Vietnam is acknowledged to be REDD+ pioneer country, having adopted REDD+ in 2009. This paper is an updated version of Vietnam’s REDD+ Country Profile which was first published by CIFOR in 2012. Our findings show that forest cover has increased since 2012, but enhancing, or even maintaining, forest quality remains a challenge. Drivers of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam, including legal and illegal logging, conversion of forest for national development goals and commercial agriculture, weak law enforcement and weak governance, have persisted since 2012 up to 2017. However, with strong political commitment, the government has made significant progress in addressing major drivers, such as the expansion of hydropower plants and rubber plantations.Since 2012, Vietnam has also signed important international treaties and agreements on trade, such as Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) through the European Union’s (EU) Forest Law Enforcement. These new policies have enhanced the role of the forestry sector within the overall national economy and provided a strong legal framework and incentives for forestuser groups and government agencies to take part in forest protection and development. Nevertheless, new market rules and international trade patterns also pose significant challenges for Vietnam, where the domestic forestry sector is characterized by state-owned companies and a large number of domestic firms that struggle to comply with these new rules.The climate change policies, national REDD+ strategy and REDD+ institutional setting has been refined and revised over time. However, uncertain and complex international requirements on REDD+ and limited funding have weakened the government’s interest in and political commitment to REDD+. REDD+ policies in Vietnam have shown significant progress in terms of its monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems, forest reference emission levels (FREL), and performance-based and benefit-sharing mechanisms by taking into account lessons learnt from its national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) Scheme. Evidence also shows increasing efforts of government and international communities to ground forestry policies in a participatory decision-making processes and the progress on developing safeguarding policies in Vietnam between 2012 and 2017 affirms the government’s interest in pursuing an equitable REDD+ implementation. Policy documents have fully recognized the need to give civil society organizations (CSOs) and ethnic groups political space and include them in decision making. Yet, participation remains token. Government provision for tenure security and carbon rights for local households are still being developed, with little progress since 2012.The effectiveness of REDD+ policies in addressing drivers of deforestation and degradation has not be proven, even though the revised NRAP has recently been approved. However, the fact that drivers of deforestation and degradation are outside of the forestry sector and have a strong link to national economic development goals points to an uneasy pathway for REDD+. The business case for REDD+ in Vietnam has not been proven, due to an uncertain carbon market, increasing requirements from donors and developed countries, and high transaction and implementation costs. Current efforts toward 3Es outcomes of REDD+ could be enhanced by stronger political commitment to addressing the drivers of deforestation from all sectors, broader changes in policy framework that create both incentives and disincentives for avoiding deforestation and degradation, cross-sectoral collaboration, and committed funding from both the government and developed countries.

This report discusses the political, economic and social opportunities and constraints that will influence the design and implementation of REDD+ in Vietnam. In particular, four major direct drivers (land conversion for agriculture; infrastructure development; logging (illegal and legal); forest fire) and three indirect drivers (pressure of population growth and migration; the state’s weak forest management capacity; the limited funding available for forest protection) of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam are discussed, along with their implications for REDD+. These drivers and their impacts vary from region to region, and change over time – no ‘one-size-fitsall’ formula will function across the whole of Vietnam. The report also examines the lessons learnt from various forestry and economic development policies and programmes and suggests how a future REDD+ mechanism can overcome the major challenges, which include limited funding for forest protection, weak local governance capacity, poor vertical and horizontal coordination, low involvement of the poor, women and indigenous groups, low economic returns, elite capture of land and benefits, and corruption. The report suggests that if REDD+ is to succeed, it must be participatory, that is, all players are given fair and ample opportunity to be part of the programme (particularly those with the least resources or the greatest economic disenfranchisement); transparent, that is, all players can trace how the programme is administered, including the distribution of benefits; and well-monitored, to ensure that the programme is conducted such that it meets its overarching objectives and guidelines. The success of REDD+ will also require that it take a pro-poor and pro-gender equity approach.

This report explores the drivers (both direct and indirect) of deforestation and forest degradation and discusses the political, economic and social opportunities and constraints that will influence the design and implementation of REDD+ in Laos. The government of Laos has long sought to curb deforestation and forest degradation, and the country is receiving considerable international attention and support to implement REDD+. However, agricultural expansion, the development of industrial tree plantations, and large hydropower, mining and infrastructure projects continue to result in deforestation, with shifting cultivation and selective logging (legal and illegal) largely blamed for forest degradation. At the same time, indirect drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are rooted in a national agenda of economic growth, characterized by incentives for foreign and domestic investment in forest management and timber harvesting. As a result, Laos is becoming an important resource frontier for transnational capital and large-scale land and natural resource investments. The consequent intensification of competition for resources poses a challenge not only for forest governance, but also for the development of REDD+ policies and initiatives. In an examination of the institutions and policies defining Laos’ forestry sector and REDD+, the report reflects on lessons to be learned from past forestry and economic development policies. The government of Laos has demonstrated strong political interest in REDD+, but REDD+ implementation faces major obstacles, particularly unclear carbon rights and weak governance, with the latter attributable to poor local capacity, weak coordination among stakeholders, and minimal involvement by local communities and civil society. The report makes several recommendations for achieving effective, efficient and equitable outcomes of REDD+ in Laos: capacity building of administrative and technical staff, especially at the subnational level; clarification and harmonization of land-use planning and land allocation processes; and stronger monitoring and law enforcement in areas under high threat of deforestation and forest degradation. Furthermore, an accountable and transparent mechanism for sharing the benefits of REDD+ across levels and fully accountable consultation processes must be implemented, with the participation of not only elite and powerful actors such as domestic and foreign businesses but also local groups and civil society.

Reviewing the conditions in which the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism is being established in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is part of Component 1 of the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (GCS-REDD) being conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research. The overall aim of this global study is to provide decision-makers, practitioners, donors and the scientific community with reliable information on the dynamics of national actions related to the REDD+ mechanism. Discussions on REDD originally seemed to focus on the construction of a global structure and the establishment of a multilateral instrument to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But at the 14th Conference of Parties (CoP 14), held in Poznan in 2008, discussions on the reliability of REDD+ focused more on the dynamics of national- and local-level actions and brought out the need to better understand, analyze and explain the national institutional context of REDD+ development. Subsequently, this review used the extractive approaches. The first inputs were reports, articles, books and documents on the DRC that were directly related to forest management, socioeconomic and political institutions, etc., whether published or not. Because of the diversity of sources, the quantitative data sometimes seem contradictory and conflictual. In the next step, semi-structured interviews were held with experts working in the forestry sector and data were obtained from the participants’ observations. Since this analysis covers the period between May 2011 and June 2012 actions in the field and the institutions after those dates were not included.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks (REDD+) in Vietnam is oneof the few policy processes where actors including the State, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and civilsociety organizations (CSOs) are vocal about taking part in the policy arena.

This report provides an overview of Nepal’s initiatives on readiness for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). It presents the status of forest cover change; identifies the drivers of deforestation, institutional and distributional factors in the country; analyses the political economy of land use change; revisits the REDD+ process; and assesses prospects for effective, efficient and equitable outcomes of the same. Nepal has a high rate of deforestation and forest degradation, though there exists no robust, comprehensive orupdated information to show the precise rate. Multiple drivers—such as high dependency on forests, over harvesting, weak governance, landlessness and high opportunity costs for agricultural expansion—contribute to deforestation. The government’s capacity to monitor and address these drivers and underlying causes appears inadequate. Forest officials, civil society organisations and donors exhibit strong enthusiasm for and active involvement in REDD+. Over half a dozen diverse REDD+ readiness initiatives are being implemented by the government and non-state actors. REDD+ implementation has adopted a participatory and multi-stakeholder process usually involving government agencies, civil society organisations and development partners. However, this process is largely detached from the complex dynamics of deforestation and appears to be limited to technical, administrative and peripheral issues. The core issues of forest tenure security and governance reform have not received adequate attention. A robust policy, legal and institutional foundation for community forestry and well-functioning community institutions provide a strong foundation for REDD implementation in Nepal. However, there are enormous challenges from the larger political and socio-economic context, the paucity and diversity of institutional arrangements and the unique nature and distribution of forest types.

Specifically, the paper identifies and analyzes several direct drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Ethiopia including: forest clearance for both subsistence and large-scale agriculture; illegal and unsustainable extraction of wood mainly for charcoal and firewood; overgrazing; and recurrent forest fires. It also reviews underlying drivers including: rapid population increase and the associated growing demand for land and energy; extensive legal and institutional gaps including lack of stable and equitable forest tenure; lack of stakeholder participation in forest management and benefit-sharing schemes; and weak law enforcement. These drivers and the dominant actors behind them – ranging from small-scale subsistence farmers to national and global investors – are discussed in the context of the political economy, including the policy and institutional framework of the country. The implications of the overall forest condition to the objectives and requirements of REDD+ are evaluated, and key issues that need to be addressed for efficient, effective and equitable implementation of REDD+ are discussed. These key issues include: reconciling the apparently contradictory policies and programs, particularly those that negatively affect the forestry sector; improving the forest tenure and governance system; augmenting economic return from forests to communities and individuals; creating more efficient and effective forest institutions at all levels; and enhancing sectoral and regional coordination among implementing agencies.