Impacts of Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services in Protecting Forests in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam’s Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES) scheme has the goal of protecting remaining natural forests by providing financial support to people involved in forest protection. However, studying the case of Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam shows that even after eight years of PFES implementation, achieving this goal remains a challenge. Although PFES does provide a stable income source and higher payments than state forest protection programs, enables the mobilization of more personnel resources for patrolling forest and relieves a great burden on the state budget in terms of investment in forest protection and development, forest cover in Dak Lak province is still decreasing, mainly due to conversion for other land uses, especially commercial agricultural and industrial crops. These drivers are rooted in national socio-economic planning aimed at boosting economic growth and in local people’s need to sustain their livelihoods. In addition, our paper shows that illegal logging is still widespread in Dak Lak. Weak law enforcement in areas of forest managed by state forest authorities and state companies also contributes to deforestation. However, these drivers are neither fully recognized nor addressed, and instead, the blame for deforestation is laid on local communities. PFES alone cannot protect forests in Dak Lak province. It needs to be backed up by political commitment to address underlying drivers of deforestation, improved social programs to help local people diversify their income sources and clarity over land use.

Natural resource extraction and ethnic inequality in Dak Lak, Vietnam

“…For our analysis, we focus on the dataset from Dak Lak province because it is inhabited by a high proportion of ethnic minority people and includes large forest areas (World Bank, 2009; Pham et al ., 2021). The province is located in the Central Highlands of Vietnam and close to neighboring Cambodia (figure 1).…”

“…Firewood and timber products are by far the most important environmental products (Nguyen et al ., 2018 a ). The category mainly includes firewood, as timber harvesting is highly regulated (Pham et al ., 2021). Animals (e.g., fish, small amphibians), fruits and vegetables, as well as other products (e.g., honey, mushrooms) are extracted less and are of lower value (Bierkamp et al ., 2021).…”

Assessing forest changes in Yok Don National Park and surrounding areas, Dak Lak province, Vietnam

“…Furthermore, the unregulated practice of illegal logging and the inadequacy of appropriate forest resource management and oversight have contributed to rapid deforestation (Kyere-Boateng and Marek, 2021;Islam et al, 2021;Kovyazin et al, 2023). The pressure imposed by the local population in the vicinity of Yok Don National Park, the growing dependence on agriculture for their livelihoods, and the prevalent illegal logging activities serve as the principal drivers of deforestation within this area (Pham et al, 2021). Moreover, in 2021, the forest cover layer witnessed the most substantial gain in the area from the agricultural land class, encompassing an extension of 56.14 km 2 .…”