Enabling a High-Quality Forestry Carbon Market in Vietnam

This project aims to improve the climate resilience of communities relying on forest ecosystems in Vietnam especially women and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC). The project seeks to achieved this by developing a high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon market. It also addresses the power imbalances and barriers that IPLCs particularly ethnic minority women face in equitably participating in the forestry and carbon trade ensuring consideration is given to their unique needs and climatic vulnerabilities. Given their exposure to climate change the project supports four provinces in Vietnam: Ha Giang Lai Chau Son La and Soc Trang. The three northwestern provinces (Lai Chau Ha Giang Son La) have experienced severe increases in temperature with forecasts of an increase of 2-4ºC in the coming decades. Heat stress in the region is affecting forests their biodiversity and the availability of food and resources for IPLCs. The coastal province of Soc Trang in the Mekong Delta is affected by rising sea levels causing the loss of mangroves and impacting income-generating activities such as fishing. These provinces are among the poorest in Vietnam with 95% of population being ethnic minority groups. Project activities include: (1) developing decision-making supporting tools for government agencies to design implement and monitor a high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon market; (2) facilitating policy dialogues at the national level between public and private sectors civil society and women or IPLCs-led organizations for the design of legal frameworks that support high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon market development; (3) training private sector actors on social climate and biodiversity integrity principles for high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon market development; and (4) developing guidelines and a toolbox to support community members especia

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved climate governance through high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon market development; (2) enhanced commitment of private sector actors to fund and implement high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon projects; and (3) enhanced local community governance mainly women-led for high-quality inclusive and gender-responsive forestry carbon market in biodiverse provinces.