Document Type: Briefs

This brief is a discussion of the Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management project’s support for promoting the acacia value chain in Hoa Binh province.

Introduction

In Vietnam and worldwide, widespread forest degradation from illicit timber harvesting, forest land conversion and poor forest management practices, is leading to increased carbon emissions, which threatens the environment, communities, and livelihoods. Despite national increases in overall tree coverage, Vietnam’s natural forests are reducing in area and worsening in quality.

From 2020-2025, the USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) is linking communities, local authorities, the national government, and the private sector to jointly address the drivers of forest conversion and degradation in targeted areas. The Project aims to avoid carbon emissions from natural forest conversion and degradation; increase carbon sequestration through better management of plantation forests; and improve the quality, diversity, and productivity of natural production forests– all to protect Vietnam’s threatened forest resources.

Production Forestry Status in Hoa Binh

Hoa Binh Province is located 100 kilometers northwest of Hanoi. Its total area is 459,614 ha, of which about 76 percent consists of forests and forestry land (areas that are planned for forestry purposes) and the remaining 24 percent is land without forests, which is distributed across 10 districts and Hoa Binh City. The total production forest area is 149,425 ha, of which plantation forests accounts for 62 percent (or 92,470 ha). Within these plantation areas, individual household forest owners account for 68 percent of the total land. Other forest owners, such as protection forest management boards and state-owned companies, account for 32 percent.

This issue brief discusses the Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management Activity’s support towards local businesses and farmers in Lao Cai province.

Key Issues of Vietnam’s Cinnamon Industry

The Project conducted a rapid literature review and field assessment to initially identify seven main issues:

• The quality of cinnamon seedlings has not been seriously considered, especially with limited research and development on leading varieties and certified cinnamon seedlings. Low quality of seedling leads to low productivity in cinnamon bark, leaves (essential oils), and timber (logs). However, most local cinnamon growers do not tend to purchase certified cinnamon seedlings for several reasons, including: (i) price barriers, (ii) limited availability in local areas; or (iii) traditional practices collecting cinnamon seeds from their old high-density tree plots to sow and produce seedlings.
• To some extent, chemical residue, glyphosate (in herbicides) and active substance, chlorpyrifos (in pesticides) as well as metal content (lead and mercury) are found above the required standards, preventing cinnamon producers from exporting to high-end markets, like the U.S. or Europe.
• While the area of organic cinnamon has begun to develop, it is still on a small scale, the cost for certification is high (beyond farmers’ reach), and farmers produce limited (non-diverse) cinnamon products.
• Producers lack the technology and capital to invest in in-depth processing to improve product value. Due to a lack of competent experts, the intensive technical capacity of agro-forestry extension has not met actual requirements or market potential.
• Pests and diseases occur with cinnamon trees and many areas are over-exploited, such as: exploiting areas of young cinnamon trees; technically incorrect pruning, etc.
• Collaboration between processing and exporting enterprises and cinnamon growers is not well established, although Vietnam has more than 600 companies operating in the spice industry, mainly through trade. The supply chain has not been effectively implemented, especially to form cooperatives that can connect with businesses.
• There are very limited studies evaluating the potential of cinnamon trees and products’ potential for carbon sequestration.

The Project’s Interventions

In Lao Cai, the Project is contributing to addressing the following issues:

1. Conducting assessment on seedlings and supporting cinnamon forest owners to obtain cinnamon “mother tree” forest certification – In early 2023, the Project conducted a survey and identified 25 ha of 15-year-old cinnamon trees owned by 33 households in Nam Det commune (Bac Ha district) and Nam Tha commune (Van Ban district) to be transformed into a cinnamon “mother tree forest” (i.e., an area of mature trees and dense enough to produce adequate high-quality seeds for seedlings). The Project provided technical assistance to create boundaries, select and save the best trees, and thin the rest. As a result, the current standardized density is about 600 trees per ha. This practice helps increase productivity and produce better seed quality. In the next season, these 25-ha of mother tree forest will provide around 37.5 tons of seeds, which will produce more than 70 million good-quality seedlings for plantation for 21,000 ha of cinnamon. This will contribute to enhancing the CO2 sequestration of cinnamon forests in the province and generate income.
2. Setting up farmer interest groups (FIG) for readiness to develop organic plantations – From October 2022 to July 2023, the Project helped establish 15 cinnamon FIGs in seven communes of Van Ban, Bac Ha and Bao Thang districts. Each group consists of 50-70 members led by a management board. The Project organized consultation meetings with these groups to discuss and agree on the working principles and a benefit-sharing mechanism, that were approved by the relevant Commune People’s Committees. The Project connected and facilitated purchasing agreements between cinnamon producers/ lead firms with 814 local cinnamon farmers; most of which are Dao minority ethnic people, and owners of about 1,722 ha of cinnamon.
3. Providing training on organic farming and pre-processing skills – The Project conducted 15 trainings on cinnamon organic farming for 814 farmers (41% females and 65% ethnic minorities) to raise awareness on buying certified cinnamon seedlings and to eliminate their practice of using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. The Project guided them on keeping a cultivation logbook to track data on seedlings, nutrition for soil, pruning, thinning, etc. This will enable farmers and conservation friendly enterprises (CFEs) to register for organic plantation. The Project is also collaborating with CFEs to train farmers on the collection of cinnamon bark and pre-processing techniques to ensure their products meet product processing requirements, market demands and required standards from CFEs.
4. Improving organizational performance for CFEs – The Project organized trainings on business planning, market access, and financial access for two CFEs (Tam Hoi Cooperative and Thai Tuan Cinnamon Ltd.) to help them understand consumer behavior, market segments for different products, and sales predictions for inventory management. As a result, Thai Tuan Cinnamon Ltd. decided to diversify their products to produce cinnamon sticks, which resulted in an agreement between the company and farmers to purchase both cinnamon branches and leaves for essential oil production and bark for cinnamon sticks. The Project advised Thai Tuan Cinnamon Ltd. on the conditions and procedures for obtaining a Certificate of Eligibility for Pharmacy Business so the company can officially export cinnamon oil to China.
5. Creating long-term impact for local people and the environment – The Project has been providing technical assistance on cinnamon for farmers to improve their livelihoods, leading to reduced deforestation threats of natural forests. With the Project’s support, approximately 2,640 local people (from 660 households) received benefits and at least 1,722 ha of cinnamon will be grown organically, contributing to better sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation. Once these cinnamon plantations receive organic certification, the associated cinnamon producers will have more opportunities to export their certified products to the international market, especially to European and U.S. markets. This will not only help improve livelihoods of local people, but it will also lead to sequestering more than 100,000 tons of CO2 annually, contributing to addressing the impacts of climate change in Vietnam and beyond.

Introduction

In Vietnam and worldwide, widespread forest degradation from climate change and other causes, like poor plantation management, is leading to increased carbon emissions, which threatens the environment, communities, and livelihoods. Despite national increases in overall tree coverage, Vietnam’s natural forests are reducing in area and worsening in quality.

From 2020-2025, the USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) is linking communities, local authorities, the national government, and the private sector to jointly address the drivers of forest conversion and degradation in targeted areas. The Project aims to avoid carbon emissions from natural forest conversion; increase carbon sequestration through better management of plantation forests; and improve the quality, diversity, and productivity of natural production forests– all to protect Vietnam’s threatened forest resources.

The Challenge

Vietnam has about 3.3 million hectares of unallocated forest land under temporary management by local administrative units called Commune People’s Committees (CPCs). This significant amount of (mostly unmanaged) land is often a hotspot of deforestation and forest degradation. The Government of Vietnam (GVN) has made significant efforts over the past two decades to promote forest allocation and forest land allocation (FA/FLA) from this unallocated area to non-state actors, including households, individuals, and communities who are likely to have a more vested interest in managing and protecting the land. However, households and communities currently manage only about 4 million ha (or 27%) of Vietnam’s national forest, of which forest land under community management is just 7%. The slow adoption of FA/FLA is often associated with two main barriers. First, while land allocation to communities is governed by Vietnam’s Land Law, forest allocation is guided by Forestry Law. Yet, these two processes are not always consistent. Secondly, policies guiding the two processes are often interpreted differently at the provincial level, causing confusion among local authorities about the FA/FLA process. Such inconsistencies at the national level and different interpretations at the provincial level often lead to hesitance among local authorities to accelerate FA/FLA to households and communities.

Taking Action to Promote FA/FLA

The Project supports FA/FLA in four provinces: Lao Cai (FA/FLA of 2,200 ha to two communities), Son La (FA/FLA of 15,000 ha to 315 communities), Hoa Binh (FA of about 1,000 ha to two communities), and Thanh Hoa (FA/FLA of 350 ha to one community). In total, this support is facilitating the allocation of nearly 19,000 ha of currently unallocated land to 20 communities. The Project’s technical assistance facilitates consultations with representatives from Department of Agriculture Rural Development (DARD) and Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE), local authorities, and communities to clarify roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders during the FA/FLA planning and implementation processes. At a knowledge exchange workshop on FA/FLA in Nghe An in June 2022, the Project shared experiences from Nghe An, one of the pioneering provinces in FA/FLA to communities between 2018-2020 with Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces.

As a result, Lao Cai province was inspired to increase its FA/FLA area from 90 ha up to 2,000 ha, which has since been approved by the People’s Provincial Committee (PCP) for implementation, and it is catching on in other provinces too. The Project’s efforts are prompting more action elsewhere too. The Project supported the development of a FA/FLA Plan that was approved by Thanh Hoa PPC for an area of 350 ha to one community, while Son La recently submitted its final implementation plan to the PPC for FA/FLA of 15,000 ha to 315 communities in 40 communes of three districts.

So what?

The approved FA/FLA plans by PPCs in Lao Cai and Thanh Hoa will result in almost 20,000 hectares of land being allocated to communities and individuals for better management and protection. Next, the Project will conduct land surveying, mapping, and forest inventories to prepare a dossier for land allocation for target communities. The Project will capture the FA/FLA process and support target provinces to produce provincial- level procedures to further guide the implementation and combination of both processes at the local level. This provincial policy will contribute into accelerating FA/FLA of unallocated land to households and communities throughout Vietnam, ensuring secure tenure of forest and forest land for better forest protection, thus achieving reduced carbon emissions and increasing carbon sequestration.

Introduction

In Vietnam and worldwide, widespread forest degradation from illicit timber harvesting, forest land conversion and poor forest management practices, is leading to increased carbon emissions, which threatens the environment, communities, and livelihoods. Despite national increases in overall tree coverage, Vietnam’s natural forests are reducing in area and worsening in quality.

From 2020-2025, the USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) is linking communities, local authorities, the national government, and the private sector to jointly address the drivers of forest conversion and degradation in targeted areas. The Project aims to avoid carbon emissions from natural forest conversion and degradation; increase carbon sequestration through better management of plantation forests; and improve the quality, diversity, and productivity of natural production forests– all to protect Vietnam’s threatened forest resources.

History of PFES Development in Vietnam

Payment for environmental services (PES) is a financial model where service users or beneficiaries of environmental resource-dependent services, such as hydroelectric companies, will pay service providers (i.e. forest owners) to maintain and ensure the integrity of the natural resources. Revenues generated from PES may serve as a fund for upkeep and maintenance of the natural resources, which will thereby ensure the long-term sustainability of the services derived from these resources. This mechanism was developed during the 1990s, mainly on a voluntary basis, at a small scale between a few users and service providers, and with flexible prices. Although the original idea for PES was for it to be a sustainable financing scheme to protect environmental resources, since participation in the scheme was voluntary, there was no long-term commitment from services users to pay for these services because companies do not realize the future long-term value of maintaining the resources when they are presently concerned about paying fees.

Since 2003, many small-scale voluntary PES mechanisms were inaugurated throughout Vietnam, with no remarkable impact. Another hindrance to scaling the PES mechanism is low public awareness about the importance of environmental services, and about how people living in and using forest areas can best contribute and understand their responsibilities to preserve vital resources. In Vietnam, companies respond better to government-instituted regulations, rather than appeals for voluntary contributions. Thus, the only approach to fully realize and scale PES schemes nationwide is for the government to make participation mandatory for companies.

In 2005, PES was first officially introduced—without success—by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) through their proposal for an environmental law. However, in 2008, through support from USAID, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) successfully piloted the PES mechanism, and officially called it “payment for forest environmental services,” or PFES, in Lam Dong province. The pilot lasted for two years with the participation of a few hydropower plants and two water companies (service users or beneficiaries). Fueled by the success of the pilot initiative, in 2010, the central government made PFES a national policy through Decree 99/2010/ND-CP. In the decree, PFES schemes were legalized for establishment throughout Vietnam. However, PFES in Decree 99 was not in the highest legal document (in Vietnam, Decree is under laws) until 2017, when five types of environmental services1 were defined and PFES regulations were adopted into the Forestry Law (No 16/2017/QH14). Through the Forestry Law, the government has taken steps to increase enforcement for PFES implementation in Vietnam.

This learning brief highlights findings from a systems mapping research study to investigate what drives smallholder farmers to convert natural lands to agriculture production spaces in three high biodiversity regions: Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Globally, agriculture-driven land conversion is one of the most pervasive threats to biodiversity conservation. At the same time, nearly one in three people worldwide did not have access to adequate food in 2020. Reconciling the need for land for agriculture and land for conservation is one of the most significant development challenges we face.

To inform effective programs addressing both needs, USAID commissioned a systems mapping research study to investigate what drives smallholder farmers to convert natural lands to agriculture production spaces.

For more details, the full research paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.103986.

This brief was originally posted on biodiversitylinks.org

Wildlife or game ranching is a billion-dollar industry in southern Africa.1 Despite Zambia’s seemingly high potential for community-focused private sector development in the industry, it has not flourished to date. Notwithstanding this, private agricultural ranches continue to add game ranching to their portfolios, and several community game ranching initiatives exist. Because participation of civil society (local communities) is understood to be essential for integrating social, economic, environmental, and political imperatives when determining appropriate climate resilient land use in Zambia, this brief examines how community game ranches in particular are operating within a challenging economic and policy environment and assesses their sustainability potential.