Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

In conclusion, PES until now has not strongly proven its contribution to local livelihoods. At present,
it is hard to determine whether PES contributes to poverty reduction but it is possible to say that it
can partly support local people in poverty avoidance and raise the awareness of local people about the
importance of forest protection and development.
Challenges and difficulties
PES implementation meets many challenges at all levels, from the province to the commune. First, at
provincial level, implementation is still not clear and there are no detailed circulars and guidance given
to local staff in terms of payments. There is no guidance for financial mechanisms from the provincial
Department of Finance either.
Second, cooperation between agencies and departments is poor, with no regulations in place for
partners or buyers who refuse or are late to pay PES. Suoi Sap hydro power plant is an example of such
a company that keeps delaying payments.
Third, it is sometimes not clear who the real owners of the forest are. The survey completed in 2005
is now outdated and the plots of land might have changed or were transferred to other people. In
some cases, the owner dies without leaving a will. This has caused difficulties for forestry officers in
identifying plots and owners.
Fourth, low incomes from PES have discouraged local people from protecting the forests. Now, some
want to shift to other higher value commodities, such as coffee and fruit.
Fifth, the formula developed by MARD on calculating how much money a forest owner will be paid
based on the forest type is very difficult and complicated. It does not differentiate between rich forest
and poor forest. This kind of application, on the one hand, has brought benefits to those forest owners
whose forests are not really rich. On the other hand, it does not correctly evaluate the efforts of owners
whose forests are better. It therefore can create inequality in paying the FES, creating conflict among
villagers.
What can be done to improve the contribution of the initiative?
• A detailed survey of the forest area and classification should be completed to ensure that no
one will be taken out of the PES program and the area of forest that they protect matches
the area on the certificate.
• Owners will be required to exert further efforts in the care and protection of newly planted
forests, and there should be a mechanism to support them financially.
• To avoid locals from converting their land to grow coffee and rice, awareness needs to be
raised to improve attitudes and behavior toward the forest.
• The formula for computing for PES should be reconsidered to provide owners with a fair
payment corresponding to the effort in protecting the forest.
Outlook for Forestry and Poverty Alleviation
As discussed in Section 2, the socio-economic development plan 2011-2015 on the implementation
of the associated strategy, set the goals of increasing the average economic development rate from
2011 to 2015 at around 7-8% per year; reducing the poor household rate based on the new standard,
down to 2-3% per year; and increasing the forest cover to 42.5% (Decision 09/2011/QĐ-TTg). Viet
Nam is a middle-income country and by 2020, it will be an industrial country. It is also estimated
that the population of Viet Nam will reach 100 million people by 2020. Rapid population growth
and economic progress will dramatically increase demands for forest products as well as forestry
services (MARD 2007).
353