Status of forest development and opportunity cost of avoiding forest conversion in Ba Be National Park, Vietnam

This study aimed to discover the status of several types of forest and based on the opportunity costs of REDD+ to identify which greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation options can be implemented in different forest types in Ba Be National Park, Vietnam. From 1990 to 2000, forest in the study area faced a high rate of forest cover loss and degradation. During the next decade from 2000 to 2010, total forest cover increased gradually. However, the natural forest area still decreased. In our household survey (n=103), respondents reported that main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in those areas were timber extraction for commercial or subsistence purposes, shifting cultivation, inadequate forest management, bribes to forest rangers, felling trees for firewood and bamboo shoots, and conversion to Mo (Manglietia conifera) and other perennial plants. There are some differences in those drivers between the three villages surveyed. From 2000 to 2010, several land use changes such as the conversion of poor timber forest into recovered timber forest, medium timber forest into poor timber forest and planted forest into bare land with scattered trees caused more than 8,000 tCO2e emissions per year. In regard to opportunity costs, most of the avoidance options have negative opportunity costs, which mean potential benefits. Within the current carbon market price, the avoidance can be applied to reduce approximately 7,900 tCO2e emissions (about 98% reduction) per year in the three communes surveyed.