Costs Comparison between FSC and Non FSC Acacia Plantations in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Due to market demand, the FSC certification has been introduced and developed in Vietnam. Despite of many challenges, FSC certificate has been proved to bring economic benefits to the owners. The comparison to non-certified Acacia plantation shows that the management of certified forests does not increase the cost at high level, while the income of selling FSC wood logs is very promising. However, since currently the certification is subsidized and stumpage price is kept at higher than normal to foster the participation of local people the current price premium should be treated with caution. As for sustainable development, local people need to manage the certification by themselves which then, required them to have a good financial plan to cover the necessary fee. Further calculation need to be carried out in order to know how much membership fee can be collected in order to maintain the certification while do not affect to local people' revenue.

Spatial Assessment of Ecosystem Services from Planted Forests in Central Vietnam

“…The Vietnamese government has encouraged certification by providing a subsidy for the planted forest. At the same time, certain companies have offered higher prices for certain qualities of logs from certified forests, but the costs are also high [94,95]. Example from the FSC certification for timber is highly adaptable and can incorporate forest ES, e.g., biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, watershed protection, etc [96].…”

“…Example from the FSC certification for timber is highly adaptable and can incorporate forest ES, e.g., biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, watershed protection, etc [96]. In addition, FSC certification for Acacia plantations in QT province provides higher return compared to the non-FSC certified planted forests, although this comes at some cost to growers in terms of changes in management cost, lack of technical knowledge, annual surveillance audit fees, difficult paperwork, complicated procedures for selling wood and loss of market flexibility [20,94]. The government has a clear policy on sustainable forest management (SFM) and forest certification.…”

The Tendency of Expanding Forest Certification in Vietnam: Case Analysis of Certification Holders in Quang Tri Province

“…Six problems were shown here, and they are as follows: affording certification and operational costs, gaps in timing of harvest between trees planted in different years, non-sustainable market prices with premiums, a non-sustainable benefit-sharing system, pre-harvesting risks because of long timber harvesting cycle, and necessity of donor dependency. Regarding the high cost of maintaining FSC certification, Hoang et al (2015a;2015b) also pointed out a problem from a case in Quang Tri Province; therefore, it could be understood this problem should be focused on.…”

“…It can be said that "insufficient demand for certificated products in global market," as pointed out by Durst et al (2006) was cleared in Vietnam. Under such requests, it can be considered that the spread of forest certification will continue; however, there is a problem regarding costs, as Auer (2012) and Hoang et al (2015aHoang et al ( , 2015b) have pointed out. The interviewed companies could cope with auditing costs by sharing costs and by compensating from that includes the rental fee for the chainsaw.…”

Teak plantation smallholders in Lao PDR: what influences compliance with plantation regulations?

“…According to Antilla (2016) farmers prefer to pay traders or contractors to undertake the approvals processes and harvesting operations and receive a lower price for their wood; fees charged for approvals for harvesting can represent up to 16% of the price paid to famers for standing trees (Smith, this study). Lack of familiarity with the procedures and the opportunity cost associated with the time required to obtain documentation are also key considerations for famers in Vietnam who, from an instrumental perspective, weigh up the costs and benefits of compliance, and transfer the risk of non-compliance and sanction to the trader (Hoang et al 2015).…”