Institutional capacity on forest tenure in Viet Nam: Status, gaps and way forward

Institutional capacity of government organizations, programmes/ projects, and civil society to support forest tenure reform exists but is insufficient. Major capacity gaps are found in relation to conflict and grievance management, responding to climate change and emergencies, and governance of private sector. Programs have relatively better capacity than government organizations and civil society organizations as they are able to provide direct support at local levels to improve the livelihoods and income of forest dependent communities. There are opportunities for government to promote more dialogue across sectors, scale and actors, which should include discussions on alternative models of forest tenure arrangements such as community land title, setting up of cooperatives, and the reclassification of some protection forest into production forest.