Land use, forest cover change and historical GHG emission

Summary

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Program “Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests” (LEAF) seeks to strengthen the capacity of developing countries in the Asian region to produce meaningful and sustained reductions in GHG emissions from the forestry and land use sectors, thereby allowing these countries to benefit from the emerging international REDD+ program framework.

In Viet Nam, the USAID LEAF program was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). USAID LEAF will provide support for the successful implementation of the Vietnam National REDD+ Action Program (NRAP). The province of Lam Dong has been selected as one of six pilot provinces under the NRAP to pilot REDD+. USAID LEAF is supporting the development of the Lam Dong Provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP).

As support to the PRAP, this report provides an assessment of historical land use and forest changes, the identification of major driving forces behind these changes and an estimation of historical GHG emissions and removals. This information is critical in the development of the PRAP in Lam Dong province. It is also necessary for the Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and the Lam Dong People’s Provincial Committee (PPC) to determine and implement sound and convincing policy and mitigation measures to address the drivers of deforestation and degradation and substantially reduce the net GHG emission from the province.