From Negotiations to Adjustment: Vietnam

WWF works on promoting sustainable cocoa in Vietnam

During the past decade, Vietnam became a leading exporter of agricultural products such as coffee, pepper, cashews, and rice. This helped to generate impressive economic growth and significantly reduce poverty in rural areas. However, the expansion of agricultural production for export also led to deforestation, groundwater depletion, and biodiversity loss in ecologically important areas like the Central and Southern Highlands.

In Vietnam, the From Negotiations to Adjustment project sought to influence the development of a newly emerging agricultural sector: cocoa. Cocoa production areas in Vietnam currently total about 8,100 hectares, mainly in the southern part of the country, but there is a national strategy to expand to 80,000 hectares by 2020.

Project partners WWF Vietnam, WWF MPO, and the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC) engaged with the sector at an early stage in order to ensure that its expansion is planned carefully, best practices are adopted, and sound policies are introduced to minimize adverse environmental impacts. Cocoa can be grown under forest canopy and on degraded forest lands; and can be intercropped with other crops to provide additional livelihood options for farmers. When produced in agroforestry systems, cocoa can thus make a positive contribution towards both biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation.

The first phase of the project developed an overview of the Vietnamese cocoa sector and highlighted recommendations for appropriate cocoa production areas and techniques in Vietnam. This phase was carried out in cooperation with the Forest Science Sub-Institute of South Vietnam (FSSIV). The report and recommendations were presented to government, the private sector, academia, and NGOs at a major IPC-hosted international workshop in October 2005 in Hanoi.

The second phase of the project, which ran through April 2008, had several objectives. One was to support provincial authorities in developing a master plan for the sustainable expansion of cocoa production in in Lam Dong province. Partners included FSSIV, the Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Agricultural Science Institute of the South.

Another goal was to establish a demonstration plot for multi-story cocoa agro-forestry systems on 39 ha of degraded forest land in Phuoc Loc commune, Da Huoai district, Lam Dong province. This was aimed at (i) maximizing benefits for biodiversity conservation, both at the site and landscape levels, (ii) improving the quality of degraded forest land, and (iii) improving the livelihoods of ethnic minority communities who are participating in the project. This work was carried out in partnership with the district government, ACDI/VOCA, FSSIV and the French trading company Touton.

This was the first time that cocoa has been planted under forest canopy in Vietnam. The model will be replicated elsewhere in Lam Dong as well as other southern provinces where the process of allocating degraded forest land to poor farmers is taking place. This project is thereby helping to develop best-practice guidelines for cocoa development in the country. As another contribution to this process, WWF produced a report on the biodiversity issues associated with cocoa production that has become a key vehicle for discussions about the environmental issues associated with the future expansion of the Vietnamese cocoa sector.

Finally, in recognition of the contributions that it has made to sustainable cocoa development in Vietnam, WWF was asked to support a high-level effort by the agricultural ministries of the Netherlands and Vietnam to establish a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for Cocoa Development. WWF was a key partner in developing an Action Plan for this PPP, which sets out to develop basic environmental and social standards for future cocoa production in Vietnam; and WWF will stay involved in its implementation by the two governments.

A final project workshop took place on April 8, 2008, in Da Lat, capital of Lam Dong province. Key institutions such as the Coordinating Committee for Cocoa Development of Vietnam, the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the Lam Dong government, expressed their appreciation for the role WWF has played in promoting a truly sustainable development of the Vietnamese cocoa sector. Plans were discussed for activities (including the creation of additional cocoa production sites) that will ensure the continued involvement of WWF in this area.