Current Status of REDD+ in Vietnam
Noriyoshi Kitamura (JICA)

Vietnam is identified as one of the countries that will be most severely affected by negative impactsof climate change in the world. Vietnam has a very long coastline, 3000 kilometers from north tosouth, and most of the economic activities are conducted in the big two deltas; one is the Red River
Delta in the north and the other one is Mekong Delta.

The Mekong Delta has much more

economic activities and sea rise will have very adverse impacts on the economic activities.
Vietnamese government is very committed to respond to climate change.
Same as Cambodia, Vietnam is one of the first countries selected for UN-REDD program and FCPF.
UN-REDD is now implementing its first phase for about 2-1/2 years.

UN-REDD is the leading

donor concerning the overall development of REDD+ in Vietnam. For FCPF, RPP has been
approved. Negotiation on the activities to be supported by FCPF fund $3.6 million is now goingon.
The government’s commitment to climate change is reflected in the fact that as early as inDecember 2008, the government already formulated National Target Program to Respond toClimate Change. A National Target Program is a government regular program with high priority
funded by government.

Vietnam is very serious about the climate change issues. The target

program consists of activities, and GOV recently approved the strategy on climate change, which
includes REDD+, but the roles of forest are more emphasized for adaptation purposes in thisclimate strategy because of the very mountainous topography.
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REDD national network, working group, and sub-technical working groups were established in2009. Some technical working groups have been very active.

The last point is the National

REDD Programme now being drafted and circulated for consultation.

This will be submitted tothe f Prime Minister’s Office to become one of government programs.

Not a target program, butthere will be some government funding when it is approved by the Prime Minister.

This is the background of why Vietnam is undertaking REDD+ initiative.

The figure of forest

area, which means forested area, is 13.4 million hectare with very high diversity for the 3000
kilometers from north to south. There are conifer, evergreen forest, and mangroves at the tip ofMekong Delta, even though it has been shrunk by conversion mostly to shrimp farms. Out of 87
or 88 million of national population, about 25 million are said to be living in remote area anddependent on forest and forest land.

Forest cover change shows U-shaped curve, but continuous

degradation or deforestation in some parts of country is still going on. Moreover, forest situationis very different from region to region in the country.
We have some existing policies and institutions as potential platform for REDD+ mechanism andimplementation. Vietnam has been trying to identify owner for every parcel of forest land, not theadministrative agencies, an owner who actually owns and manages forest.

It can be state agencies

or private and identification of owner is done through forestland allocation. Another uniquesystem is forest protection contracts. This is to have a contract with people living around forests,
mostly protection or special-use forest. Contracted people patrol the forest area. They are notsupposed to encroach in or cut forest illegally.

In return, they receive a certain amount of money.

Another very important issue for Vietnam’s forestry sector is FLEGT.

GOV are now negotiating a

voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) with EU, and as well known, there is an EIA62 reportshowing hundreds of log trucks crossing border from Laos to Vietnam.

It is not clear whether

they are all illegally or legally logged, but this legality issue of imported timber from neighboring
countries is a very important issue for concluding VPA with EU. FLEGT is now a more urgent
issue to tackle because FLEGT will be enforced early next year by February or March in 2013,
otherwise, their export of mostly furniture to EU countries will be very closely checked for legalityof timber source and some may be rejected.
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Environmental Investigation Agency

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Vietnam has a good history of donor coordination through the Forest Sector Support Program63.
The donors for REDD also are cooperating each other under guidance of the government.

This is the graph of population increase and so-called U-shaped forest cover. Green line is forest
cover on the right-hand X. In 1943, it was 43% but the forest cover bottomed out around 1990
and then increasing. In 2010, the official statistics show 39.5%, so steadily increasing. On theother hand, the population has been exploding from around 25 million to current 87 million.
There is a very high population pressure as well as development pressure on natural recourses.
On national level, average population density is almost 300 persons per km2, and even a very
remote province like Dien Bien, which is very mountainous, has 53 or 54 persons per square
kilometer of population density. This has put a very high pressure on use of natural resources.
But, the forest situation is different from region to region. According to this forest transition
curve, we can identify some areas at some different points on this curve. In the Central Highland
and Southeast region, which are located next to next, they have relatively high forest cover andgood forest, but deforestation is very severe. On the other hand, in the Northern Mountain region,
forest recovery is going on.

Forest is classified into three categories: special use forests, which are national parks andnature

reserves for conservation purposes are about 2 million hectare; protection forest, mostly watershed
protection on the upstream of hydropower dams or irrigation schemes, about 4.8 million;63

http://www.vietnamforestry.org.vn/

68production forest for timber production, 6.4 million hectares.

Out of this 13.4 million hectares,

natural forests 10.3, and plantation forest 3.1. Plantation forest has been expanding very rapidly
consisting of mostly fast-growing species like Acacia and Eucalyptus. This does not include
rubber plantation.
Who manages these forests?

For special use and production forests, mostly management boards

at provincial level, which are under the supervision of Provincial People’s Committee, are theowners and managers. Another big owner type is state forest enterprises. State forest enterprises
used to have much larger area, but through the forest allocation program, they have beentransformed into management boards for both types of special-use and protection if they manage
large areas of these forests. Now, existing state forest enterprises mostly manage production
forests. Commune People’s Committee (CPC), which is not an owner defined by the forestry law,
temporarily manages about 2 million ha and their forest is in the process of allocation; and another3.4 million hectares are mostly production forests allocated to many households and individuals.

These photos show regional differences in forest situation. Upper-left one is apparently
deforestation most likely conversion to commercial crop plantation; upper right looks like illegal
logging; lower-left; nursery of Acacia and lower right; plantations.

At the top of institutional set-up, there is a steering committee established by the Minister ofMARD, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

But as far as I know, this steeringcommittee has never been held. National REDD+ office, established early last year, has been
operational and doing a lot of coordination work for this national REDD+ network and organizing
69various sub-technical working group meetings.

This is the agenda of the Fifth Network Meeting held in last December. Main topics are key
results of COP17; update on key REDD activities including this drafting and circulation of National
REDD Programme; and report from five technical working groups; and action plan for next year;
and discussion. This network meeting is chaired by Vice Minister of MARD and the NorwegianAmbassador.

For MRV, under UN-REDD Initiative, Manual for Participatory Carbon Monitoring 64 , MRVFramework Document with a wider scope65, and eco-stratification of forest into 47 sub-regions
have been the main products.

The framework document gives a basic idea of MRV in Vietnam

and focus is on institutional coordination mostly between MARD and MONRE. Next step will begoing to design and conduct next NFI, National Forest Inventory, from 2013 to 2015 based on theseworks.

This REDD+ MRV should be linked with the national level GHG66 inventory.

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http://vietnam-redd.org/Upload/Download/File/PCM_manual_short_3415.pdf

65

http://vietnam-redd.org/Upload/Download/File/MRV_Framework_Document_V1_Draft_3_4046.pdf

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Greenhouse Gas Inventory

70Benefit Distribution System; this has been one of the biggest issue discussed in Vietnam. Verythick report on BDS study 67 has been prepared and a follow-up study 68 was also done by
UN-REDD. Discussions on the REDD fund, including objectives, management, linkage with
MRV, and so on are going on. The payment is also discussed; what types of payment such as
participation, performance-based, result-based?

There is confusion of terms, and need to sort out.

Modalities means payment should be in cash or in kind, level is how much, and discussion on
R-coefficient is also going on. R-coefficient is very difficult, but the idea is to differentiate thestakeholders’ effort in reducing or sequestration one ton of carbon. The price of carbon may differ
from place to place or from owner to owner. These are going to be piloted in seven or eightprovinces.

Concerning legal framework for REDD to be revised, most emphasis is on the land use planning.
Coordination between forest use and land use planning, and incorporation of REDD into land use
and/or forest use planning. New legislation necessary for financial management, carbon trade involuntary, compliance, or other markets; and same as other countries, defining carbon rights orcarbon credit rights, who owns carbon or carbon credit rights, and technical and institutional
legislation for MRV.
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http://vietnam-redd.org/Upload/Download/File/Viet_Nam_REDD_Benefit_Distribution_Study_FINAL_February_2010_4420.pdf
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http://vietnam-redd.org/Upload/Download/File/BDS_follow-up_studies-En_3534.pdf

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Existing platform for REDD+; forestland allocation has been going on. Out of 13.4 million
hectare, according to MARD statistics, 11.2 million hectares have been allocated to 1.2 million
owners. There are owners for more than 80% of all forests. But MONRE and MARD– MONRE
is responsible for land allocation; MARD is responsible for forest allocation – in many cases do not
go hand-in-hand. Statistics are very different. This can be a good platform for REDD+, but
could be a cause of confusion too.
PFES 69 has been piloted in two provinces from 2009.

Government considered pilot wassuccessful. In September 2010, Prime Minister Decree was issued to implement PFES nationwide.
Implementing regulations for this PFES decree are being drafted. PFES in Vietnam is cash
payment to forest owners and contract holders, too.

Protection forest contract holders even

without own forest can be paid this PFES. There will be K-coefficient. Depending on forest
situation, the money level will be differentiated. The payers are hydropower generators, watersupplier, and so on.

CO2 sequestration is also one of forest services, it is not clear whether

this means REDD+ or not, but for CO2 sequestration, payment level, who will receive, who will
pay are to be decided by another Prime Minister decree.
Concerning institutions, many management entities are identified through land allocation, but inmany areas, documents are missing. Even if households have documents, they do not know where
the land is. Locating their land is very difficult in many cases esp. for small holders. Forest
protection and development fund, which will implement this PFES, collect money from payers andthen pay to forest owners.

This will be a good institutional base for REDD+ financial aspects andlocal agencies will gain experiences. The data concerning owners, location, area and conditionsof forest will be very important for REDD too.

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Payment for Forest Environmental Services: practice of offering incentives to farmers or landowners
in exchange for managing their land to provide some sort of ecological service

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NRP70 covers almost all of the REDD components, including PaMs71, and implementation scheme.
They propose phased approach. Until 2015; system development at central level, and demonstration
activities in selected provinces, including pilot BDS. UN-REDD phase 2 will implement thisprovincial pilot in six provinces; JICA one and a couple of others. After 2016, national systemcompleted, and REDD+ activities will be expanded to other forested provinces. After 2020, inline with the Durban Platform, if it goes as planned, full REDD+ implementation under UNFCCC
will take place.

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National REDD+ Programme

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Policies and Measures73