Payment for environmental services: experiences and lessons in Vietnam

The concept behind payments (or other rewards) for envi- ronmental services 1 is to provide incentives and benefits to the people who utilise environmentally valuable ecosys- tems 2 , and in return they agree to utilise these ecosystems in ways that protect or enhance environmental services for the benefit of the wider population. For the provision of such services, individuals or communities can be directly rewarded. Another way to express the concept behind Payment for Environmental Service (PES) is that those who provide ecosystem services should be compensated or rewarded for doing so, and those who use the services should pay for their provision. The term ecosystem services rather than environmental services is used in the Vietnam context because environ- mental services were being used for ‘brown’ issues such as pollution. The term ecosystem services is utilized in the Biodiversity Law and the new policy framework by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Over the last 10 years, the PES concept and its application have gained increasing attention, not only amongst envi- ronmentalists and scientists, but also policy makers across Southeast Asia. Significant achievements have recently been witnessed in Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and Rewarding the Upland Poor for the Environmen- tal Services they provide (RUPES) programs in Vietnam. This is a direct result of the interest of the Vietnamese Government (particularly the Forest Science Institute of Vietnam - FSIV) as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and a considerable contribu- tion from international RUPES partnerships over the last five years, including: Winrock International; World Agro- forestry Centre (ICRAF); Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); World Wildlife Fund for nature (WWF); and The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

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