Vietnam News 24 Jun 10;
HA NOI — Vietnamese and international policy makers, investors, academics, and environmentalists have joined the 17th Katoomba Conference to discuss environmental protection systems across Southeast Asia.
Viet Nam had set a good example with its Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the region, an example others should learn from, said the president and CEO of Forest Trends Michael Jenkins at the conference here yesterday.
The pilot PES in Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen) of Viet Nam, exemplified how the country could benefit from the PES, he added.
Local hydropower plants, water-supply companies and tourism operators have so far paid US$3.5 million for the new system, with $2.2 million of this going to 8,000 poor households who have been engaged to protect 200,000ha of provincial forests.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the PES helped put the forestry sector in Viet Nam on the right track, complying with the market economy, creating the right values, and contributing to sustainable development.
Nhan added that efforts to protect forests had contributed to the global response to negative climate change.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said local forest played an important role in maintaining bio-diversity and preserving the homes of 25 million of people nationwide. Most forest inhabitants in Viet Nam are poor and of minority ethnicity.
Participants discussed the current and potential markets of PES in the region as a way to reduce carbon emissions and protect the ecosystem. This, the conference heard, has been complemented by an innovative market in water quality that is rapidly emerging world-wide, as cash-strapped governments in countries as diverse as China, the United States, Brazil and Australia invest billions of public and private money in schemes that reward people who protect water resources. The progress of these schemes have been studied in a new Ecosystem Marketplace report launched at the conference.
Describing the water crisis as a threat to humanity that exceeds global warming, the authors of the study said a number of regions seem to be responding to such frightening indicators as the steady proliferation of "dead zones" in waterways around the world continues.
But the programmes are not all about saving the world. Of the 300 programmes to keep water clean studied in the report, $10 billion in transactions have taken place.
Jenkins said the issue of water quality was important for Viet Nam and its neighbouring countries.
Mangroves were a key natural defence to climate change as they mitigate sea level rise, a problem the country is facing from climate change.
He said that Viet Nam should take the lead on expounding the importance of mangroves and other coastal ecosystems to combat climate change when they attend the COP16 in Mexico next December. — VNS
