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Drivers of Forest Change in the Greater Mekong Subregion Regional Report

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Drivers of Forest Change in the Greater Mekong Subregion Regional Report Drivers of Forest Change in the Greater Mekong Subregion Regional Report USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF) Drivers of Deforestation in the Greater Mekong Subregion Regional Report John Costenbader, Theo Varns, Adriana Vidal, Lauren Stanley, Jeremy Broadhead September 2015 i The USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF) Program is a five-year regional project (2011-2016) focused on achieving meaningful and sustainable reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the forest-land use sector across six target countries: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. ii Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 REGIONAL CONTEXT .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE REPORT ........................................................................................................................ 2 2 COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF MEKONG REGION FOREST AND LAND USE SECTOR ................................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 RECENT PATTERNS OF FOREST CHANGE .................................................................................................... 2 2.2 LAND COVER STATUS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES ......................................................................................... 4 3 COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF NEGATIVE DRIVERS OF FOREST CHANGE ............ 5 3.1 DIRECT DRIVERS OF DEFORESTATION AND DEGRADATION IN THE REGION ................................................. 5 3.1.1 Agriculture & Plantation Estates.......................................................................................................... 6 3.1.2 Infrastructure and Roads ...................................................................................................................... 9 3.1.3 Mineral and gas exploitation .............................................................................................................. 10 3.1.4 Dams and Water Infrastructure .......................................................................................................... 10 3.1.5 Logging ............................................................................................................................................... 11 3.1.6 Forest fires .......................................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 INDIRECT DRIVERS ................................................................................................................................... 13 3.2.1 Population and demographics ............................................................................................................ 13 3.2.2 Economics ........................................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.3 Governance ......................................................................................................................................... 15 4 COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF POSITIVE DRIVERS OF FOREST CHANGE ............ 16 4.1 POSITIVE TRENDS IN FOREST COVER IN THE GMS REGION ....................................................................... 16 4.2 FOREST TRANSITIONS .............................................................................................................................. 16 4.3 DIRECT POSITIVE DRIVERS ....................................................................................................................... 18 4.3.1 Demand for timber and wood products .............................................................................................. 18 4.3.2 Participatory forestry and local forest management .......................................................................... 18 4.3.3 Public awareness campaigns .............................................................................................................. 19 4.3.4 Demand for “green” products ............................................................................................................ 19 4.3.5 Market Demand for Verified Legal Timber ........................................................................................ 21 4.4 INDIRECT POSITIVE DRIVERS .................................................................................................................... 22 4.4.1 Cultural and technological developments in favor of forest protection .............................................. 22 4.4.2 Growing opportunities for SFM .......................................................................................................... 22 4.4.3 International and foreign government programs ................................................................................ 23 5 PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES AFFECTING FORESTS ................................................... 24 5.1 FOREST AND LAND MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................... 24 5.1.1 State Forest Management ................................................................................................................... 24 5.1.2 Land Use Planning ............................................................................................................................. 25 5.1.3 Protected Areas .................................................................................................................................. 27 iii 5.1.4 Law Enforcement and Logging Bans .................................................................................................. 28 5.1.5 Participatory Forestry ........................................................................................................................ 29 5.2 INCENTIVES.............................................................................................................................................. 30 5.2.1 Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) ............................................................................................. 30 5.2.2 REDD+ ............................................................................................................................................... 31 5.3 ALLOCATION OF FOREST LAND TO LOCAL LEVELS ................................................................................... 32 5.4 PRIVATE SECTOR ENCOURAGEMENT ........................................................................................................ 33 5.5 FOREST PROJECT FUNDING ...................................................................................................................... 33 5.6 REGIONAL INITIATIVES ............................................................................................................................ 33 5.7 GMS POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................................... 34 6 GREATER MEKONG SUBREGION ACTION PLAN ............................................................ 37 6.1 REGIONAL POLICY ADVISORY GROUP & NATIONAL POLICY ADVISORY GROUPS ................................... 37 6.2 REGIONAL GUIDANCE .............................................................................................................................. 38 6.3 REGIONAL MAPPING ................................................................................................................................ 38 ANNEX I: TABLES OF PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES ADDRESSING DRIVERS .............. 40 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 52 iv 1 Introduction 1.1 Regional Context The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which includes the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, 1 Thailand and Vietnam, supports some 70 million people who depend directly on its ecosystems for 2 2 food, water, and livelihoods. The region is located within the 2.3 million km Indo-Burma biodiversity 3 hotspot. The GMS land use sector is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing a total of 0.108 Giga tons CO2eq in 2010, of which 93% were from forest land. The trend in emissions remained relatively constant between the late 90s and 2012 and in 2010 land use emissions contributed 4 12% of total GHG emissions in the subregion. The GMS has witnessed dramatic changes in its forests, particularly in the last half-century. One of the world’s most forested regions until the 1970s, the GMS has suffered rapid deforestation and forest degradation in recent decades: GMS countries lost a third of their forest cover between 1973 and 2009, and are forecast to lose another third of their remaining forest cover by 2030.5 Furthermore, many remaining forest areas are severely degraded.6 Fast economic growth (with an average GDP growth rate of 8% in the last decade) and conversion for agriculture pose some of the greatest threats to natural forests in the region.7 Foreign and domestic land-related investments in the GMS countries represent a major immediate driver of forest change. Meanwhile, demand from China, Thailand and Vietnam for natural resources, timber, and agricultural products is also driving forest change in the GMS countries.
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