Forest Transition in Vietnam and Bhutan: Causes and Environmental Impacts

Abstract

14.1 Introduction Prospects for a forest transition in Tropical Asia would have wide implications for global environmental change. Data from the latest Forest Resources Assessment (FAO 2006) showed a net increase in forest cover between 1990 and 2005 in four Asian countries: Bhutan, India, China, and Vietnam (Kauppi et al. 2006; Mather 2007, Chapters 7 and 15). Vietnam had been severely deforested during the previous 316 P. Meyfroidt and E.F. Lambin decades (FAO 1993). Since the mid-1990s, however, the deforestation trend has been largely reversed and forest cover has increased notably, although not every-where in the country. This reforestation was accompanied by political and economic changes in favour of decentralisation and liberalisation (i.e., the Doi Moi reforms initiated in the 1980s, as a response to the economic stagnation of the country). These changes induced rapid economic growth and the development of the industrial and service sectors, and also strongly affected the agricultural and forestry sectors (Kerkvliet and Porter 1995; Pingali et al. 1997). Forestry policies and reforestation programs were also the government's response to the increasing scarcity of forests. Farmers also responded to land degradation and scarcity by changing their agricultural practices. In this chapter we describe the forest transition that took place in Vietnam. We then analyse it by reference to the main pathways of reforestation proposed in the emerging theory of forest transition (Rudel et al. 2005, Chapter 3). We also evaluate the impacts of this forest transition on two of the main environmental attributes of forests: biomass carbon stock, and changes in habitat quality and fragmentation. Finally, we present more briefly what is known on the forest transi-tion in Bhutan.