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This paper assesses the potential for the "payments for environmental services" (PES) conservation approach in Vietnam. This was done by conducting an experimental PES scheme involving sustainable forest management. The work was constrained by the fact that all land in Vietnam is state-owned and that there has been limited PES market development in the country. However, the results of the experiment (in forest areas where the fundamental conditions for PES were met) were quite promising. Participation in the trial scheme was good, despite the fact that it was an experiment of limited duration. Moreover, institutional support was already available and effective. Expected environmental impacts were also observed: the sustainable forest management regime that was tied to the PES scheme resulted in a reduction in both soil erosion and in destructive natural forest extraction activities. In light of these findings, it is suggested that more practical policy/programme trials should be implemented. These will allow Vietnamese policy-makers to gain more experience and knowledge before the large-scale implementation of PES is tried in the country.
Keywords: sustainable forest management, payments for environmental services scheme, willingness-to-accept, socio-economic and environmental impacts, Vietnam.
I. Introduction
The majority of the poor in Vietnam live in the country's hilly and mountainous areas. Many upland farmers provide significant environmental services that benefit the wider community. They do this through the environmentally friendly ways in which they implement forestry and other treebased land use activities. These services include watershed protection, biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and the preservation of landscape beauty. These environmental services are important because they support ecological balance, serve as the base for economic activities and provide a wide range of amenities for society (Francisco 2002).
This is recognized by the Vietnamese government and by international agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) based in Vietnam. They provide incentives and rewards to some upland farmers to afforest and reforest bare hills and mountains and other areas. In Vietnam, upland reforestation and afforestation work started extensively in the early 1990s, under the support of PAM (the United Nations' Food Program), and through Program 327 (a nationwide reforestation programme) and other reforestation programmes. In 1998 the Vietnamese government launched the Five Million Hectares Reforestation Program (5MFtRP), as a continuation of Program 327, in order to...
