This is the opinion of experts at the Workshop “Promoting the value of forest resources associated with the Net-Zero goal and sustainable development”, organized by the Center for Natural Resources and Environment Communication (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) in coordination with Vietnam Economic Magazine on September 24, in Hanoi.
Vietnam currently has 14.8 million hectares of forest and aims to maintain a stable national forest cover rate of 42-43% by 2030. It is expected that each year, the country will plant about 238,000 hectares of forest and seek to restore natural forests to combat climate change.
Forest protection is a key task for Vietnam to realize the goal of achieving Net-Zero by 2050. According to Mr. Ha Cong Tuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Former Permanent Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 as committed by the Prime Minister at COP 26, the agricultural sector must ensure increased absorption from forests, and contribute 70% of greenhouse gas emission reduction results to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Thus, the remaining 30% can be put into the carbon credit market.
Mr. Ha Cong Tuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Former Permanent Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke at the workshop.
According to data from the Vietnam Forestry Science Institute, in the period 2011 – 2018, Vietnam’s forests reduced greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 18.3 million tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per year due to preventing forest degradation and deforestation. At the same time, forest development increased both area and quality, helping to increase average absorption by about 38.5 million tons of CO2e. Thus, the total absorption and net emissions from forests reached 56.8 million tons of CO2e.
In the near future, there is not much room to increase forest area. In early September, the Prime Minister approved the National Forestry Plan and accordingly, the forest area by 2030 will be about 15.8 million hectares – accounting for nearly half of the country’s area. It should be emphasized that the potential to increase forest quality is still very large. The task in the coming time is to increase forest quality to increase carbon storage and increase the value of forest environmental services. The carbon density contained in different types of forests will be different, and clearly, there are still many areas of poor and average forests that can be improved.
“According to the above figures, 30% of the equivalent forest carbon reserves each year, Vietnam has about 17 million carbon credits that can be put into the domestic and international carbon market” – Mr. Ha Cong Tuan emphasized and said that this is a very valuable forestry financial source. The amount of forest carbon credits exchanged with the World Bank from the North Central Region Emission Reduction Program (ERP) recently is not enough. The “source of goods” is still available but has not been traded, while the current demand is quite large.
Ms. Hoang Thi Lien – President of Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association participated in the discussion session “Effectively promoting the value of forest resources: Practical experience from development projects and the role of organizations, businesses and communities in sustainable forest development”
Carbon credits are a special commodity and accordingly, the price of the credit depends on many factors. These include the type of project that forms the credit; criteria for determining the amount of greenhouse gas emissions of the credit issuer, transaction location, etc. There are some types of credits that cost up to 200 USD/credit, because the price structure includes co-benefits in the credit-generating area.
Dr. Chu Van Lam, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Economic Science Association, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Economic Magazine, shared: Currently, developing forests in the direction of multiple values is a trend that Vietnam is promoting. Accordingly, in addition to the direct values from timber, non-timber forest products and hydropower (currently accounting for only about 15% of the value of the forest ecosystem), other major benefits from forests are non-forest products and services. In particular, developing the forest carbon market is one of the current key tasks. This is clearly shown in the Project on developing the multi-use value of the forest ecosystem to 2030, with a vision to 2050, approved by the Government in early 2024.
“Accordingly, the values of forest resources need to be exploited and promoted more effectively and sustainably to meet new requirements as well as move towards the net zero goals that Vietnam has committed to,” Dr. Chu Van Lam affirmed.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung – Director of the Center for Natural Resources and Environment Communication, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment spoke at the workshop.
According to Ms. Nghiem Phuong Thuy, representative of the Forestry Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the two forestry carbon projects being implemented are the Emission Reduction Program for the North Central Region (ERP) and the Emission Reduction Trading Agreement for the Central Highlands and South Central Regions. The credit standards are different, but the main source of credits comes from the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through forest protection. Meanwhile, credits from greenhouse gas absorption through additional afforestation, forest protection and regeneration are almost insignificant. The reason is that the regulations for determining credits are very strict and Vietnam’s planted forest areas are difficult to meet the standards.
Regarding future orientations, Ms. Nghiem Phuong Thuy shared that the forestry sector will continue to implement emission reduction programs and pilot research on high-quality carbon credits (blue carbon, etc.); strengthen communication and technical training, especially on greenhouse gas inventories, reporting on greenhouse gas emission reduction results and building databases.
In addition, the policy and institutional framework on the transfer and financial management of revenue from forest carbon credits will continue to be improved; Vietnam’s forest carbon standards and operating mechanisms will be clearly defined, and guidance will be given to the development and pilot implementation of a number of potential projects. Direct and indirect resources will be mobilized to support relevant parties…
At the workshop, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Finance and representatives of the private sector shared about the legal basis and policies of Vietnam on the management, development and exploitation of forest resources. Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is also collecting opinions to amend Decree 06/2022/ND-CP regulating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the protection of the ozone layer. The amendments and supplements to a number of articles of Decree 06 are necessary to effectively implement state management on greenhouse gas emission reduction, carbon market development and ozone layer protection, in line with the socio-economic development situation and international integration, contributing to the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. This is an important legal basis for Vietnam to prepare to establish and operate a carbon credit trading floor.
Within the framework of the workshop, there were also two discussion sessions: “Effectively promoting the value of forest resources: Practical experience from development projects and the role of organizations, businesses, and communities in sustainable forest development” and “Carbon credit market and potential for developing forest carbon credits”. Here, representatives of management agencies, businesses, and investment funds proposed solutions to remove difficulties and promote private investment in the forestry sector towards creating forest carbon credits.
