This research paper will discuss  the role of the community in natural resource management, particularly land and forest  management and protection in Vietnam. The paper offers a discussion of environmental discourses that are related to the impacts of state land and forest management policies. Though ethnic communities in Vietnam have developed their knowledge and institutional systems in community natural resource management for a long time, communities were not recognized formally as one of the land users until 2003. Even then, though communities were identified as land users, few communities could attain land title. Those policies have had consequences with communities and their members facing shortages of land and forest. Nevertheless, those resources are essential for sustaining local people’s livelihoods, protecting forest, and keeping their cultural values.
 
The paper is organized in three main parts. The first summaries some key environmental discourses, especially ‘sustainable development’, and introduces concepts of culture, customary laws and community-based natural resource management. The second part deals with resource management and related legal framework in Vietnam. The third part illustrates the role of community in land and forest use and protection through a discussion of a Thai ethnic community in Vietnam.