Being equitable is not always fair: An assessment of PFES implementation in Dien Bien, Vietnam

Being equitable is not always fair: An assessment of PFES implementation in Dien Bien, Vietnam PDF Author: Le Ngoc Dung
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
Vietnam is the first Southeast Asian country to implement a national program for payments for forest environmental services (PFES), providing lessons on how such systems can be designed to achieve forest outcomes that are effective, efficient and equitable. This Working Paper presents results from an in-depth study on the implementation of PFES in Dien Bien province, Vietnam, which assessed how equity was locally conceptualized in the PFES benefit-sharing process and the factors that influenced local perceptions of equity. We found that local perceptions of equity varied across PFES communities because of differences in social contextual factors such as ethnicity and in the geography of the areas that affected the size of PFES payments and the level of PFES implementation. While PFES policy did include distributional equity considerations through formulation of the K-coefficient, this coefficient was not properly implemented on the ground due to its complexity and lack of data. The procedural aspects of equity were found to be lacking. Poor information flows, lack of awareness of rights and responsibilities and the non-participation of local ecosystem service (ES) providers in decision-making processes led to a general sense of inequity and demotivation. This study suggests that particular attention should be given to improve information sharing and communication patterns with local ES providers and to establish a proper grievance handling system for two-way information flow. The inclusion of local people in decision-making processes on the key elements of benefit-sharing mechanisms is crucial in aligning PFES benefits with the preferences of local people and could potentially help to motivate their performance in forest management. Policy makers and program implementers will want to examine local perspectives of equity – and to understand how these can change over time – so that they can tailor the design of benefit-sharing mechanisms to generate effective, efficient and equitable PFES outcomes.

Being equitable is not always fair: An assessment of PFES implementation in Dien Bien, Vietnam

Being equitable is not always fair: An assessment of PFES implementation in Dien Bien, Vietnam PDF Author: Le Ngoc Dung
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
Vietnam is the first Southeast Asian country to implement a national program for payments for forest environmental services (PFES), providing lessons on how such systems can be designed to achieve forest outcomes that are effective, efficient and equitable. This Working Paper presents results from an in-depth study on the implementation of PFES in Dien Bien province, Vietnam, which assessed how equity was locally conceptualized in the PFES benefit-sharing process and the factors that influenced local perceptions of equity. We found that local perceptions of equity varied across PFES communities because of differences in social contextual factors such as ethnicity and in the geography of the areas that affected the size of PFES payments and the level of PFES implementation. While PFES policy did include distributional equity considerations through formulation of the K-coefficient, this coefficient was not properly implemented on the ground due to its complexity and lack of data. The procedural aspects of equity were found to be lacking. Poor information flows, lack of awareness of rights and responsibilities and the non-participation of local ecosystem service (ES) providers in decision-making processes led to a general sense of inequity and demotivation. This study suggests that particular attention should be given to improve information sharing and communication patterns with local ES providers and to establish a proper grievance handling system for two-way information flow. The inclusion of local people in decision-making processes on the key elements of benefit-sharing mechanisms is crucial in aligning PFES benefits with the preferences of local people and could potentially help to motivate their performance in forest management. Policy makers and program implementers will want to examine local perspectives of equity – and to understand how these can change over time – so that they can tailor the design of benefit-sharing mechanisms to generate effective, efficient and equitable PFES outcomes.

The context of REDD+ in Vietnam

The context of REDD+ in Vietnam PDF Author: Pham, T.T.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 6023871216
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Vietnam is acknowledged to be REDD+ pioneer country, having adopted REDD+ in 2009. This paper is an updated version of Vietnam’s REDD+ Country Profile which was first published by CIFOR in 2012. Our findings show that forest cover has increased since 2012, but enhancing, or even maintaining, forest quality remains a challenge. Drivers of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam, including legal and illegal logging, conversion of forest for national development goals and commercial agriculture, weak law enforcement and weak governance, have persisted since 2012 up to 2017. However, with strong political commitment, the government has made significant progress in addressing major drivers, such as the expansion of hydropower plants and rubber plantations.Since 2012, Vietnam has also signed important international treaties and agreements on trade, such as Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) through the European Union’s (EU) Forest Law Enforcement. These new policies have enhanced the role of the forestry sector within the overall national economy and provided a strong legal framework and incentives for forestuser groups and government agencies to take part in forest protection and development. Nevertheless, new market rules and international trade patterns also pose significant challenges for Vietnam, where the domestic forestry sector is characterized by state-owned companies and a large number of domestic firms that struggle to comply with these new rules.The climate change policies, national REDD+ strategy and REDD+ institutional setting has been refined and revised over time. However, uncertain and complex international requirements on REDD+ and limited funding have weakened the government’s interest in and political commitment to REDD+. REDD+ policies in Vietnam have shown significant progress in terms of its monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems, forest reference emission levels (FREL), and performance-based and benefit-sharing mechanisms by taking into account lessons learnt from its national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) Scheme. Evidence also shows increasing efforts of government and international communities to ground forestry policies in a participatory decision-making processes and the progress on developing safeguarding policies in Vietnam between 2012 and 2017 affirms the government’s interest in pursuing an equitable REDD+ implementation. Policy documents have fully recognized the need to give civil society organizations (CSOs) and ethnic groups political space and include them in decision making. Yet, participation remains token. Government provision for tenure security and carbon rights for local households are still being developed, with little progress since 2012.The effectiveness of REDD+ policies in addressing drivers of deforestation and degradation has not be proven, even though the revised NRAP has recently been approved. However, the fact that drivers of deforestation and degradation are outside of the forestry sector and have a strong link to national economic development goals points to an uneasy pathway for REDD+. The business case for REDD+ in Vietnam has not been proven, due to an uncertain carbon market, increasing requirements from donors and developed countries, and high transaction and implementation costs. Current efforts toward 3Es outcomes of REDD+ could be enhanced by stronger political commitment to addressing the drivers of deforestation from all sectors, broader changes in policy framework that create both incentives and disincentives for avoiding deforestation and degradation, cross-sectoral collaboration, and committed funding from both the government and developed countries.

Payments for Environmental Services

Payments for Environmental Services PDF Author: Sven Wunder
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ecosystem management
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description


Environmental Ethics, Sustainability and Decisions

Environmental Ethics, Sustainability and Decisions PDF Author: Fabio Zagonari
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031211820
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
This book provides a summary of the main concepts involved in environmental ethics, sustainability and decisions and a consistent sequence of environmental ethics, sustainability and decisions. It presents many environmental ethics, by focusing on maximising welfare within teleological approaches and minimising inequalities within deontological approaches. It presents many sustainability paradigms, by focusing on weak sustainability to maximise welfare and strong sustainability to minimise inequalities. Two main decisions are presented by focusing on policies (taxes, standards, subsidies, permits, protected areas, exploitation rights) and projects (CBA) towards efficiency to maximise welfare and policies (national laws/regulations, bilateral/multilateral agreements) and projects (MCA) towards equity to minimise inequalities.

The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy

The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy PDF Author: William Nikolakis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108576591
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Forests play an important role in resolving global challenges such as sustainable development, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food and water security. Stopping deforestation is crucial for the future of our planet. Global efforts to curb deforestation, have been partially successful, but have largely fallen short. At the same time, national level efforts to support human development, reflected in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, aim to increase the welfare and wellbeing of populations living in poverty. Meeting these development goals will inevitably have crosscutting effects on initiatives to address deforestation. In balancing these goals, policy makers are confronted with wicked problems – or problems where there are moral considerations and where limited information is available for policy makers. This book is focused on how wicked forest policy problems have been, and can be, addressed.

The Bounds of Reason

The Bounds of Reason PDF Author: Herbert Gintis
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691160848
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Game theory is central to understanding human behavior and relevant to all of the behavioral sciences—from biology and economics, to anthropology and political science. However, as The Bounds of Reason demonstrates, game theory alone cannot fully explain human behavior and should instead complement other key concepts championed by the behavioral disciplines. Herbert Gintis shows that just as game theory without broader social theory is merely technical bravado, so social theory without game theory is a handicapped enterprise. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. Reinvigorating game theory, The Bounds of Reason offers innovative thinking for the behavioral sciences.

Fresh Tracks in the Forest: Assessing Incipient Payments for Environmental Services Initiatives in Bolivia

Fresh Tracks in the Forest: Assessing Incipient Payments for Environmental Services Initiatives in Bolivia PDF Author: Nina Robertson
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 9793361816
Category : Forest policy
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are being considered worldwide with great interest and expectation. Proposals to create agreements in which beneficiaries of environmental services pay landowners directly for the provision or protection of these services are innovative and promising. But what real PES experiences are actually out there? This work assesses a range of PES or PES-type experiences in one country, Bolivia, in the fields of carbon sequestration, protection of watershed services, biodiversity and aesthetic landscape values. The report concludes that while none of the generally young initiatives adhere fully to the principle of PES as developed in the theoretical literature, many experiment with some of the relevant PES mechanisms. Protection of watersheds and landscape values are the most common types, though the implementing intermediaries often have underlying biodiversity-protection goals. Main obstacles to PES implementation include ideological resistance against the PES concept, the difficulty of building trust between buyers and sellers, and limited willingness to pay on behalf of service users. During their relatively short lifetime, basically all initiatives had been successful in making service sellers (PES recipients) better off in economic terms, while the effectiveness in achieving environmental objectives and securing positive social impacts so far remained more variable. In some cases, redesigning these initiatives to bring them closer to the full PES principles could also enable them to more effectively achieve positive environmental and livelihood outcomes.

All that Glitters

All that Glitters PDF Author: Ina T. Porras
Publisher: IIED
ISBN: 1843696533
Category : Watershed management
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description


Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy

Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy PDF Author: Trieu, V.H.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 6023871461
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
The Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy (VFDS) is one of the country’s most important plans for the forestry sector. The strategic directions, objectives and solutions within it differ from time to time, depending on the political goals and perspectives of the moment, as well as the role that the forestry sector plays in Vietnam’s overall socio-economic development. Regardless of such changes, inheriting lessons learned, developing the next strategy off the back of the experience gained from solving previous challenges, and taking advantage of opportunities, are always the top priorities of the Government of Vietnam. This report is the result of a collaboration between the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST); it is intended to provide VNFOREST with input as they develop the new strategy. Based on secondary document research and stakeholder interviews, the report reviews achievements and challenges in the implementation of VFDS 2006–2020, as well as provides recommendations for policy makers to consider in the process of developing the new strategy. Research results show that, by 2020, Vietnam had exceeded a number of the goals set out in VFDS 2006–2020, including: (i) accelerating the growth of production value in the sector; (ii) increasing the export value of wood and forest products; (iii) increasing domestic wood production; and (iv) planting protection forest (PTF) and special-use forests (SUF). However, the forestry sector still faces many challenges when it comes to other key performance indicators, such as: (i) increasing the area of production forests (PDF) with certification of sustainable forest management (SFM); (ii) increasing large-diameter timber production; (iii) increasing revenue for forest environmental services (FES); (iv) securing forest and forest land for the purposes of allocation and leases; (v) reducing the number of poor households in forestry areas; and (vi) increasing the rate at which forestry workers are trained. Although some anticipated targets were not achieved, others were exceeded, for example: forest cover; reforestation after logging; reduction of forest protection violations; and scattered tree planting. That these goals were achieved or exceeded is the result of strong political commitment, policies trend-matching the market, improvements in central and local management capacity, the active support of international donors, and the involvement of civil society and the private sector. That some targets were not achieved is due to the challenges of implementing policy effectively, efficiently and equitably at grassroots level, lack of resources and funding, and some ambitious goals and targets not being realistic in the current economic, political and market contexts. Addressing these challenges requires a new approach and more effective economic, social and technical solutions. Development of VFDS 2021–2030 and the 2050 vision needs to consider the implementation achievements and challenges of the previous policy, as well as how to align with global trends, and balance these with the current political, economic and social development context in Vietnam. The direction of the new strategy must also be considered in the context of international requirements, to facilitate the mobilization of domestic and foreign financial resources to help modernize the industry, as well as enhance the forestry sector’s role and value in terms of poverty reduction, sustainable economic development and ensuring sustainable forest ecosystems.

Framework for assessing ecosystem services from bamboo forests

Framework for assessing ecosystem services from bamboo forests PDF Author: Paudyal, K.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Bamboo is well known for supporting people’s livelihoods, and is widely used in landscape restoration programs while providing a wide range of ecosystem goods and services. However, while marketable goods from bamboo such as shoots for food and timber for construction, flooring and furniture are well known, the ecosystem services (ES) supply from bamboo is not, due to limited research. To date, very few studies highlight the role of bamboo forests in providing multiple ES that have local and global value. Lack of an appropriate framework and tools is considered a barrier to assessing the ES from bamboo forests. Therefore, this study attempts to develop an easy-to-apply framework to assess ES from bamboo and test them in three countries in Asia and Africa – Nepal, Indonesia and Ethiopia – in order to understand the relative supply capacity of the key ES from bamboo forests. The literature related to ES and assessment frameworks was reviewed so as to design an appropriate assessment framework for bamboo forests. This study offers an easy-to-apply framework that can be used widely. The research shows that the ES supply capacity of bamboo forests is higher than for industrial planted forest while it is lower than for the natural forests in all case study sites. The ES assessment from bamboo forests poses several challenges: defining and classifying ES, limited data, and complex relationships in trade-offs and synergies of ES that should be kept in mind while designing the framework.