Executive Summary
This year’s efforts focused on scaling up targeted support to develop forest value chains and strengthen forest enterprises, expanding effective planning and management of community forests, and deepening government engagement to guide, develop, and revise forest policies. To facilitate greater policy influence, the Project shifted from a “bottom-up approach” that provided provincial evidence to guide national policy recommendations, to a more strategic approach that works directly with Vietnam’s top policymaking bodies, to provide recommendations through these bodies with a higher likelihood of adoption. To improve law enforcement efforts, the Project successfully completed the first phase of rolling out the innovative tool to track and monitor forest violations– now ready for nationwide deployment. Despite receiving lower than planned fund obligations affecting mainly the fourth quarter, this fiscal year, the project made notable strides towards reaching Project targets, including 136,339.40 ha of forest land and 2,263.93 ha of non-forest land under improved management, securing USD 30.8 million in investments and commitments, and ultimately benefitting 56,393 people through U.S. government assistance.
FY23 in Numbers cumulatively:
By the end of FY23, the project has reached the following cumulative life of project achievements:
- 34,010 people trained
- 109 institutions have improved capacity
- 57 policies or plans have been developed
- $33.6 million has been mobilized towards conservation-friendly enterprises
- 61,356 people have received livelihood co-benefits
- 45 conservation-friendly enterprises are receiving support through the Project
- 5,407,714 tons of CO2 emissions have been reduced, sequestered, or avoided
- 14,926,873 tons of CO2 will be avoided from the adoption of policies supported by the Project.
- 138,603 ha of forests are under improved management
- 13,564 people have received support to adapt to climate change
- 10,984 people have implemented risk-reduction practices.