FOREST MONITORING, PAYMENTFOR FOREST ENEVIRONMENTSERVICES AND REDD+ IN ĐIỆN BIÊNPROVINCE
Seminar on Climate Change and Forests –Conservation of Tropical Forest towards
the Green Economy
Waseda University, Tokyo
Prepared by: Nguyen Dinh Ky
Presented by: Nguyen Dinh Hung

MAIN CONTENTS

1. National Forest Monitoring in Vietnam
2. Forest monitoring in Dien Bien province
3. Payment for Forest Environment Services(PFES)
4. Relationship between PFES and REDD+I. NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING IN
VIETNAM
1. General about national forest monitoring The national forest inventory, assessment and monitoringprogramme has been implementing since 1991 in a 5-year
cycle to provide a national data system on forest resources.
Forest Inventory and Planning Institute (FIPI) is theimplementing agency for conducting this programme. The
last inventory was conducted in 2006-2010
 The annual forest monitoring programme (conducted byForest Protection Department) has been implementing
since 2002 to provide annual updates on forest resources
 In order to meet IPCC requirements, annual forest
monitoring reports are needed. However, current annual
reports do not reach the necessary accuracy levelI. NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING IN
VIETNAMForest cover maps at the village and commune
levels do not have the necessary accuracy
level to be updated annually
Each province updates forest cover data
differently depends on province requirements
and budgetA
2.
Constrains
andchallenges

B

Updates at provincial level are often not integrated
into national forest cover data because these
updates have not been verified
The forest protection sub-department only updates area
data for reporting without updating the forest covermaps. In addition, there is a lack of budget for national
forest assessment so the quality of the result is not highCDII. FOREST MONITORING IN DIEN BIENPROVINCE
1. Existing data: Forest Cover Map year 2006
 Forest Cover Map year 2009
 Hard-copy/digital maps at Forestry Sub-department andForest Protection Sub-department
2. Annual updates of forest changes- Deforestation due to agriculture, forest fires, changing offorest use purposes to industrial trees, transportation system,
forest concession – for production forest).
- Afforestation, reforestation, regeneration
3. The reporting flow
 Commune forest rangers -> District forest rangers –>Provincial Forest Protection sub-department -> Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development

II. FOREST MONITORING IN DIEN BIENPROVINCE
There are lack of full forest cover maps for local forest rangers.
The changes (increasing, decreasing) on forest area, stock donot reflect on hard-copy and/or digital maps (only statisticaldata are available)

A
4.
Constrains
andChallenges

BC

D

Forest owners do not have capacity to monitor annual changes.
The capacity of forest rangers forces is limited. Their skills onusing maps and GPS are not high. There are lack of maps andGPS.

The allowance for local forest rangers and forestry staff is low.
Therefore, they are not encouraged to protect the forest
The monitoring and assessment work (conducted by districtand provincial PCs) is not implemented adequately

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II. FOREST MONITORING IN DIEN BIENPROVINCE
5. Forest monitoring system in Dien Bien province
MARD

Provincial PC (DARD)

District PC

Commune PC

Forestry Subdepartment

ForestProtection Subdepartment

Division of ARD

Forest Ranger
StationManagement
Board

Local forest
rangerLocal staff

Cadastralstaff

Forestry
staff(by Project)

III. PAYMENT FOR FOREST ENVIRONMENTALSERVICES (PFES)
1. Concept:- Value of forest: - storing carbon, protecting water sources, avoiding
soil erosion, creating good environment and landscapes. The users ofthese values (hydro-power plants, water plants, tourist companies)
have the responsibility to pay to forest owners who create these values- The process of implementing the above concept is called payment offorest environmental services.
2. Payment method:- Direct payment: The users pay cash directly to forest owners- Indirect payment: The users of services authorize a third party (forexample, The Forest protection and development fund) to pay themoney to forest owners

III. PAYMENT FOR FOREST ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

3. Constrains and challenges- This is a new activity, implemented in Dien Bien province thefirst time.
- Almost all forest area do not have specific owners (currentlymanaged by commune PCs).
- The forest are dispersed, not fully inventoried, interlacedwith residential area or agriculture land.
- The total payment for the whole area is quite high but thepayment for each forest owner is low (each forest owner hasin average 3 ha of forest, receiving about 600.000VNĐ –equivalent to the price of 3 chickens or 10 bamboos).
- Many people want to have forest allocated so the conflicts
among them can easily occur.
- The land and forest allocation in the past have many
problems and needs to be re-conducted.

III. PAYMENT FOR FOREST ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
4. Implementation progress in Dien Bien province- About 242,000 ha (~2/3 province’s forest area) havealready received PFES.
- 6/9 districts have already received PFES
- In two years, two hydro-power plants (Hòa Bình and SơnLa) have paid 6 million USD. This amount is equivalent tothe annual state budget allocated to the province for forest
protection and development.
- The province is negotiating with other small hydro-power
plants in the province juridiction to increase the amount ofmoney received from PFES.
- About 600,000 USD has been paid to forest owners(~35,000 ha, in which Mường Nhé Natural Conservation
Park: 30.000 ha; Mường Lay town: 5.000 ha).
- The province is examining the owners for 205,000 ha offorest in the remaining districts/towns.

IV. RELATIONSHIP BETWEENPFES AND REDD+- Have the same objective of forest conservation
SIMILARITIES - Pay for an area of forest based on forest quality- Implementing annual forest monitoring as a basefor payment- PFES pays when someone uses the services- REDD+ pays for the increment of carbon stock
DIFFERENCES(or the reduction of GHG),- PFES pays for the forest area in the basin area
- The implementation of PFES will provide inputs(forest owners, forest area, forest stock) for theimplementation of REDD+.
RELATIONSHIP - When implemented together, REDD+ and PFES willconsolidate each other to encourage forest
conservation and development activities.
- REDD+ needs to establish a benefit sharing system,
which is also a base for implementing PFES