Vietnam High Conservation Value Forest Toolkit - HCV Resource ...

Question Answer Guidance
2.4: Is there a population of
an umbrella species?
Yes If 2.3 AND 2.4 are yes, the area is HCVF.
Information on what may be considered umbrella
species and their presence can be obtained from
experts, previous surveys, or local knowledge. The
precautionary approach must be used when
assessing the presence of these species. Justification
must be given as to why the species chosen is
considered an umbrella species in that location, and
what evidence there is for its presence.
See ‘Additional questions’ below.
No The value is not present.
Additional questions:
If the forest is HCVF the toolkit user must ask several more questions. These will not change
the status as HCVF but will be important in developing management and monitoring programs.
1 Is the forest block across a national border?
If yes it may be necessary to develop cross border links to maintain the value.
2 Is the forest being assessed a part of or the entire landscape level forest?
For example, many SFEs have forest cover of less than 10,000 ha. In themselves they will
not contain this value but may however be part of a larger block. Management strategies
must consider this attribute.
3 If part of a large block, what proportion of the large block is made up from the forest area
under consideration?
HCV 3: Forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered
ecosystems.
Definition
This value is also concerned with ecosystems. It is not looking at the presence of specific
species or at the scale of the forest, but is designed to ensure that rare and threatened
ecosystems are adequately conserved, even if they do not in themselves contain many rare
species, or are on a landscape level.
It is important to note that this value considers two things:
• Ecosystems that are naturally rare, but may not necessarily be under threat. Cloud forests
for example are confined to high mountain tops. These areas may be restricted to only a
few of the highest peaks in a Viet Nam.
• Ecosystems that are under great threat, globally, regionally or nationally. These are forest
areas that are threatened from destruction but may have at one time been very widespread.
Lowland evergreen forests in South-east Asia for example are highly threatened from
unsustainable logging and conversion. Limestone forest is relatively well represented in
Viet Nam, and under relatively low threat. Globally however limestone karst forests are
relatively unusual and in some cases threatened by quarrying or wildfires.
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