Assessing Forest Stewardship Council certification implementation for smallholder groups in Vietnam

Abstract

Forest Certification Stewardship Council (FSC) has been globally recognized as an effective tool to manage forests sustainably. While FSC has been widely accepted by large forest companies in developed countries, the developing country witness the slow uptake of forest certification, especially for smallholders due to their financial constraints and low expertise on forestry. Recognizing the importance of smallholders in the forestry sector and their constraints, FSC develop the forest group certification to encourage smallholders participating in the FSC certification. This study aims to assess the implement the forest certification group scheme to smallholders in Vietnam. In order to do that, the study focuses to examine barriers and enabling factors to implement the forest certification group scheme to smallholders by using desktop review, online surveys and in- depth telephone interview methods. The study found that the common barriers come from the government, including land tenure issues, inadequate policies and deficient resources on forest sustainable management. In addition, weak management capacities, low expertise on forestry and financial constraints are challenges to sustainable operations of smallholder groups. Despites these barriers, there are existing factors which could enable to implement the FSC group certification for smallholders in Vietnam. They are market demands of FSC-certified wood, NGO supports and governmental strategies to develop forest sustainable management. Through the concept of social capital, roles of NGO, the government and wood companies are engaging smallholders to the certification scheme. In addition to solutions often cited in literature, including increasing farmers’ awareness of forestry and certification, and strengthening policies and programs on forest certification, the research suggests that strengthening social capital of smallholder groups through bonding, bridging and increasing trust between members is a new pathway to promote the FSC for smallholder groups.