Baseline Study 3, Vietnam: Overview of Forest Governance and Trade

In 2009, PROFOREST conducted a study on the forestry sector in Vietnam, commissioned by the European Forestry Institute (EFI). The report compiled information on issues related to Vietnam’s role as one of the world’s largest manufacturing centers for the wood products trade, particularly as it related to sourcing of legally produced wood. It analysed options for the Vietnamese government and the European Commission if they agreed to proceed with a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). Plans to proceed with a FLEGT VPA subsequently started in 2010. This document serves as an update from the 2009 PROFOR report, and delves more deeply into some of the issues raised – including land tenure, timber harvested from plantations and natural forest, forest certification, and details on the current situation of timber and wood processing industry.