VIET NAM

COUNTRY PAPER

Ngo Sy Hoai & Phan Trung Dien,

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development,

Viet Nam

BACKGROUND

The forestry sector of Viet Nam is undergoing drastic changes toward sustainable forest management. The recently launched 5 Million ha Reforestation Programme (2000-2010) along with efforts to put remaining forests under proper management testifies the utmost determination and commitment of Viet Nam to the world-wide processes started since the UNCED 1992.

Despite the increasing attention given to sustainable forest management in Viet Nam, real on-the-ground progress still lags. Current Government incentives for sustainable management of forest resources still lack the scope, momentum and enforceable institutions needed to succeed. The lack of a precise and properly collected and analyzed information system is found as an important reason contributing to this situation.

In Viet Nam, the information for forestry administration are currently collected and processed by the following agencies:

General Department of Statistics

Provincial Department of statistics

District Statistics Office

Commune Office

Forest Inventory and Planning Institute

Regional Forest Inventory and Planning Brigades

The Department for Forestry Development

Provincial Sub-department for Forestry Development

District agriculture-Forestry Division

Commune forest person-in-charge

The Department for Forest Protection

Provincial Sub-departments for Forest Protection

District Forest Protection Stations

Forest Rangers

Various departments and/or ministries

(General Dept for Land-use Management, Ministry of Trade,

Ministry of Science-Technology & Environment etc.)

NGOs (WWF, Birdlife etc.)

AS IT IS APPARENT FROM THE ABOVE LISTED, FORESTRY RELATED INFORMATION IS COLLECTED AND ANALYZED BY AGENCIES UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE FORESTRY ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM, AND ALSO BY AGENCIES THAT ARE OUT OF THE FORESTRY ADMINISTRATION.

Forestry Information

Figure 1. Agencies involved in the collection and analysis of forestry data

Forest resources, forest plantations

The Forest Inventory and Planning Institute of Viet Nam (FIPI) is assigned to collect data on forest resources including natural forests and plantations and provide data for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to announce the national forest resource data every five year period. Data is collected based on satellite imageries (LANDSAT and SPOT) and aerial photos with most crucial forested areas. Ground surveys are also used to verify the data. Besides, FIPI may also access statistical data submitted by provinces, particularly with the plantations established within the inventoried period.

The flow of information is as follows:

Forest owners/tree growers Commune District Province Departments/FIPI

MARD

Wood supply and trade

Information on wood supply concerning major forest products such as lumber, plywood, veneer, paper products, sawlogs, pulpwood, and pitprops is available from two major sources: the Forestry Development Department, MARD and the Ministry of Trade. Of this, the Department of Forestry Development, MARD is collecting data on domestic-used forest products, while the Ministry of Trade and Custom Department are collecting data on wood commodities for export. Data on logging provided by these agencies, however, is not reliable since illegal logging, which often exceeds licensed logging, is not recorded.

Fuelwood production and consumption

It is reported that biomass fuels provide 74 percent of total amount of energy used in Viet Nam. There are two agencies taking care of fuelwood supply as a significant source of energy, but no reliable data has been made available since fuelwood is regarded as a free commodity.

Trees outside of the forests

Tree planting in home-gardens, along roads and dikes etc. constitute the scattered plantation component. This forms an essential proportion of the total annual tree planting and exceeds the concentrated plantations in terms of number of planted trees. Data collected in a way similar to that applied for concentrated plantation shows that the scattered trees planted in the past decade (around 500 million trees a year) corresponded to a planted area of 200,000 - 250,000 ha per year, on a basis of 2,000 stems per hectare.

Non-wood forest products

NWFPs are commercially and locally important. However, little attention has been given to NWFPs and there are no precise data on number of species, exploitable volume and value of NWFPs except a group of commodities for export such as cinnamon, colophan, star aniseed, rattans etc.

Weaknesses and gaps in the existing system of data collection, analysis and dissemination.

Following are the major problems to be addressed to improve data collection and analysis for sustainable management:

Lack of a well developed network of data collection from grassroots level to the decision making level;

Lack of a comprehensive database needed for forestry administration as well as for sustainable forest management;

Discrepancy of methodologies used by different organizations at different nodes; and

Hardware and software needed for data collection and processing has not been made adequately available.