Provincial level

In all development activity the involvement of relevant partners and stakeholders is important. The project elaborated a very clear strategy defining responsibilities and task for every stakeholder. Objectives and challenges were discussed throughout the inception workshop held on the 22nd September 2009 where colleagues from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development participated. The national level explained again the importance of REDD and the current status to the provincial participants, later Tay Nguyen university introduced a scientific perspective. The outcome of the workshop was an assigned Memorandum of Understanding and a provincial approval of the project.

Provincial partners were trained how to implement the new guideline and they participated during the forest inventories. But detailed discussions on the REDD approach were not feasible and the governmental departments did not follow up their tasks agreed at the inception workshop. For example economic development has been given primacy over the correct recording of land-use and land-use change.

Forest Protection department will start to establish permanent sample plots which would allow a long-term monitoring of forest changes. By doing so, the Government of Vietnam will apply the “stock-based approach” (comparison between two different points of time). This approach is rather simple compared to the “gain-loss” approach but more time is needed, since in many countries reliable forest inventory data do not exist.

All documents and results will be handed over to the partners during an official closing workshop by end of May 2010. At the moment, Vietnam is still not “REDD ready” and results and lessons learnt must be integrated in the national level if we are to avoid seeing our work ignored for being “provincial”.

National level

The GTZ EPMNR project works in close cooperation with the GTZ Forestry program in Hanoi. Information is exchanged frequently. Lessons learnt will be integrated directly in the UN-REDD program through the UN-REDD working group and the GTZ Forestry program will be used as a multiplier in that process. Further to this the UN-REDD program coordinates its activity with the Forest Sector Support Partnership (FSSP). This network was established 2001 and aims to create an effective partnership among international and national forest stakeholders. The FSSP is co-chaired by GTZ.

The Tay Nguyen University, which was continuously informed about the project progress, will also be important in getting results integrated into policy. The project’s results will be used to enhance the capacity of students and lectures as well as provides the basis for further scientific work.

During the project implementation results were shared with the Forest for Livelihood Improvement in the Central Highlands (FLITCH). This project is working in all five highland provinces and Phu Yen province on provincial forest management plans based on forest inventories and satellite images from December 2009 (SPOT 5). The project is delayed due to the complicated implementation procedures. Even if the Provincial Project Management Unit is very cooperative, it cannot be expected that our experiences will be actively supported since the ADB project is steered from national level, where the framework for REDD is not in place yet. But since ADB FLITCH is working in the same target district as the GTZ project, Dak R’tih, and it can be expected that follow-up activities or monitoring will be supported in the future.

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) started a study on “Potential Forests and Land related to Climate Change and Forests” (October 2009). One of the study objectives are the potential of Community Forestry and REDD. It was decided to carry out further in-depth studies within our pilot areas. JICA contracted the Forest Science Institute of Vietnam (FSIV) to implement the field work in Dak Nong. All activities will be closely coordinated with the GTZ EPMNR project.

In conclusion it can be stated that experiences gained from this project will be sufficiently integrated into the national REDD discussion. Regarding the institutionalization of REDD procedures in the province it must be pointed out that no follow-up will be done by the province without project support. If the national level enables the environment for REDD, it will provide clear guidance (regulations, implementation procedures, guidelines) to the province, which than will establish a provincial “REDD working group” including all relevant departments. This is the nature of a centralized government system.

International level

Planet Action Group are a Spot images initiative to assist not-for-profit efforts to mitigate climate change by providing technical resources and assistance. Planet action provided Spot satellite images free of charge which were very useful as you can see in the satellite images section of this website. Planet action also acts as a forum for sharing data and findings.

Following the forest inventory it was decided that the inventory points could be used to classify the vegetation of the entire satellite image for the region and give us an interesting estimate of the carbon change from 2004-2009 on a larger scale and also verify the results from the 2004 forest inventory in Village 6. This decision was taken at a late state of the project and there was no budget available to pay a specialist for the analysis. CartONG had heard of the GISCorps Volunteer initiative through one of the satellite image interpretation projects it had been following. A registered volunteer, Jason San Souci, with many years experience working with satellite images and questions of carbon content was identified by GISCorps. He classified the images according to the inventory data. A report was submitted to GISCorps.

Some of the personnel working on the GTZ project were contracted from the consulting group GFA. The GFA Consulting Group, based in Hamburg, is a global player with numerous subsidiaries and partner companies worldwide. The basis for GFA’s consultancy services is provided by an approach which combines competence at sector and management level with application of innovative technology for project planning, project implementation, human resource development and financing.

The company has been growing steadily since it was founded and has implemented more than 3,000 studies and projects in over 70 countries. Simultaneously, the range of services has been continuously extended. Today, GFA employs more than 400 staff members in Germany and abroad.

In 2006 the GFA founded the GFA ENVEST GmbH, which provides unique expertise in the emerging markets for greenhouse gas emissions, bio-energy and carbon sequestration. GFA ENVEST aims to harness the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible project mechanisms to foster sustainable development through financially profitable investment, secure access to clean energy services, socially beneficial development and environmental stabilization.

GFA Envest combines experience with new technologies, field level project implementation and an in-depth knowledge of financial and institutional requirements to develop feasible investment concepts. Our technical expertise concentrates on the development of emission reduction projects in the sectors of bio-energy, waste utilization, energy efficiency, and by means of carbon sequestration through high quality Forest Climate Projects.