More than 100 representatives from Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, provincial authorities from across the country, and development partners came together today in Hanoi for a U.S,-supported workshop to share experiences of Vietnam's Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) scheme.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a key supporter of PFES in Vietnam, including support for the development of the national PFES Decree and its piloting in Lam Dong province. PFES is an innovative approach to sustainable conservation financing that is generating significant resources to support forest protection and local livelihoods. Following a two year piloting phase, the national PFES Decree 99 was officially approved on September 24, 2010 by Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, becoming the first such policy in Asia.

The scheme is now being implemented in 31 provinces across the country and to date has mobilized approximately 1.8 billion Vietnamese Dong (about $85 million) for forest protection. In the scheme, the beneficiaries of environmental services (or PFES "buyers", such as hydropower facilities, municipal water supply companies, and ecotourism operators) provide financial incentives to the "suppliers" of these services such as local communities and forest management boards. Hydropower plants currently represent nearly 98 percent of payments, with water and tourism companies also making contributions.

Following the expansion of PFES across Vietnam since 2010, there has not yet been a comprehensive review of PFES experiences in the country. USAID has therefore partnered with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the US Forest Service, and others to assess the current status of and challenges with PFES implementation. The national-level workshop on August 20 brought together relevant stakeholders from across the country to discuss the findings of the review, assess progress and challenges, and to make recommendations for further improvement and enhanced effectiveness. Lessons learned from PFES to inform efforts to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) were also discussed.

USAID, through the new Vietnam Forests and Deltas project, will continue to support PFES and REDD+ implementation in Vietnam as an innovative model for developing economically-viable approaches to support the conservation and sustainable management of Vietnam's forests. Together with CIFOR, USAID also plans to look at how other countries in the Mekong region are currently implementing, or thinking about implementing, similar approaches in their countries.