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Scaling-up community-led EbA in biodiverse forest landscapes in Vietnam

Hồ Thị Thoàn – hothoan1985@gmail.com

National coordinator for EbA project which is funded by the Global EbA Fund

Lecturer at The North Vietnam College of Agriculture and Rural Development (NVCARD), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam

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Site Location:5 provinces (24 comm)

Value chains supported by FFF:

Spices
Raw and dry herbs
Herbal teas and medicines
Mushrooms
Honey
Sticky rice
Vermicelli
Bamboo shoots
Forest vegetables and fruits
Livestock and poultry
Organic compost and biofertilizer
Handicraft
Silk
Tree seedlings
FSC-certified timber
Eco-tourism

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The Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam

Past surveys with FFPOs identified producers grappling with the effects of climate change such as storms, floods, droughts, landslides, and hailstorms…, as well as unsustainable farming, severe biodiversity degradation, and deforestation leading to inequality and a return to poverty.
EbA GAP about:

Knowledge gaps
Market gaps and
Finance gaps

Have been increasing in intensity and frequency in the Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam, including storms, floods, droughts, landslides, and hailstorms, leading to inequality and a return to poverty

Knowledge gaps arise because FFPOs are isolated from innovative EbA models being implemented, sometimes even in neighbouring communes and districts, due to limited resources for documenting those models, peer—to-peer exchanges, and broader dissemination across farmer federations such as VNFU and Government support agencies.

Market gaps arise because smallholder producer cannot compete with large-scale monocultures but have no means to make up for this by distinguishing the EbA credentials of their products through labelling and associated Participatory Guarantee Schemes (PGS), with explicit EbA environmental resilience standards alongside other claims for legality and traceability, product quality, and socio-cultural best practices.

Finance gaps arise because, on the one hand FFPOs are insufficiently linked to aggregate credibly labelled, quality products at a scale sufficient to attract private sector investment, and on the other hand, public financing schemes like Payment for Ecosystem Services in Viet Nam currently do not explicitly recognise or reward adaptation services.

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EbA Project

IIED and partners support farmers' organizations in reducing climate risk and improving livelihoods for farmers through upscaled EbA approaches in biodiverse landscapes in 17 communes of five provinces in Northern Vietnam.

The project aims to:

Build on ‘diversification for resilience’ planning underway through ongoing FFF work in established FFPOs by working with the same producer organisations
Build on evidence of EbA effectiveness generated by previous project work by IIED, GIZ, ICRAF and others in Viet Nam
Build on recent IIED research on sustainability labelling

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Lessons Learned from EbA Implementation

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The problems:

The project aimed to address key challenges faced by Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOs) in scaling up Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approaches in forest and farm landscapes in Vietnam. Past surveys with FFPOs indicated that while some community-led EbA activities were being implemented, their expansion was hindered by:

Knowledge gaps: FFPOs were isolated from innovative EbA models due to limited resources for documentation, peer-to-peer exchanges, and dissemination through farmer federations and government support agencies.
Market gaps: Smallholder producers could not compete with large-scale monoculture farming and lacked means to distinguish their EbA products through labelling and certification schemes.
Finance gaps: FFPOs were not sufficiently linked to aggregate credibly labelled, quality products at a scale attractive to private sector investment. Public financing schemes like Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) did not explicitly recognize or reward adaptation services.

What question did your project seek to address?

Knowledge gaps arise because FFPOs are isolated from innovative EbA models being implemented, sometimes even in neighbouring communes and districts, due to limited resources for documenting those models, peer—to-peer exchanges, and broader dissemination across farmer federations such as VNFU and Government support agencies.

Market gaps arise because smallholder producer cannot compete with large-scale monocultures but have no means to make up for this by distinguishing the EbA credentials of their products through labelling and associated Participatory Guarantee Schemes (PGS), with explicit EbA environmental resilience standards alongside other claims for legality and traceability, product quality, and socio-cultural best practices.

Finance gaps arise because, on the one hand FFPOs are insufficiently linked to aggregate credibly labelled, quality products at a scale sufficient to attract private sector investment, and on the other hand, public financing schemes like Payment for Ecosystem Services in Viet Nam currently do not explicitly recognise or reward adaptation services.

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To overcome these barriers, the project was designed as an addition to existing FFF efforts to scale up EbA by:

Enhancing EbA knowledge& capacity among rural producers through co-production of knowledge &peer-to-peer exchange.
Improving access to markets and finance for products from EbA production systems by developing value chains and promoting certification and labelling.
Supporting the scaling up of EbA use in Vietnam and internationally through policy advocacy and communication efforts. Together with partner- VNFU, => vision-sharing workshops among stakeholders and through roundtable conferences at all levels, from central to communal, to listen to the challenges faced by FFPOs. They then connect these challenges with existing policies to encourage local authorities to take action in addressing these difficulties.

Participatory Approach

What was the approach?

Key initiatives included:

Documenting five case studies showcasing successful EbA practices, such as:

Yen Duong commune, Bac Kan province: Farmers adjusted land use according to elevation to protect soil and increase climate resilience, integrating agroforestry and ecotourism.
Thinh Phat Cooperative, Yen Bai province: Farmers extended acacia timber rotation from five to ten years by integrating beekeeping, enhancing both environmental and economic resilience.

Promoting market access by engaging private sector partners in dialogues with FFPOs, supporting the adoption of eco-labelling schemes such as the Forest Harvest Collective Mark Develop Participatory Guarantee Schemes (PGS) or other eco-labelling schemes that value and reward EbA activities), and improving product aggregation, processing, and marketing- Sensitize FFPOs to the benefits of collective action around particular EbA value chains to reach scale and attract private sector buyers and finance.
Advocating for policy and financial mechanisms to better support EbA approaches, including:

Link with existing Vietnamese Payment for Ecosystem Service mechanisms, or create new public financing mechanisms for EbA.
Improving access to climate information services and high-quality, locally adapted seeds.
Strengthening infrastructure for transportation and market connectivity.
Facilitating contractual agreements between smallholders, agribusinesses, and financial service providers.

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ACHIEVEMENTS:

Enhanced local knowledge-sharing through documented case studies and peer-to-peer exchanges: as farmers are rightly risk averse and trust what they see in other farms above external experts. So IIED and VNFU worked with FFPOs to co-produce and share stories of innovative EbA approaches – and then facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges that foster uptake.

5 case studies representing five mountainous provinces, where the terrain is steep, many ethnic minority communities reside (National Workshop On Long Rotation Timber, netwwork, electric papers, social media):

CS 1: Multifunctional agroforestry landscape for rural livelihood development in Yen Duong cooperative, Bac Kan province

CS 2: Poultry agroforestry system in Tan Phu cooperative, Thai Nguyen province

Impact – Results / Challenge

First: Yen Duong commune in Bac Kan province, has traditionally relied on rice, maize and cassava farming. But CC bringing increasingly intense rain events and is eroding plots, and washing away slopes. To stop the loss of farmland and protect the local population and its infrastructure, Since 2010, to stop the loss of precious farmland and to protect communities, the government of Viet Nam has been promoting forest restoration in at risk landscapes.

We have documented how farmers in Yen Duong vary their land use according to elevation level and exposure and in this way use biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce vulnerability and bolster resilience against the impacts of climate change.

On the upper slopes, they plant forests such as these bamboo forest as protection against landslides, growing ginseng under the forest canopy for medicine and additional income. On the middle slopes, they plant diverse and sustainable food production systems with climate-hardy rice paddies and multifunctional agroforestry plots (here you see squash plantation – squash is then marketed in the form of tea, they also market vermicelli produced in this agroforestry systems) which double also as a scenic backdrop for new ecotourism businesses. And on the lower slopes, organic crop production ensures healthy soil ecology, biodiversity and the protection of water resources

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CS 3: Climate resilience based on high – tech agroforestry in Hai Dang cooperative, Hoa Binh province

CS 4: Using and harvesting sustainably bamboo forests as an important livelihood of local people in Tan Xuan 269 cooperative, Son La province

CS 5: Forest garden based agroforestry model for local livelihood development in Thinh Phat cooperative, Yen Bai province

Conduct the Participatory Situation Analysis Report On The Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) Practices Capacities And Needs Of Selected FFPOs.
Sharing and Learning: The international conference on bees - Madhu Duniya in Ho Chi Minh is an opportunity for beekeeping cooperatives/groups to learn and apply collective trademarks for products in forest landscape areas. Cooperatives learn from domestic and international experts on bee conservation, product development, etc. to improve their value chains through ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).

Impact – Results / Challenge

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ACHIEVEMENTS:

Engaged FFPOs and the private sector in discussions on value chain development and certification schemes: five partnership opportunities around EbA market claims identified- Connecting consumption and securing commitments for promotion and purchase agreements from businesses, which are certified clean food retail chain

VC1: Bamboo Chain in Forest Landscapes

VC2: The herbal value chain within the forest landscape

VC3:The fruit value chain in the forest landscape

VC4: The vegetable chain within the forest landscape

VC5. honey value chain within the forest landscape

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Raised awareness among policymakers on the need for better integration of EbA into financial and regulatory frameworks.

Impact – Results / Challenge

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CHALLENGES IN APPLYING THE PARTICIPATORY APPROACH:

Lack of capacity and knowledge among stakeholders . The community may not fully understand EbA and its long-term benefits. the community may not know where to start or how to access certain EbA solutions that have already been implemented in Vietnam
EbA complexity: EbA is knowledge-intensive and context-specific, requiring significant capacity-building efforts.
Limitations in Financial; Human Resources and machines: Sustaining continuous community participation requires significant time, effort, and financial resources (The effectiveness of this farming approach is difficult to observe within just 1–2 years).
The impacts of climate change and natural disasters over the past year have been severe in the northern mountainous region of Vietnam. Storms, hail, flash floods, and landslides have nearly wiped out the community's efforts, forcing people to start over from scratch.

Impact – Results / Challenge

How has it worked for you? What has been the impact so far? What are your results?

Lack of capacity and knowledge among stakeholders�The community may not fully understand EbA and its long-term benefits. For example, how can ecologically farmed products access the market? Only when these products are recognized by the market can they contribute to sustainable production, ensuring that farmers remain committed to ecological farming practices. After several cultivation cycles and continued application, the community will be able to clearly see the benefits that EbA brings. Additionally, the community may not know where to start or how to access certain EbA solutions that have already been implemented in Vietnam.

Limitations in Financial; Human Resources and machines: Sustaining continuous community participation requires significant time, effort, and financial resources. The project faces challenges in mobilizing enough experienced personnel to support the implementation of this approach. Additionally, the project does not provide farming tools for farmer organizations to adopt this method—this poses a fundamental challenge, as rural labor is becoming increasingly scarce, labor costs are rising, and this farming approach requires a substantial workforce. Without mechanizing tools for small-scale farms, this remains a major challenge for FFF farmer organizations in five provinces of Vietnam.

The impacts of climate change and natural disasters over the past year have been severe in the northern mountainous region of Vietnam. Storms, hail, flash floods, and landslides have nearly wiped out the community's efforts, forcing people to start over from scratch. Many areas of fruit trees and forests, after 5–7 years of growth, have been broken or washed away. We have organized relief shipments to disaster-affected areas across the country

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Realize the shared vision for a collective brand for EbA products using the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS): Certification, management, and monitoring of at least five EbA products within the forest landscape
Pilot the EbA model of FFPOs in five provinces using a participatory approach and scale up best practices.
Mobilizing funding resources to implement market activities and develop the collective brand for EbA products.
Continue strengthening capacity and knowledge for stakeholders: Expand knowledge-sharing initiatives, develop accessible learning materials, and leverage existing EbA experiences.
Addressing the Complexity of EbA: Integrate EbA into local and national policies; Promote group-based mechanization solutions
Promote group-based mechanization solutions: Support farmer cooperatives in accessing shared mechanized tools to reduce labor intensity.

What Next?

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Thank you!