This brief is a discussion of the Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management project’s support for promoting the acacia value chain in Hoa Binh province.
Introduction
In Vietnam and worldwide, widespread forest degradation from illicit timber harvesting, forest land conversion and poor forest management practices, is leading to increased carbon emissions, which threatens the environment, communities, and livelihoods. Despite national increases in overall tree coverage, Vietnam’s natural forests are reducing in area and worsening in quality.
From 2020-2025, the USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) is linking communities, local authorities, the national government, and the private sector to jointly address the drivers of forest conversion and degradation in targeted areas. The Project aims to avoid carbon emissions from natural forest conversion and degradation; increase carbon sequestration through better management of plantation forests; and improve the quality, diversity, and productivity of natural production forests– all to protect Vietnam’s threatened forest resources.
Production Forestry Status in Hoa Binh
Hoa Binh Province is located 100 kilometers northwest of Hanoi. Its total area is 459,614 ha, of which about 76 percent consists of forests and forestry land (areas that are planned for forestry purposes) and the remaining 24 percent is land without forests, which is distributed across 10 districts and Hoa Binh City. The total production forest area is 149,425 ha, of which plantation forests accounts for 62 percent (or 92,470 ha). Within these plantation areas, individual household forest owners account for 68 percent of the total land. Other forest owners, such as protection forest management boards and state-owned companies, account for 32 percent.