27/06/2016
The conservation and protection of biodiversity is central to sustainable development. Biodiversity supports the ecosystem services needed to support life and livelihoods of the people, especially local communities and the poor and to sustain economic growth. It also provides resilience against the negative impacts of climate change.
Việt Nam’s high level of biodiversity is national treasure and an economic, social and cultural asset. Protecting biodiversity is important to the achievement of Việt Nam’s national sustainable development strategy and social economic development strategy and plan. Yet Việt Nam’s biodiversity is rapidly declining through illegal logging and wildlife poaching, as well as losing of habitats due to forest conversion and the expansion and intensification of agriculture. The number of endangered, rare and threatened species had increased by 125 percent over the past ten years (IUCN Redbook 2007). to reverse this trend, strengthening administration and increasing financing for biodiversity are essential.
Strong and effective governance
The protection of biodiversity requires strong and effective administration at all levels of the Authority. As part of this, countries need to have a good institutional setup, strong coordination and sufficient capacity. International experience shows that institutional setup, coordination and capacity are crucial if sustainable development objectives are to be met and the loss of biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystem services reversed.
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| The importance of administration and financing in Biodiversity protection |
In Việt Nam, important achievements have been made through the establishment of legal and legislative frameworks to protect biodiversity. For example, the Law on biodiversity (2008) specifies roles and responsibilities of the Government agencies. The National biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2013) sets targets for ensuring that conservation areas account for nine percent of the total territorial area. The Law on Environmental Protection (2014), which contains provisions for protecting and conserving biodiversity and species, has been recently revised.
However, if the ambitions of these frameworks and policies are to be realized, further strengthening of Việt Nam’s intuitional arrangements and coordination is crucial. Currently, shared responsibilities and overlapping functions between ministries, government agencies and provincial level government have led to lack of effective management of conservation areas and implementation of biodiversity conservation actions at local level. A unified institutional setup and well coordination will enable systematic planning, priorities setting and coherent managing of all ecosystems, including terrestrial, marine and coastal and wetland habitats for biodiversity conservation. Good setting priority will enables to allocate and mobilize adequate sufficient resources for the habitats and species which are in most needed for protection.
Building capacity at the individual, community and institutional level is also a key aspect of effective administration. Policy makers at both the national and local government levels need to have a good awareness of the value of biodiversity and the ability to apply planning, monitoring and reporting tools at international standards. Also importances are the sharing of information and lessons learned between and amongst policy makers and managers at Protected Are Sites. The UNDP is committed to continue to work along with the Government of Việt Nam to build and strengthen capacity, institutional coordination and effectiveness on biodiversity conservation in Việt Nam.
Financing for biodiversity conservation
Financing involves securing adequate financial flows for biodiversity conservation and also ensuring that the real value of ecosystems and ecosystem services are recognized. As Việt Nam continuing to develop increases pressure on natural resources just as flows of official Development Assistance (oDA) are decreasing. So far, there has not been any accurate assessment on the level financial flows from all sources to biodiversity conservation in Việt Nam. Going forward, there is a need to better understand the nature of biodiversity financing, increase allocations from national budgets and identify revenue mechanisms and innovative financing models.
First, the conservation of Việt Nam’s biodiversity requires increased allocations from the national budget. According to the Politburo Resolution No. 41/NQ- tW, the Government would spend at least one percent of the annual expenditure on environmental protection. From 2006 to 2010, Việt Nam received approximately US$64 million for biodiversity conservationfromoDA, accounting for 20 to 30% of the total budget for environmental protection. Nevertheless, estimates shown that up to 90% of this expenditure was spent on infrastructure development at the expense of on-the-ground conservationmeasures. Considering that Việt Nam’s biodiversity is essential to supporting various sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and tourism, increasing budget allocations to support biodiversity is an investment in the country. Increased budget allocations could be supported by increasing taxation and fees for natural resource exploitation and increasing fines for environmental violations.
Adequately financing biodiversity conservation also involves identifying and supporting appropriate evenue generating mechanisms and innovative financing models. Examples of mechanisms that have been used internationally include: market - based mechanisms, endowment funds, debt-for-nature swaps, biodiversity offsets, auctioning of tourism concessions, green taxes, payments for ecosystem services (PES), carbon finance and REDD/ REDD + fund. The appropriateness of these mechanisms depends on the context, although many countries have had success in applying specific mechanisms to local circumstances.
The use of revenue generating mechanisms for protected areas is only just beginning in Việt Nam. The UNDP-GEF project entitled “Removing Barriers Hindering Protected Area Management Effectiveness in Viet Nam” is currently piloting revenue mechanisms at three Conservation Area sites. This includes a tourism fee system at Cát bà National Park and a mechanism for Payments for Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES) at bidoup - Núi bà National Park. However to be truly effective and sustainable, these pilots need to be scaled up. It is also important that the revenues produced are retained at the Conservation Area site and are channeled directly for site management.
Globally, UNDP, with the funding by the European Union, the GEF and the Governments of Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Flanders, is implementing a project entitled “the biodiversity Finance Initiative” (bIoFIN). bIoFIN is a global partnership that assists countries to determine baseline investments in biodiversity and assess the costs of implementing National biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NbSAP). Furthermore, bIoFIN also supports countries to identifying suitable revenue generating mechanisms. UNDP in Việt Nam could help Việt Nam engage into the bIoFIN to get technical and financial supports to develop appropriate action plans and mechanisms to improve the flows and sustainability of finance for biodiversity protection.
Conclusion
Protecting and conserving biodiversity is fundamental to livelihoods of communities and sustainable development in Việt Nam. to achieve this, strengthening institutional capacity and coordination is the top priorities. biodiversity conservation and protection also requires adequate and sustainable financing. Financing is an issue that holds challenges, but pilots of revenue mechanisms also show opportunity. to effectively realize these opportunities more work needs to be undertaken on understanding financial flows and on up-scaling successful pilots. The UNDP looks forward to continuing to work closely with the government counterparts and development partners in Việt Nam to assist with the effective conservation and protection of biodiversity to contribute the overall goal of sustainable development.
References
IUCN, July 2014, Eating pangolins to extinction, Press Release.
MDG Report, 2013, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Việt Nam.
Fifth National Report to the CBD, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Việt Nam
Kate Sangster, Đào Xuân Lai and Nastassja Hoffet
United Nations Development Programme in Việt Nam
