of courtyard renovation. As the number of vacated households increases, existing illegal buildings will be demolished and public service facilities such as shared kitchens and shared laundry rooms will be added. These facilities will be integrated with internal courtyards and public green spaces to form a pubic core for the neighborhood.

Shared House

The vacant houses in the Fayuan Temple district are all made up with "rooms" with various ownerships. Using "room" as a basic unit for renovation is an effective way to reduce the risk of conflicts regarding property ownerships, and also flexible units can better adapt to the living needs of different types of people. By analyzing the dimensions of the courtyards, a 10-12 square-meter room unit was determined as a standard renewal module. The combination of dual and multiple units enables the possibilities for various functions such as long-term apartment, youth hostel, and Café etc.

During the 2019 Beijing International Design Week, we invited the local citizens from the nearby neighborhoods to participate in the workshop of "urban additions and subtractions" in order to collect public opinions and expectations for the renovation of Fayuan Temple district.

The followings are the conclusions that we drawn from the interviews and questionnaires collected from the workshop.

• For the multiple choice question of “What do you want to add to the district?” , pocket parks were selected the most by 19.78% of the participants.
• Many of the citizens complained that the space within Hutong (the Alley) was cramped and lack of greenery.
• The inhabitants of Hutong complained that the public restrooms and markets were relatively far, it can hardly meet the daily needs.
• Many of the inhabitants expected more communication and social space within the neighborhood.
• A majority of the inhabitants deemed that the amusement facilities for children and fitness equipment for the public were not sufficient.

The visitors of Hutong claimed that the hotels and recreational facilities were not sufficient to support the basic tourism needs.

In the framework of the project, in terms of achieving sustainable management of forest pastures, a District Pasture Commission (DPC) was established to discuss and make necessary decisions at the level of the administrative territory of Bazar-Korgon district. The Commission consists of directors of forestry services, heads of pasture committees, representatives of the district state administration, district department of agrarian development, and members of the district association of pasture committees.

The main task of the committee is to regulate the sustainable management of pasture resources at the level of one district. 

Meetings of the District Pasture Commission(DPC) are held as needed, but at least three times a year.

In the meetings of the District Pasture Commission at the district level, there are discussed urgent issues on pasture use, interaction between forest services, pasture committees and rural municipalities.

Decisions of the district pasture commission are recorded in the protocols and are required for all members of the commission.

Since the existence of the district pasture commission, many issues were discussed and decisions were made. The agenda of the DPC meeting mainly includes such pressing issues on pastures as:

The main issues of discussion at the DPC were the following:

• Information on pasture capacity and grazing rates
• Access to new pastures
• Timing of moving cattle to SLF pastures
• DPC's contribution to infrastructure development
• Provision of information on pasture users by pasture committees
• Allocation of pastures within forestry farms
• Procedures for issuing pasture tickets
• Collection and payment for pasture use
• Control of animal diseases
• Organization of resting places for livestock when moving to pastures
• Review of the implementation of the tasks to identify problems

All decisions of the District Pasture Commission are accompanied by relevant orders from the District State Administration, which gives the activities legal status and efficiency in the implementation of the decisions. 

In the framework of the project, the specialists of the public foundation "CAMP Alatoo" jointly with the forestry staff and with the pasture committees of the villages have been assessing the condition of pastures in the pilot forestry farms since 2015. The joint monitoring was conducted twice a year before grazing and after grazing in the pastures. 

      Annual monitoring results contribute to a more objective distribution of livestock in pastures and prevention of degradation.       

       Pasture monitoring determines the state of pastures, and calculates the norms of pasture load. The pasture monitoring data helps the forestry to assess the degree of degradation of pastures and to develop measures to prevent degradation and to prevent mudflows and landslides in pastures.

In 2021 the project developed a mobile application "Pasture Monitoring" which allows collecting data on the condition of pastures through a smartphone in the fields without internet.  

The application is developed on the basis of two methods of pasture estimation:

1. Measuring stick method - to estimate projective vegetation coverage of the pasture area

2. The clipping method - to determine the productivity of pastures

The digital tool was specially developed taking into account the fact that rural specialists who are poorly versed in the technique could independently assess pastures quickly and without special training. Also, the mobile application allows you to collect high-quality data on the state of pastures and effectively manage pasture resources based on the data. In addition, all data collected through the mobile application automatically transfers to a central server where it will be stored.

Working with the mobile application allows to quickly and efficiently monitor pastures, the data from which immediately goes to the server, facilitates the work of employees, relieving them of paperwork and re-entering the data into the computer.

  The  Grazing Management Plan is an important tool for improving the joint work of the local forestry and pasture committee and pasture users aimed at the development of joint management of forest pastures, conservation of forest ecosystems and rational use of lands of the state forest fund.

        The Grazing management plan in the forest areas  is developed annually by March 1, together with the pasture committee and the forestry committee and also involves pasture users  before the beginning of the grazing season.

The developed Grazing Management Plan, agreed with the Pasture Committee, is approved by the order of the Director of Forestry.

The implementation of the management plan is monitored by the forestry  and the pasture committee at least twice a year and monitoring is initiated by the forestry committee. During the joint monitoring they visit the pasture areas and check how the developed plan is implemented and determine the improvements that can be included for the next year.

The grazing management plan includes the following sections :

1.Chapter/ Introduction.

2.Chapter. Characteristics of the forestry, village and information about the pasture committee.

3 Chapter. Current condition of grazing (Information about the number of cattle of the shepherds).

4.Chapter. Determination of acceptable grazing load on forestry lands (Determination of grazing rates, distribution of number of livestock on grazed plots, mapping of plots).

5.Chapter. Planning the use of lands used for grazing (grazing schedule, assessment of grazing load, identification of problems and needs in grazing).

6.Chapter. Monitoring the implementation of the plan (data on the results of monitoring the use of land for the current year is entered).