Costs Comparison between FSC and Non FSC Acacia Plantations in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Due to market demand, the FSC certification has been introduced and developed in Vietnam. Despite of many challenges, FSC certificate has been proved to bring economic benefits to the owners. The comparison to non-certified Acacia plantation shows that the management of certified forests does not increase the cost at high level, while the income of selling FSC wood logs is very promising. However, since currently the certification is subsidized and stumpage price is kept at higher than normal to foster the participation of local people the current price premium should be treated with caution. As for sustainable development, local people need to manage the certification by themselves which then, required them to have a good financial plan to cover the necessary fee. Further calculation need to be carried out in order to know how much membership fee can be collected in order to maintain the certification while do not affect to local people’ revenue.