The Western Nghe An region accounts for 84% of the province's area, with 1.4 million hectares, with high mountainous terrain, which is an advantage for developing many industries in many fields such as: forest economy (enclosure, protection, afforestation), medicinal plant cultivation, clean agricultural production (livestock, cultivation), tourism development... Nghe An's forest area is mainly distributed in 11 districts and towns in the West, especially the Southwest region, which is a condition to promote great potential in exploiting carbon credits.
One of the sources of income from forest resources that the Southwest Nghe An region can identify in the near future is to implement environmental policies, selling carbon credits. The purchase and sale of carbon credits can be done by an individual with a volume of several tons to several billion tons of a country, partners needing credits. Therefore, forest owners can receive funding from partners needing carbon credits in the province, nationwide and globally...
In order to be able to sell carbon credits, it is important that forest owners and people implement policies on forest protection and conservation. For example, in Bung Xat village, Chau Khe commune (Con Cuong), village chief Luong Van Kim said that for a long time, revenue from forest protection and conservation has become an important source of income for local people. Bung Xat village has many families protecting and conservation of forests such as: Vi Thi Nhan, Kha Van Phong, Kha Van Canh, Lo Van Ky, Luong Van Thuong, Luong Van Chanh, Ngan Van Tinh... Guiding visitors about the forest area that her family is protecting, Ms. Vi Thi Nhan said that her family's garden and forest area is about 5 hectares, of which half is for rice cultivation and the other half is for protection and conservation. Previously, acacia trees were planted under the forest canopy and maintained until now, combined with the protection of natural forest areas, taking short-term to support long-term, so she is quite confident in implementing the Party and State's policies and guidelines on forest protection.
“Many years ago, people in the village cleared land and did crop rotation. Later, the State banned slash-and-burn farming and deforestation, so people only intercropped acacia in the border areas or under the forest canopy and took on the protection and protection of natural forests. Currently, the money paid for protecting her nearly 3 hectares of forest is less than 1 million VND/year, not equal to the money for exploiting intercropped trees under the forest canopy. I heard that there will be more funding to support forest rangers in the near future. I don't know exactly how much money I will get, but I'm very happy to see that the officials have announced to review the forest owners participating in protection to complete the procedures,” said Ms. Vi Thi Nhan.
Ms. Vi Thi Nhan's household, as well as thousands of other families in 9 villages and hamlets of Chau Khe commune, mostly participate in forest protection and afforestation. In 2023 alone, Chau Khe commune people planted about 86 hectares of new forest (mainly acacia trees), raising the forest cover to 96.08% of the total natural area of more than 44,000 hectares. This activity not only contributes to keeping Con Cuong district's forest cover among the highest in the province, but also brings income to people and forest owners, collectives and communities.
In 2023, people in 9 villages and hamlets of Chau Khe commune were paid more than 676 million VND for forest environmental services. Of which, payment for forest environmental services for households and individuals was nearly 386 million VND; collectives of villages and hamlets were more than 290 million VND. Individuals and collectives contracted to protect natural forests in Chau Son (Khe Nong), Bu, and Na hamlets were paid more than 334 million VND; community forest protection teams in Chau Son, Bu, Na hamlets, Bung Xat, and Diem hamlets also received more than 8 million VND.
In addition to the above significant sources of income, the people of Bung Xat village as well as households and collectives that receive protection and conservation of natural forests will receive additional money from selling carbon credits. Specifically, on January 7, 2022, the Vietnamese Government issued Decree No. 06/2022/ND-CP regulating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and ozone layer protection. This Decree has specific regulations on the development roadmap and timing of the implementation of the domestic carbon market. Currently, Vietnam is taking steps to prepare for the pilot operation of the carbon credit trading floor starting from 2025 and will officially operate by 2028.
In October 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam and the World Bank (WB) - the trustee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), signed the Emission Reduction Payment Agreement for the North Central Region Emission Reduction Program (ERPA). With this Agreement, Vietnam will transfer to FCPF 10.3 million tons of CO2 to reduce emissions from forests in 6 provinces in the North Central region, including Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue in the period of 2018-2024. FCPF will pay for this service 51.5 million USD.
In order for Nghe An forest rangers to enjoy income from selling carbon credits, currently, all levels and sectors need to do a good job of "logistics" in preparing documents to be eligible for disbursement of funds transferred by the World Bank. In Con Cuong district, Mr. Lo Van Ly - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the district has grasped the direction of the Provincial People's Committee in Plan No. 124/KH-UBND dated February 22, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee on implementing the North Central Region Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA) in the province.
Immediately after receiving the document, the People's Committee of Con Cuong district issued Document No. 294/UBND-NN on assigning the task of directing the planning of the implementation of the Agreement on payment for greenhouse gas emission reduction in the district. In the implementation contents, the district focuses on propagating and disseminating policies on payment for carbon credit sales; making payment plans according to instructions; appraising annual financial plans, initially for 2024, for the People's Committees of communes and organizations assigned by the State to manage and protect forests.
Like Con Cuong district, localities with "subjects" eligible to receive payment from selling carbon credits are all embarking on "logistical" steps to receive large revenues from this special item. Mr. Thai Minh Hiep - Head of Con Cuong Forest Protection Department also affirmed that the unit has received the plan from the District People's Committee and is developing an implementation plan according to its functions and authority, in which, mainly, it is to re-inventory the current status of land and forest allocation.
One of the important steps to complete the payment records in carbon credit transactions is to make a list of forest owners who receive payment on time. To ensure payment to forest owners on time, no later than December 31, 2026, according to the sharing of localities, there are still many procedural steps that need to be completed according to the requirements of the disbursement records. Therefore, one of the key tasks assigned by the Provincial People's Committee to departments, branches, localities and implementing units is to make a list of beneficiaries of greenhouse gas emission reduction money. This list is advised by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, based on the decision to announce annual forest changes of the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for approval.
To make a list of beneficiaries from ERPA sources, forest owners that are organizations need to review the subjects to ensure that the area of natural forests contracted for forest protection from ERPA sources does not overlap with the area of forest protection contracted using State budget funds and ensure the principle of "reasonableness, no overlap with other expenditures of the State budget"; and sign a contract on the principle of assigning forest management and protection to the community.
Next, conduct a review and statistics to determine the existing natural forest area of each forest owner to serve as a basis for the preparation of the annual financial plan. To implement this content, the Forest Protection and Development Fund builds a form to collect information from forest owners to make payments according to regulations.
The leader of Nghe An Forest Protection and Development Fund also said that right after the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) signed the Emission Reduction Payment Agreement for the North Central Region (ERPA), the Forest Protection and Development Fund coordinated with expert delegations to advise on the possibility of implementing the Agreement in Nghe An and was highly appreciated by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
At the same time, the Forest Protection and Development Fund also sent staff to participate in training courses on "Domestic Carbon Trading Market - ETS" organized by the Central VFBC Technical Support Project Management Board "Sustainable Forest Management and Biodiversity Conservation". At the same time, update basic knowledge on how to operate and trade emission quotas and carbon credits on the domestic carbon market trading floor as prescribed in Decree 06/2022/ND-CP dated January 7, 2022 on regulations on greenhouse gas emission reduction and ozone layer protection; Knowledge on greenhouse gas emission reduction; Greenhouse gas inventory; Carbon prices and quotas in the domestic carbon market; Carbon trading floor simulation software (CarbonSim) and many other related contents...
