3rd Mekong Forum on Water, Food & Energy 2013. Presentation from Sessions 3 &5: Extending the benefits of hydropower: Clever suggestion or realistic goal?

1. IS FAIR BENEFIT-SHARING IN PES
REALISTIC? --- A CASE STUDY IN BAC
KAN PROVINCE, VIETNAM
Dam Viet Bac & Delia Catacutan
ICRAF Vietnam
3rd Mekong Forum on Water, Food and Energy
Hanoi, 19-21 November 2013

2. GIVEN: PES IS AN EFFICIENT MARKET-BASED
INSTRUMENT THAT PROVIDES BENEFITS TO ES
PROVIDERS.
QUESTIONS:
1. BUT HOW FAIR IS THIS BENEFIT TO ES
PROVIDERS?
2. HOW CAN THESE BENEFITS BE MADE ‘FAIRER’
TO ES PROVIDERS?
3. WHAT ARE THE METHODS THAT ENSURE
‘FAIRNESS’ IN PES BENEFIT-SHARING?

3. Efficiency VS fairness in PES
Realistic
Conditional
Voluntary
BDS
Designer
Pro-poor

4. Efficiency and Fairness in BDS Design

5. CASE STUDY: Payment for Forest
Environmental services (PFES) in Bac
Kan Province, Northeast Vietnam

6. Context of RUPES project site in Bac Kan
Nang River basin as ES Providers
LOCATED IN 2 PROVINCES
Environmental
Services (ES)
Watershed protection, and landscape beauty (Eco-tourism)
ES Providers
Owners (households, communities, organizations), contracted forest
protectors, Ba Be national park management
ES Beneficiaries
• Na Hang and Ta Lang hydropower plants
• Ba Be national park visitors (tourist entrance fee, boat cooperatives);
• Voluntary carbon market
ES Intermediaries
ICRAF, 3PAD (IFAD), Government line agencies at central, provincial, district,
and commune levels

7. PFES Benefit Distribution System in Vietnam
Payment
per forest
areas
within
River
Basin
Payment sources
Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund (VNFPF)
Payment based on K & R
factors
Payment
based on
locally
specific
mechanism
s
An appropriate intermediate payment level
(e.g. district or commune)
Environmental services’ providers
* Forest owners
* Households/individuals contracted by forest owners

8. Methodology
1. Oppcost: (Land use change analysis, NPV …)
2. Participatory Landscape Analysis (PaLA): was designed through packaging some
appropriate Rapid Rural Appraisal/Participatory Rural Appraisal (RRA/PRA) tools/methods
in combination with an approach of Agro-ecological analysis in order to capture local
knowledge at relevant temporal and spatial scales.
3. Modified REDD+BDS game: choices for benefit types included cash payments, cash for
infrastructure provision, agricultural inputs, land use rights certificates or other benefits
they proposed.
4. Structured decision-making (SDM) for benefit-sharing:
(SDM) approach is a collaborative and facilitated approach to decision-making that draws
upon multiple objective decision-making and group deliberation methods to
environmental management problems.
SDM is founded on the idea that good decisions are based on an in-depth understanding
of objectives (what’s important) and consequences (what is likely to happen if an
alternative is implemented)

9. Proposed BDS in PFES in Ba Be District, Bac Kan
> 85%
Na Hang
Hydropower
Plant
Vietnam
FPF (100%)
VND 20/
Kwh
-0.5%
mangt.
fee
Ta Leng
Hydropower
plant
• Ba Be National
Park
• Boat cooperative
• Households with
homestay
businesses in Bo
Lu and Pac Ngoi
villages
- < 5%
contingency
- < 10%
management
VND 20/Kwh
• Ba Be National Park
• Ba Be Forest
Enterprise
• Protection Forest
Management Board
• Commune People’s
Committee
(uncontracted)
-10% management
fee
Village community
Contracted
teams/groups
Bac Kan
FPF
(99.5%)
1-2% of
revenues
Households

10. Stakeholders’ preference on BDS: case study in Ba Be and Na Ri Districts
(Modified REDD+ Game by Dave Eastman, ICRAF/Oregon University)
(1) Preference over purposeoriented cash for
infrastructure and LURCs
(2) First-ranked benefit type, by
individual land tenure status
(LURC: Land use right certificate)

11. LESSONS LEARNED
 Opportunity costs of land use changes should be considered and
integrated into BDS design.
 In the context of unclear, overlapping, or even unrecognized land
rights, the BDS must contain arrangements to channel benefit to
legitimate groups of forest users in effective and equitable ways.
 Making use of existing arrangements for benefit transfer will help
to reduce transaction costs.
 A wide range of approaches to BDS may be combined, or may
work in parallel with different regions, at both national and subnational levels.

12. LESSONS LEARNED (Cont …)
 Partnerships with national and local partners such as
governmental agencies, existing
programs/projects, CSOs, NGOs, etc. in terms of learning local
knowledge, taking advantage of existing BDS, capacity
building, and policy advocacy, will be a key element of a
successful BDS.
Finally, the decision to implement PES BDS will not be made
without at least a rough estimate of how much PES will cost, and
what could be the impacts of such a mechanism.

13. Thanks !
Dam Viet Bac
Researcher
ICRAF-Vietnam
No. 8, Lot13A, Trung Hoa St.
Yen Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District
Hanoi, Vietnam
Email: d.vietbac@cgiar.org
Visit us:
www.worldagroforestrycentre.org
www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea/vn
www.rupes.worldagroforestrycentre.org