| Zusammenfassung: | Forests, like many other natural resources, provide a variety of ecosystem services such as watershed, habitats for plants and animals, carbon sequestration, landscape beauty, which are considered public goods. There is no cost to the public for these valuable ecosystem services. Ecosystem services users are free to enjoy their benefits and ecosystem services providers have no incentive to protect... Forests, like many other natural resources, provide a variety of ecosystem services such as watershed, habitats for plants and animals, carbon sequestration, landscape beauty, which are considered public goods. There is no cost to the public for these valuable ecosystem services. Ecosystem services users are free to enjoy their benefits and ecosystem services providers have no incentive to protect and maintain the continuous provision of ecosystem services. The market fails to value natural resources properly, and thus affects the sustainability of natural resources, particularly scarce resources. Contingent valuation method uses willingness to pay and willingness to accept as economic tools to address the market failures by providing financial incentives to sustain the provision of ecosystem services.
Direct payments to households and individuals, which are contracted natural forests for protection, have been implemented in Vietnam since 1998. However, the payment of VND 100,000 (US$ 4.8) per hectare per year is insufficient to fully compensate opportunity costs of forest protection and management, and thus does not motivate the participation of the local households. On the other hand, the Vietnamese government is limited in its payments for natural forest protection by other competing priorities. Now is the time to involve the voice and options of not only the individuals who depend on the forest for their livelihoods, but also the general public in the forest management. A clear understanding of public awareness and perception regarding natural forest protection and the diversification of financial resources to support these protection programs are necessary to ensure the sustainability of natural forest resources.
This study uses the contingent valuation method to evaluate the cost of natural forest protection, assess livelihoods of forest dependent households, and identify public perception regarding sustainable forest management in Vietnam. The study aims to determine the level of willingness to accept compensation by the local rural households that are contracted natural forests for protection, the willingness of local residents to pay for the protected forests, and the factors that influence the willingness to protect forests in a case study in Dinh Hoa district, Thai Nguyen province, northern Vietnam.
The results showed that rural households in Dinh Hoa district are poor and mainly rely on agricultural activities for self-consumption, i.e., most agricultural and forest products are used for subsistence purposes. Forest products such as fuelwood, timber, bamboo, and palm tree products are important to local household; their contribution to the total household income (21%) is significant. The acceptance of compensation level varies between the households contracted different types of forest. On average, willingness to accept is estimated to be VND 398,000 (US$ 19) per hectare per year, yielding a five-year natural forest protection in Dinh Hoa project costs of VND 18.7 billion (US$ 891,162). The estimated amount of compensation is nearly four times higher than the current payment level of the government for forest protection. The area of forest land that households hold, demographic characteristics (ethnic group), distance from homestead to the forest boundary, and types of forest products collected are the major influencing factors to willingness to accept.
The local residents are well aware of the importance of forests to their communities and perceive that the protection of natural forests is an efficient way to improve the quality of the environment. They are willing to pay VND 43,000 (US$ 2.1) per household as a one-time payment, which would raise a total fund of about VND 12.5 billion (US$ 593,810) for natural forests protection at a district scale. The willingness to pay is influenced by the level of payment, the public awareness of benefits provided by forests to communities, previous visits to the forest, and household income.
The study proved that willingness to pay and willingness to accept can be used as a proxy to identify economic incentives for local farmers to restore forest land and understand the underlying factors that influence the willingness to protect forest. The payment level estimated by this study is an empirical suggestion to amend the current payment policy to meet the local households’ expectations and to encourage the involvement of the locals in the forest management in the local context in the tropics. The findings of this study support an increase in payment level for the provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund, Payments for Forest Environmental Services, and the United Nations Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation pilot projects which are currently being conducted in Vietnam. |
