Forest rehabilitation in Vietnam: histories, realities and future

Abstract

Many tropical countries have achieved economic growth at the expense of converting their forests. Some of those countries have prospered and now have the resources and the will to restore some of the lost forest cover. Others remain impoverished despite converting forests. They, too, rely on rehabilitation to continue to gain benefits from their forests. Forest rehabilitation is not a new phenomenon. But as tropical forest conversion continues seemingly unabated, rehabilitating degraded landscapes is likely to become more and more important. Countries-individually or collectively-will increasingly turn to rehabilitation to undo the negative consequences of diminishing forest cover. Countries that had or still have large forested areas, like Brazil, Indonesia and China, have initiated programs meant to restore millions of hectares. Forest rehabilitation is a major concern for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and its partners. Future benefits from forests will in many places only be assured if forests can be successfully rehabilitated. Downstream water quality and flows, biodiversity conservation, raw material supply and forest-based income for the poor will depend on it. CIFOR has, since its beginning, undertaken research programs and projects that address forest rehabilitation. This report is one of six emerging from the study 'Review of forest rehabilitation: Lessons from the past'. This study attempted to capture the rich but underutilized experiences of many years of forest rehabilitation in Brazil, China, Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines and Vietnam, and make this information available to guide ongoing and future rehabilitation efforts. We present this and the other five study reports in the hope that the lessons they contain will be relevant for people who are concerned about tropical forests, and that as a result societies will continue to enjoy the benefits that tropical forests provided before there was a need to rehabilitate them. The six-country study was carried out with generous contributions from the Government of Japan. The study on Vietnam would not have been possible without the generous help of many. In particular we thank members of collaborating agencies x in Vietnam, and participants at two meetings that were held in Hanoi to provide input into the study. We also thank the many people who patiently provided information during interviews, and Kristen Evans, Unna Chokkalingam and Takeshi Toma for critically reviewing an earlier draft of the report. Markku Kanninen Director, Environmental Services and Sustainable Use of Forests Programme CIFOR As tropical countries across the globe have grown increasingly concerned about the consequences of forest conversion, they are attempting to reverse the trend. Worldwide efforts to 'rehabilitate' tropical forests have accelerated. Although largely a recent phenomenon, many tropical countries had already started forest rehabilitation during the first half of the 20 th century. The true era of forest rehabilitation, however, began in the...