Vietnam Country Profile

Overview of Forestry and Trade in Vietnam

According to FAO's statistics (2000), Vietnam's forest cover stands at 9.8 million hectares, which is about 30% of the land area. About 24 million people live in or around forests depending on them for food and income. Unfortunately, deforestation and unsustainable harvesting over many decades have reduced the cover rate from 43% in 1943 to 23.3% in 1983. Most of the remaining natural forests are now concentrated in the highlands (Tay Nguyen) or central and south-eastern Vietnam.

In Vietnam, forests are owned by the state, managed and monitored by the State Forest Enterprises (SFE). The focus of SFEs has been mainly on commercial timber production, paying little attention to the long term sustainability of the forests. In addition, ethnic minorities living in forest areas as well as migrant farmers from the delta areas contributed to deforestation.

In response to the crisis caused by unsustainable logging, in July 1997 the Government decided to temporarily limit harvesting in remaining natural forests and place emphasis on greater protection and regeneration activities. Since 1997, logging has been scaled back significantly, to the extent that only 105 out of 241 SFEs have been allowed to continue harvesting the natural forests. To meet the still rising demand for timber, the government started to look for new management techniques to improve natural forest management. While heeding calls for caution, the government is pursuing the strategy of third-party forest certification as one tool to promote responsible forest management and stem the tide of forest loss.

Certification in Vietnam

In early 1998, the Vietnam National Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification (NWG) was established to develop a set of national standards for SFM in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) principles and criteria. With technical and financial support from WWF and the joint GTZ/Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Reform of the Forestry Administration Structure (REFAS) project, the NWG has completed a draft set of criteria and indicators for SFM. Efforts at the local level are helping to raise awareness on the benefits of SFM and certification among provincial officials and forest managers.

Currently, FSC is the only certification scheme active in Vietnam. An initiative to develop National Forest Management Standards that can be used as a basis for forest certification is still ongoing. See FSC certified companies from the fsc website.