# Deforestation in Vietnam

According to a 2005 report conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Vietnam has the second highest rate of deforestation of primary forests in the world, second only to Nigeria. The use of defoliants during the Vietnam War had a devastating and long-lasting impact on the country's forests and ecology, affecting 14-44% of total forest cover, with coastal mangrove forests being most affected.
The use of herbicides like Agent Orange during the war not only defoliated vast tracts of forest but also left behind long-term environmental damage, including soil contamination and disruptions to the natural regeneration of ecosystems. These effects are still felt today, particularly in areas where recovery has been slow or hindered by ongoing deforestation pressures. The war left a legacy of environmental degradation that affected not only the forests but also the communities that relied on them for resources such as food, timber, and fuel. Many communities, particularly in the central and southern regions, were displaced or forced into subsistence farming, further contributing to the degradation of the landscape. And which in present day continue to face environmental challenges.

## Shift towards forest restoration

However, regarding total forest cover, Vietnam has undergone a forest transition: its forest cover has increased since the early 1990s, after decades of deforestation. As of 2005, 12,931,000 hectares (the equivalent of 39.7% of Vietnam's land cover) was forested, although only 85,000 hectares (0.7% of the land cover) was primary forest, the most biodiverse form of forest.
Vietnam’s forest recovery is a notable success story, with forest cover increasing in recent decades after a period of extreme deforestation. The majority of the recovered forest is not primary, biodiverse forest but rather plantation forest, which lacks the complex ecological characteristics of natural forests. This shift from primary forest to monoculture plantations although beneficial for soil stabilization and carbon sequestration has not fully restored the environmental richness that existed before large-scale deforestation. But it has been a great towards regrowing the forest lost.
A response to the urgent need for climate change mitigation, Vietnam has chosen to adopt various strategies, including the REDD+ program, which aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, foster conservation, manage forests sustainably, and enhance forest carbon stocks. This program, supported by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Which is part of a broader global effort to try and tackle land use change, which contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Despite these efforts, however, forest loss and degradation persist, particularly in the north-central, northeast, and central highland regions, where forest clearing for agriculture, infrastructure development, and logging remain major concerns. The current policies in Vietnam provide a platform for the development of REDD+, and the program happens to hold great potential in reducing deforestation and forest degradation. However, the success of REDD+ in Vietnam is hindered by challenges such as limited data on the extent of forest loss and degradation, unclear drivers of deforestation, and insufficient local governance. Studies show that between 2000 and 2010, approximately 1.77 million hectares of forest were lost, while another 0.65 million hectares were degraded. These losses are often driven by a combination of economic and demographic factors, such as rising agricultural demand, population growth, poverty, and insufficient enforcement of land-use policies. A better understanding of these drivers, combined with stronger governance, is critical for ensuring the effectiveness of policies like REDD+.