| Abstract: |
Climate change and food insecurity are two major global issues that are also of concern in Viet Nam. Developing high carbon-stock and low-emission land-use strategies that can reconcile the livelihoods and environmental functions of landscapes is essential. This chapter presents the results of 30-year simulations of land-use scenarios that promote forest and crop land intensification in the four agro-ecological regions of Viet Nam. We used the Forest, Agroforest, Low-value Land or Waste Land (FALLOW) model. The selected provinces have diverse biophysical and socio-economic conditions that contribute to high variation in the impact of land-use strategies on household incomes and provincial carbon stock.
Relative to the baseline, the scenario of agricultural and forest-plantation expansion, which included agricultural-intervention programs and expansion of plantations in degraded areas of protection forests, increased smallholders’ annual incomes per capita by USD 21 (± USD 5.50) but at the same time decreased time-averaged carbon stock by 0.7 (± 0.5) x 106 ton CO2 eq because naturally-regenerated forests accumulate higher carbon stock than if they were converted into short-rotation forest plantations. In the Reduced Emissions from All Land Uses scenario, replacement of upland annual crops with agroforestry and restoration of degraded forests conferred higher carbon stock by 15 (± 4.5) x 106 ton CO2 eq compared to the baseline and increased incomes per capita by USD 28 (± USD 12).
We conclude that it is possible to escalate both income and carbon stock in the study provinces through agricultural and forestry interventions, including tree planting inside and outside forests. The additional income mainly would come from agricultural and production-forest land while agroforestry interventions on upland slopes coupled with enrichment of degraded protection and special-use forests with native forest-tree species accumulated higher carbon stock inside and outside forests. |
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