Vietnam, as one of the six Southeast Asian countries in the TUL-SEA project area, organised the first training during five days, November, 21-26 2008. The three tools that are most relevant for RUPES activities in Vietnam, namely Rapid Hydrological Appraisal (RHA), Rapid Carbon Stock Appraisal (RaCSA) and Participatory Landscape Assessment (PaLA),were selected for the first training.

The training was organised in Thai Nguyen Province by ICRAF Vietnam in collaboration with Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF) and attended by 19 participants. Participants came from different kinds of institutions: universities (eight participants), research institutes (four participants), and local government (seven participants) of three provinces (Bac Kan, Ha Tinh and Thua Thien Hue). The ICRAF resource persons were Dr Meine van Noordwijk for RHA; Prof Kurniatun Hairiah for RaCSA; Betha Lusiana for Spatial analysis in Hydrology and Carbon assessment, which is a support tool for RHA and RaCSA; and Dr Hoang Minh Ha for PaLA.

The training started with two days of indoor lectures and discussions at Thai Duong Hotel, and was continued with one day of fieldwork in Tan Thai commune. The fourth day was used for fieldwork presentations, further teaching in modelling, discussion, planning of TUL-SEA site proposals, evaluation and certificate delivery.

During the fieldwork, the participants were divided into two groups, one in RaCSA and one in PaLA plus RHA. Each group was led by Vietnamese-speaking facilitators Dr. Tran Quoc Hung, MSc and Duong van Thao from Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF); and Nguyen Hoang Quan, Pham Thu Thuy and Hoang Minh Ha from ICRAF Vietnam. The RHA/PaLA survey was conducted at landscape, communal and village levels, while RaCSA was done for two land use systems, including (i) plantation of tea under shade of Acacia Mangium and (ii) secondary natural forest. The processing of data gained during the fieldwork was conducted in the evening of the same day.

Participants highly appreciated the training due to its rich content, excellent facilitation and organisation. Nine proposal questionnaires for TUL-SEA sites, submitted from participants just after the training, showed the comprehensive understanding, enthusiasm and strong interest among participants for TUL-SEA. It is agreed that case studies and lectures in Vietnamese gained during this first training will be used to produce a TUL-SEA training manual to distribute widely in Vietnam. The next TUL-SEA training is planned to be organised in close collaboration with the Bac Kan IFAD project in late 2009.