Sustainable Forest Management in Viet Nam: Status, challenges and interventions1

RecommendationsReview national guidelines on development of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) plans and forest management standard to address gaps and limitations including thematic survey and assessment, Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (EIA and SIA), and SFM monitoring plans.

Capacity building for all stakeholders is required to promote SFM and forest certification as well as a Timber Legality Assurance Scheme (TLAS) and Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) required for export of forest products to the European Union (EU).

Develop and disseminate documentation of good practices and experiences in forest management to promote replication across all provinces of Viet Nam, including regarding forests and livelihoods, cultivation of native tree species, Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), Payment for Environmental Services (PES), group certification, commercial timber plantation development, improved site management and productivity.

Review current policies to identify and eliminate gaps and contradictions and provide detailed guidelines for effective application and implementation of forest-related policies at local level.

Strengthen coordination between line organizations and sources of investment in forests for effective implementation of SFM, forest certification and VPA/TLAS.

Policy Brief

UN-REDD Viet Nam Phase II Programme November 2016

IntroductionWith technical and financial support from the UN-REDD Phase II Programme, Viet Nam is revising the National REDD+ Action Programme (NRAP) to correspond more closely with national policy objectives and priorities. For example, the revised NRAP will include policies and measures to strengthen capacity and develop interventions for SFM on the ground, in partnership with Forest Management Boards (FMBs), State-owned Forest Companies (SoFCs) and Small Holder Growers (SHGs). Through UN-REDD, FAO has been piloting such interventions with several FMBs and SoFCs to build capacity for the development of SFM plans and towards forest certification.

This paper presents key findings and recommendations emerging through an expert review and a national workshop on the exchange of experience in SFM in the REDD+ context in Viet Nam, held on 6-7 October 2016 in Lao Cai Province. The purpose of this paper is to share information and recommendations for integration into the revised NRAP, contributing to promotion of SFM, forest certification and VPA/TLAS implementation in Viet Nam.

Status of sustainable forest managementViet Nam initiated efforts to incorporate certification into the forestry sector in 1998, by drafting a national forest management standard based on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) international standard. Subsequently, the mainstreaming of SFM throughout the forestry sector became a national priority reflected in the Viet Nam Forest Development Strategy (VFDS) for the period 2006 – 2020 and the Forest Protection and Development Plan (FPDP) for the period 2011 – 2020 . These policies set an ambitious target of 30% of the country’s production forests (about 2.5 Mha) to be certified to international standards of SFM by 2020 (Table 1). However, as of November 2016, a total of 204,000 ha of forests have been certified under FSC (the only international standard currently available in Viet Nam), of which about 40% is natural forests and 60% is plantations. Though several international and national initiatives currently promote SFM, Viet Nam remains some way off the planned targets.

A group certification approach has been developed and applied in Quang Tri and Yen Bai provinces for smallholder-owned plantation areas. Most certified forest areas are

1 The following individuals contributed to this policy brief: Vu Tan Phuong, Tran Lam Dong and Le Thien Duc. For further details, please see the workshop report on Exchange of Experience in Sustainable Forest Management in the REDD+ Context in Viet Nam

2 UN-REDD | Policy Brief: Sustainable Forest Management in Viet Nam

financially and technically supported by projects and international initiatives through agencies including GIZ, FAO, WWF and the UN-REDD Programme. However, there are also several cases where investment in SFM and forest certification is funded and supported by domestic wood processing enterprises.

Current national policies prioritize SFM and forest certification. Those include national strategies on forest development, green growth and climate change. Viet Nam is now in the process of developing a national forest certification scheme to promote SFM, in particular small forest growers. The implementation of a national forest certification scheme will be focusing on the development of Viet Nam standards and procedures for forest management and certification, establishment of an institutional structure to support the standard, and capacity building. Viet Nam has also actively engaged in negotiations for a VPA with the EU since 2010 and the negotiations are expected to be completed in the coming months.

Proposed interventions for SFM & Forest CertificationThe following interventions are recommended for FMBs, SoFCs and SHGs, to be considered for inclusion in the policies and measures of the revised NRAP.

Interventions for SFM for FMBs should focus on the development of forest co-management modalities, improving the capacity, livelihoods and income of local communities, forest rehabilitation and enhancement. Co-management of forests should promote effective engagement of local communities and mobilize sources of finance for forest management. This can be achieved through the application of sustainable extraction of timber to supply subsistence needs for home use (housing, furniture etc.); Development of NTFPs in forest areas for income generation; expansion of fruit trees and other cash crops on farms and home gardens; planting of scattered trees for subsistence use of timber and fuel wood; intensification techniques for agricultural crops and the development of eco-tourism.

With regard to SFM interventions with SoFCs, the focus should be on improved and sustainable productivity of plantation forests and natural forests, access to capital and markets and capacity building. Productivity of plantations can be improved through forest business planning, including land suitability assessment for tree species selection, application of suitable silvicultural measures, for example spacing, pruning, thinning techniques, fertilizer application, and use of certified germplasm. The value of plantations will be improved by promoting interventions across value chains, linkages between forest growers and wood industries and access to markets for certified products. Strengthening capacity for SoFCs is required to ensure effective development and implementation of SFM plans, value chain analysis and forest business planning.

Interventions for SHGs on SFM of plantations and natural forests include promotion of the establishment of SHGs or forestry cooperatives, improvement of plantation productivity, strengthening the process of forest land allocation and forest allocation, promotion of linkages with the wood processing industry, exploration and mobilization of funding sources for plantation development and awareness raising and capacity building.

3 Policy Brief: Sustainable Forest Management in Viet Nam | UN-REDD

Several challenges for implementation of SFM and forest certification at FMBs, SoFCs and SHGs are identified and summarized as follows:

• Limited technical capacity is found among different forest owners in Viet Nam for development of SFM plans, including FMBs, SoFCs and SHGs. The technical capacity limitations are mainly for forest biodiversity survey and assessment, silvicultural measures for productivity improvement, environmental and socio-economic impact assessments and identification of high conservation areas as well as documentation and data management.

• The financial investment required for SFM planning and forest certification is not generally incorporated into the budgets of forest management bodies. In most certified organizations, the funding for preparing SFM plans and auditing costs are sponsored by external projects and wood processing enterprises. In general, FMBs, SoFCs and SHGs are not currently able to cover the costs associated with development of SFM plans, certification and monitoring costs. Though policies exist to incentivize the use of financial support from the Government budget for forest certification, detailed guidelines for accessing this support are not in place.t

• Current guidelines provided in Circular 38 on the development of SFM plans are insufficient, for example on forest inventory, forest function mapping, socio-economic inventory, biodiversity inventory, silviculture interventions for forest management, management of buffer zones along rivers and streams and the monitoring and assessment of SFM plan implementation.

• The forest management standard attached to Circular 38 draws on the principles and criteria of the FSC international Forest Management (FM) standard, but several FSC criteria were not included, on the basis that they were not applicable to the Viet Nam political, governance and forest management context. This creates disadvantages for companies applying for FSC certification, as they do not meet the full requirements of the FSC standard.

• Conflicts regarding land use and forest boundaries between local communities and FMBs and SoFCs are still quite common in Viet Nam. Land encroachment by local people is often difficult to control. This situation is exacerbated by the rural poverty rate and the lack of alternative livelihoods for food security.

• Some forest areas managed by FMBs and SoFCs, particularly natural forest, are low quality and of limited productive or commercial value. In addition, current policies on protection forests are quite strict regarding timber production and alternative land use, therefore the benefits being generated from those forests are low, from the perspective of both the companies and the local population.

• There is a limited understanding of the need for, and significance of, implementing SFM, as well as poor coordination among line organizations, projects and programmes. This results in inefficient mobilization of resources for SFM implementation and integrated measures for livelihood generation.

Key targets 2020 2015

1. Forest areas (Mha) 16.24 14.1

2. Forest cover (%) 47 41

3. Export revenue of wood based products (billion USD) 7.8 6.8

4. Certified area of production forest (%) 30 2

5. Certified forest areas (Mha) 2 0.18

6. Revenue from payment for environmental services (billion USD) 2 0.05

Table 1: VFDS targets for SFM implementation in Viet Nam

Key challenges for Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification

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