Project News

The Policy Support Component of the SNRM2 Project supports the development and review of policies and plans related to sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation. A part of the project support is the development of the guidelines for the national forest certification scheme.

Forest certification is an important tool in proving that the forest products are coming from sustainable sources. In order to promote the forest certification in the country, the Prime Minister approved a project on sustainable forest management planning and forest certification for 2018-2030 (Decision No. 1288/QD-TTg) in 2018 and established the Vietnam Forest Certification Office (VFCO^[1]).

At the moment, there are two forest certification schemes existing in the country, namely the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), which is also known as the Vietnam Forest Certification Scheme (VFCS). By the end of 2020, 314,000 ha of forest had been certified, of which about 70,000 ha were by PEFC/VFCS. VFCO was established in order to facilitate the PEFC/VFCS, but it has been in need of a set of technical guidelines to further promote its forest certification. VFCO thus requested the project support.

In response to the request, SNRM2 supported the formulation of eight guidelines as follows:

1. Guideline on nursery and seedling production
2. Guideline on forest planting and tending
3. Guideline on forest functional zoning
4. Guideline on chemical and waste management
5. Guideline on landscape and biodiversity conservation
6. Guideline on low impact logging
7. Guidelines on the survey of artificial forest for smallholders
8. Guideline on the survey of natural forest for smallholders

These guidelines have already been approved by VFCO and published on its website. They are expected to be utilized for further promotion of the VFCS in the future.