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 20th century. The true era of forest rehabilitation, however, began in the late 20th century. It was then that international donor agencies, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) among others, created development assistance programs to provide funds and expertise for forest rehabilitation. Since then countries such as the...
Vietnam has an elongated S-like shape, a total area of 331 123 km², and a north to south length of 1650 km. The country is characterized by two main basic topographies. The coastal plains of the Red River delta and the Mekong delta are connected by a strip of coastal plain along the remainder of the country. Nearly three-quarters of the country’s total territory is hilly, highland or high mountains that reach a maximum altitude of 3000 m in the Hoang Lien Son mountain range in the northwest. Because of its geography, only 15% of Vietnam’s area is farm land....
Vietnam is known for its efforts to rehabilitate its forest cover, in addition to its drive to develop its forestry, and wood and non-wood forest product-based industries. The country’s 5MHRP, which is being executed between 1998 and 2010, is the latest major undertaking at the national level to preserve and restore forest cover. However, major programs with similar objectives have been around for much longer. This chapter provides an overview of forest rehabilitation in Vietnam until today. The first part looks at forest rehabilitation prior to Program 327 and the 5MHRP. The report analyzes both programs in detail in the...
This chapter analyzes ongoing forest rehabilitation projects to provide an overview of contemporary forest rehabilitation in Vietnam. The data stem from three sources, as explained in the Methodology section of Chapter One. In our survey of the national statistics on forest rehabilitation projects we recorded 304 projects, but obtained adequate data on only 280 projects. A questionnaire guided the data collection on 42 rehabilitation projects chosen to represent the country’s three forest types, ecological zones, and main source of funding. In-depth interviews of 15 projects, which included field visits and interviews with various stakeholder groups, completed this data set.
The...
This chapter draws lessons from the results of the study presented in Chapters Two, Three and Four. The chapter will start with an overview of the results of 50 years of forest rehabilitation in Vietnam and then will try to explain these outcomes, using the framework presented in Chapter One.
Vietnam has a long history of forest rehabilitation, as it started to give tree planting its due importance in the mid-1950s. The country has since then spent a great deal of effort on bringing back tree vegetation where forests have disappeared. There is less evidence, however, of how successful these...
