Forest governance in Vietnam: A literature review

This report provides a literature review of forest governance in Vietnam to determine strengths and weaknesses of the sector, namely: the process of decision-making in forest governance, ownership and access to forest resources, community forestry, corruption, and gender issues in forest governance. Over eighty documents in English and Vietnamese were consulted from academic, government, and NGO sources. Due to limited time and resources, documents in other languages were not considered. The report employs a forest governance assessment framework as a basis for systematizing materials and research results. Accordingly, the governance of forests is reviewed through three phases/components, including policy and institutions, planning and decision-making process, and enforcement. With each stage, six principles of good governance are applied for the analysis of the forest governance in Vietnam.