Group Forest Certification for Smallholders in Vietnam: An Early Test and Future Prospects

Forests in Vietnam are heavily utilized resources. Some 25 million people who live in and near forests depend on timber and non-timber resources for subsistence and income. Vietnam’s timber processing industries, which are in a steep growth phase, demand raw material from the nation’s forests, but that demand greatly outstrips available, high quality supply. A national forest development strategy through 2020 calls for broad expansion of plantation forests coupled with third-party forest certification. One type of forest certification, involving certification of groups of smallholder farmers, is comparatively understudied. A recent effort to promote group forest certification in Vietnam yielded measurable benefits to stakeholders, including enhanced income streams to plantation smallholders. However, long-term challenges to group forest certification remain, including smallholders’ ability to cover recurring costs for certification – costs that are subsidized by a bilateral donor. Vietnam’s recent experience with group forest certification represents an early chapter in that nation’s ambitious plans to increase forest cover, make forests more productive through plantation forestry, and improve forest management and market access through forest certification.