Cost implications for pro-poor REDD+ in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam: Opportunity costs and benefit distribution systems

This paper contributes to the existing Netherlands Development Organisation efforts to promote pro-poor REDD+ and integrate these approaches into national and sub-national REDD+ decision making. Firstly it aims to evaluate the economic viability of REDD+ in two forested districts of Vietnam in Lam Dong province (Bao Lam and Cat Tien), with an emphasis on investigating how opportunity costs can help to identify the land-use options most relevant to poor actors there. Benefits and challenges associated with the use of opportunity cost estimation are also explored. There is a quantitative evaluation of 30-year net present values of future profits from alternative land uses using the World Agroforestry Center’s REDD Abacus model, along with field based cost data and land-use change estimates with associated changes in carbon stocks from 2000–2010. This is followed by a qualitative discussion of the implications for pro-poor REDD+.