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Action

Vietnam local-level integrated monitoring tool: monitoring timber legality, deforestation and ecosystem services

  • Year

    2018 – 2021

  • Location

    Kon Plong District, Kon Tum Province, Vietnam

  • Budget

    EUR 50 000

  • Funded by

    The European Commission, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain and the UK

  • Partners

    Fauna & Flora International

Introduction

The EU REDD Facility and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) collaboratively developed a pilot, local-level forest monitoring platform that integrates the requirements of three initiatives that aim to protect and sustainably manage forests. These are: 1) the initiative to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+), 2) Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and 3) Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES).

Vietnam is engaged in several initiatives that aim to sustainably manage and protect forests. Various REDD+ projects at the local level are already in the implementation phase. Vietnam is also implementing a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union on FLEGT, which aims to combat illegal logging and promote legal timber trade. PFES, which transfers revenues from hydropower, municipal water and ecotourism companies to households in protection forest areas, is operational and enshrined in the Forestry Law.

Lessons learnt from the EU REDD Facility and FFI project could guide potential replication of local-level forest monitoring efforts in other parts of Vietnam. It could also inform the development of national and subnational forest policies related to REDD+, FLEGT and PFES.

The objective

This project aimed to design a subnational forest monitoring tool that integrates REDD+, FLEGT and PFES requirements, thereby improving coordination among stakeholders monitoring forests and forest governance in Vietnam. Lessons learnt from the project could support upscaling of the monitoring tool to provincial and national levels.

The project provided information relevant to the implementation of forest policies. For example, the tool provides a template to carry out the monitoring and assessment of the social, economic and environmental impacts of the implementation of the FLEGT VPA between Vietnam and the EU. The template could also support the collection of information by independent observers to strengthen the system that verifies that wood products conform to Vietnam’s national laws.

The project was built on the REDD+ community-based project that FFI has implemented since 2010 in Hieu Commune, Kon Plong District, Kon Tum Province in the Central Highlands, with initial funding from the EU’s Community Carbon Pools Programme. The REDD+ project was certified by Plan Vivo in December 2020 and hopefully the piloting of the tool can attract additional finance for the project.

Project outputs include:

  • An integrated monitoring tool and plan for Kon Plong District supportive of requirements for REDD+, PFES and FLEGT under a simplified, standardised, harmonised protocol
  • Shared lessons learnt on the monitoring tool with relevant stakeholders to promote upscaling activities and relevant policy adjustments

The challenge

In 2018, Vietnam had around 14.4 million hectares of forest land, or 44% of its total area. Although its forest area is increasing, this is mostly through the establishment of planted forests. Its natural forests are still being degraded and converted to other land uses.

To address this challenge, Vietnam is implementing REDD+, a FLEGT VPA, and a PFES programme simultaneously at the national level, being one of the few countries to do it. These three initiatives have evolved relatively independently, catalysed by different actors and contexts, and facilitated by diverse stakeholders. Each initiative operates under its own programmatic framework with separate monitoring and reporting requirements. However, despite distinct origins, the three initiatives’ data needs substantially overlap.

It is also clear that the implementation of different monitoring systems will create an unnecessary burden at the local level where resources and capacities are already scarce. At the local forest-unit level, employing multiple systems is inefficient and complex. This is because human resource capacity to gather and process overlapping information and resolving discrepancies in generated datasets is limited. These factors could hinder effective monitoring, reporting and decision making.

Fauna & Flora International Vietnam

The approach

A viable, sustainable, realistic and integrated local forest monitoring tool, based on the Vietnamese legal framework, is needed to improve integrated forest and land management and reporting results. Such a monitoring tool would not only improve REDD+, FLEGT and PFES impact, but also facilitate the integration of the sustainable landscape management and governance that the Government of Vietnam and development partners aim for.

To design and test such an integrated forest monitoring tool, three key criteria were considered: data already collected; capacities of local forest owners, managers and data collectors; and indicators that are essential to, unique to, and/or cross-cutting among REDD+, FLEGT VPA and PFES.

Initially selected indicators were refined through an iterative piloting approach at the local level through which information on environmental services payments, implementation process, and programme/project impact was collected by forest rangers, government officials, community members and civil society organisations.

By streamlining collection, analysis, storage and use of data relevant for REDD+, FLEGT and PFES, costs can be reduced and data can be utilised in a cross-cutting manner. The data collected, analysed, stored and shared in a participatory and collaborative system, coordinated by local forest protection departments, could further facilitate appropriate and equitable results-based payments, support improvements in land tenure and forestland allocation, and strengthen law enforcement.

Results and impact

Results

  • A monitoring tool, comprised of 15 data collection templates, developed in Excel and Google Forms, which can serve as the basis to develop a mobile (app) version and a full-fledged web-based data collection and reporting platform in the future.
  • A policy brief, briefing and working paper, which capture the lessons learnt from the project.

Impact

  • The discussions and consultations undertaken as part of this project enabled several stakeholders – including those working on REDD+, PFES, and FLEGT – to learn from lessons on forest monitoring in terms of data needs, information overlaps, opportunities to combine or simplify data collection, and capacities to reliably collect data at the local level.
  • The design of technological solutions for local forest monitoring provided potential contributions to the ongoing development of REDD+, FLEGT, and PFES monitoring systems, supported by the Government and various national and international partners.
  • The multistakeholder workshops and other outputs helped raise the profile of local forest monitoring in Vietnam at national and international levels.

Resources

Data collection

Other resources

About the EU REDD Facility

The EU REDD Facility supports countries in improving land-use governance as part of their efforts to slow, halt and reverse deforestation. It also supports the overall EU effort to reduce its contribution to deforestation in developing countries. The Facility focuses on countries that are engaged in REDD+, an international mechanism that incentivises developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their forest and land-use sectors. The Facility is hosted by the European Forest Institute and was established in 2010.

Disclaimer

This website has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and the Governments Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. The contents of this site are the sole responsibility of the European Forest Institute’s EU REDD Facility and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of funding organisations.