Dao The Anh, Nguyen Ngoc Mai, Tran Van Toan Centre for Agrarian Systems Research and Development Hanoi, May 3, 2010

1. Trung t©m Nghiªn cøu & Ph¸t triÓn HÖ thèng N«ng nghiÖp
Centre for Agrarian Systems Research & Development
Institutional options for
agricultural mitigation in
Vietnam
PhD. Dao The Anh,
Nguyen Ngoc Mai, Tran Van Toan
Hanoi, 3 May 2010

2. Agriculture mitigation and
institutions for carbon market acces
 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
 Voluntary carbon market (VCM)

3. Overview of Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) in Vietnam
 The CDM has yet to gain real traction in Vietnam or deliver
poverty reduction: 85 projects, but only 5 formally registered and
only 1 having direct poverty reduction benefits (Cao Phong
Reforestation Project)
 Potential sub-sectors for CDM projects are identified
 Energy efficiency, conservation and saving
 Fuel switching
 Methane recovery and utilization from waste disposal sites and
coal mining
 Application of renewable energy
 Associated gas recovery and utilization
 Afforestation and reforestation
 Reduction of methane emissions from agriculture and livestock,
utilization of biogas

4. Legal context and Institution of CDM
 Legal doc for implementation of CDM in VN: The
Investment Law (Law No.59/2005/QH11), Directive 35
(October 2005), Decision 130 (August 2007) and
Circular 58 (July 2008)
 In May 2008, the Department of Meteorology,
Hydrology and Climate Change of MONRE took over
as DNA
 The Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and
Climate Change also serves as a National Focal
Agency for managing and coordinating the
implementation of all climate change related activities
under UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol in Vietnam

5. Legal context and Institutions of
CDM
 The Vietnam Environment Protection fund is
responsible for registration of certified CERs;
supervision and management of CERs granted by
the CDM Executive Board to CDM projects in
Vietnam; and collection of fees from CERs being
sold.
 There are no local Designated Operating Entities in
Vietnam. There are some consultants working with
Vietnamese organisations that are involved with
validating CDM projects, but these projects are
ultimately being evaluated by foreign DOEs.

6. Structure of Cao phong CDM project
Intermediares: Honda Vietnam
JICA
VFU
Relation Forest Science
flows Institute District Administration
District extension
center Forest development fund
50
0
Financial flows
Households 100
50
Benefits
Carbon Wood

7. Lessons learned from Cao phong
 Village regulation for forest management is developed by
farmers, but lack of enforcement and monitoring
 The Forest Development Fund (FDF) lacks farmer
participation in management; the top-down approach further
questions sustainability of the FDF
 Lack of environnement staff at local level
 Farmers lack understanding of CER and their rights: lack of
capacity building
 Farmer only interested in economic (wood) benefit for poverty
reduction and not in environemental (carbon) benefits: lack of
awarenss
 Long project intervention: more than 8 years (acacia trees)

8. Voluntary carbon market
institutions in Vietnam
 No VCM in Vietnam at present
 VCM is not mentioned in existing legal documents, only listed
in the National CC Objective Program; potential difficulties for
licensing authority unless MONRE proposes to revise and add
some articles in the related legal documents
 There are many similarities between the approval procedures for
CDM and voluntary projects, but maybe simpler procedures
outside MONRE can be used
 Potential for agriculture mitigation is large because of high
intensification levels of existing farming system
 Potential for poverty reduction focus at smaller scale
 But who are the buyers? Who are the certificators? Currently
limited awareness
 Donors should play catalyzing role for VCM development

9. VCM: Challenges for agricultural
activities
 Aggregation of small scale and dispersed production
geographically, but shorter cycle than forest
 Non homogenous agricultural practices among
farmers
 Need effective local institutiosn for controlling
emissions and chemical usage
 VER accreditation appears more complex than CDM
 VER is not recorgnized officialy like CDM, thus
potential to combine with value chain or PES
activities
 Need action-research for institutions combining
diverse stakeholders

10. Existing value chain institutional
arrangement
 Farmer association based on collaborative
groups - supermarket:s collective cultural
practices and internal quality control
 Farmer groups – processing entreprises
(contract farming)
 Need to study arrangements between
aggregation organisation and carbon buyer

11. Institutional model for carbon market
access of small-holders
- Production
- Service
ASSOCIATION provided to
members Supermarket,
Supply Distributor
Carbon buyers
Group
Group Group Carbon
aggregators
Carbon producers

12. Institutional criteria for pilot
study
 Existing farmer organisation for a large area
due to short time
 Relative specialisation in one agricultural
product and homogenous cropping practices
 Good market acces
 Diversity of agro-ecological condition: 01 in
rice land and 01 in sloping land

13. Concluding remarks
 Agricultural mitigation has potential in Vietnam
 Requires supportive legislative and policy
framework
 Need to conduct action-research on
institutional options for VCM in Vietnam
focusing on smallholder access
 Capacity building is in large demand
 Need a long intervention project integrated in
IFAD activities

14. Thank you for your attention!