Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has asked relevant agencies to speed up the implementation of the Payment for Forest Environment Services (PES) Policy after it showed initial good results.
“As a new social policy, the PES Policy aims to promote the protection of forests, the environment and water resources, combining efforts to deal with climate change to bring practical benefits to forest growers,” the Deputy PM told a conference to review the Prime Minister’s decision relating to pilot payments for forest environmental services in Hanoi on March 9.
The PES Policy has been implemented on a trial basis in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the northern province of Son La since 2008 with technical and financial assistance of WINROCK International, USAID, and the GTZ.
In localities where the PES Policy is enforced, local people who take part in growing and protecting forests act as providers as well as beneficiaries of forest environmental services while the users of resources from protected forests, such as hydro-electric power plants, are required to pay for forest environmental services.
According to Hoang Si Son, Vice Chairman of the Lam Dong People’s Committee, up to 80 percent of forest environmental services payments collected have been given to local people, helping a sizable number of poor households escape from poverty.
In Lam Dong, for example, local people in charge of protecting forests in the lower part of a reservoir that supplied water for the Da Nhim hydro-electric power plant got an annual forest environmental service payment of 290,000 VND per ha of forest.
The remaining 20 percent of forest environmental services payments were used to re-invest in tree planting and forest protection in the locality, partly helping reduce local authorities’ dependence on the State budget allocated for the work.
Jim Peters, Director of the Asia Regional Biodiversity Conservation Programme (ARBCP), said that Vietnam has implemented the pilot PES Policy successfully.
The outcomes of the PES Policy implementation in Lam Dong province should be introduced to other countries participating in an international conference that is slated to take place in Vietnam in July, said the ARBCP official.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is working on a draft decree on PES Policy which it plans to complete in June for the Government’s approval.
Once passed, the decree will help stabilise the lives of forest growers and protect forests and their resources, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling climate change./.
“As a new social policy, the PES Policy aims to promote the protection of forests, the environment and water resources, combining efforts to deal with climate change to bring practical benefits to forest growers,” the Deputy PM told a conference to review the Prime Minister’s decision relating to pilot payments for forest environmental services in Hanoi on March 9.
The PES Policy has been implemented on a trial basis in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the northern province of Son La since 2008 with technical and financial assistance of WINROCK International, USAID, and the GTZ.
In localities where the PES Policy is enforced, local people who take part in growing and protecting forests act as providers as well as beneficiaries of forest environmental services while the users of resources from protected forests, such as hydro-electric power plants, are required to pay for forest environmental services.
According to Hoang Si Son, Vice Chairman of the Lam Dong People’s Committee, up to 80 percent of forest environmental services payments collected have been given to local people, helping a sizable number of poor households escape from poverty.
In Lam Dong, for example, local people in charge of protecting forests in the lower part of a reservoir that supplied water for the Da Nhim hydro-electric power plant got an annual forest environmental service payment of 290,000 VND per ha of forest.
The remaining 20 percent of forest environmental services payments were used to re-invest in tree planting and forest protection in the locality, partly helping reduce local authorities’ dependence on the State budget allocated for the work.
Jim Peters, Director of the Asia Regional Biodiversity Conservation Programme (ARBCP), said that Vietnam has implemented the pilot PES Policy successfully.
The outcomes of the PES Policy implementation in Lam Dong province should be introduced to other countries participating in an international conference that is slated to take place in Vietnam in July, said the ARBCP official.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is working on a draft decree on PES Policy which it plans to complete in June for the Government’s approval.
Once passed, the decree will help stabilise the lives of forest growers and protect forests and their resources, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling climate change./.
