G2.1.3. National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS)

Viet Nam has systems for monitoring land use, land and forest cover change. The National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS), which comprises several interconnected systems, has been designed to monitor REDD+ implementation, tracking changes in forest cover and quality, and therefore enabling actions to reduce or address risks of reversals and displacement. The Forest Management Information System (FORMIS) is the Government’s information system for the forestry sector, which constitutes the NFMS in Viet Nam.

The NFMS comprises the following elements: collecting forest changes, identifying time of changes and change causes, updating changes, approving and publishing changes. It monitors the changes of forest areas according to forest status, forest owners, forest use purposes, and causes. The results will support forest protection departments at the central and provincial levels to plan and take actions to address adverse causes leading to forest changes.[1] The NFMS uses both remote sensing and ground truthing through field inventories and drone verification.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) leads the coordination of forest surveys and establishment of the NFMS. Provincial Departments of Agriculture and Environment (DAEs) and Forest Protection Sub-Departments report on forest status as part of their Provincial NFMS. The provincial FRMS is regularly updated by the Sub-department of Forest Protection, Forest Protection Station and forest owners; the forest data situation is also conditionally accessed for other forestry departments and users.[2] VNFOREST early warning systems use ground and satellite data.[3] For specific risks like fire, community fire patrols are used, and rapid response teams are trained in fire suppression. Controlled burning and fuel load management is conducted in high-risk area.

Viet Nam’s NFMS consists of:

• The National Forest Inventory, Monitoring and Assessment Program (NFIMAP): Based on a series of Prime Minister’s Decisions, the NFIMAP has been implemented by the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute (FIPI) since 1991, in 5 year-cycles, up to 2010. A National Forest Inventory and Statistics (NFIS) Project was implemented during the 2011-2016 cycle. The Program uses remote sensing in combination with ground surveys to monitor forest resources changes. Data from a systematic sample plot system was also collected in each cycle.
• NFIS Projects: Several NFIS Projects have been carried out, including during the period of 2011 to 2016. In the latest NFIS Project, the forest cover maps were generated in two stages: (i) “Forest survey stage” - interpretation of remote sensing imagery in combination with ground surveys; (ii) “Forest statistics stage” - the forest inventory maps are used as inputs to overlay with the cadastral-based forest owner boundary maps to generate “forest statistics maps”. The forest statistics maps are printed out for each forest owner for verification and revised as necessary, i.e. using a participatory method. During the forest inventory stage, a system of sample plots is inventoried to estimate the mean volume stocks for each forest type. This sample plot data can also be used to estimate the mean carbon stocks in the above-ground pool for each forest type.

 

[1] Circular No. 33/2018/TT-BNN on forest survey, inventory and forest transition monitoring

[2] LEAF Consultations report: https://vnff.vn/en-us/leaf-program/soi-and-others

[3] https://v2.pcccr.vn/