FRAMEWORK INDICATORS AND REPORTING BASE:

DEVELOPING AND PILOTING AN INDICATOR FRAMEWORK FOR MONITORING THE IMPACT OF VPA/FLEGT ON SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED TIMBER ENTERPRISES IN VIETNAM

The Voluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VPA-FLEGT) between the Government of Vietnam and the European Union (EU) came into effect in June 2019, marking a significant milestone in the negotiation process between the two parties. As one of 15 countries worldwide and one of five countries in ASEAN participating in negotiating and implementing a VPA, Vietnam and the EU committed to the goal of sustainable management of all forest types by developing and implementing a legal framework to ensure all timber products exported by Vietnam to the EU market are legally produced and sourced. In order to implement the Agreement, the two parties established a Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) co-chaired by the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the EU Delegation to Vietnam, whose functions are to manage, monitor and assess the implementation of the Agreement.

One of the JIC’s important tasks is to promote dialogue and information exchange, to consider and resolve any issue raised by either party, including from the Multi-Stakeholder Core Group on the VPA (MSCG), which represents the stakeholders in Vietnam, including the representatives of Vietnam Administration of Forestry, timber business associations, forestry social organizations, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, and development partners. A number of MSCG member organizations from the Vietnamese Non-Governmental Organization Network on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VNGO-FLEGT) have significant concerns about the monitoring and impact evaluation mechanism of the VPA implementation on groups believed to be severely affected by the Agreement, such as plantation households, micro, small and medium-sized timber enterprises. The Agreement itself provides no specific guidance on impact monitoring, but the Joint Implementation Framework (JIF) indicates that the JIC is responsible for complying with Article 15 so that “Vietnam will have a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the Agreement” and ensuring that “the monitoring will be conducted transparently with the participation of stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations, forestry associations, trade unions, local communities.”

According to Annex IX, the economic, social and environmental impacts of the implementation of the Agreement will have to be monitored and evaluated (M&E), and, based on that, propose appropriate measures to minimize any possible negative impacts on ethnic minorities and related local communities, households and timber industry as per the commitment in Article 16 of the Agreement. This context has led the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD), which coordinates the VNGO-FLEGT Network, to decide to develop and pilot a VPA impactmonitoring framework for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the 5 Vietnamese timber industry. Undertaken within the Forest Governance, Market, and Climate (FGMC) project funded by the DFID (2018-2021), this initiative aims to build participatory capacity and regulations for civil society organizations and timber associations on VPA-FLEGT impact monitoring and assessment in Vietnam.

Please refer to our research here (Vietnamese):

FRAMEWORK INDICATORS AND REPORTING BASE.DEVELOPING AND PILOTING AN INDICATOR FRAMEWORK FOR MONITORING THE IMPACT OF VPA/FLEGT ON SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED TIMBER ENTERPRISES IN VIETNAM