Improving the representations on forest plantations considering their ecosystem services. Case study in Viêt Nam

Since 1990’s, Vietnamese government encourages forest plantations (FP), followed by NGOs, which fund such operations. Consequently, FP occupy a growing place in the Vietnamese landscapes, especially since 2000’s. They replace agriculture on sloping lands but also spontaneous sylvosystem. Even if these ones are almost savannahs, this fact fuels the criticism against FP and increases the controversies, which surround them. FP are mainly criticized because they’re single-species and even-aged. Moreover, in Viet Nam, the priority is given to exotic fast-growing species, from Acacia genus. Thus FP are on the opposite side of the biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, don’t they provide ecosystem services (ES)? In other words, can this concept improve the representations of these forests? The study was conducted in Thua Thien-Hue province (Central Viet Nam), in the framework of a PhD. It consisted in crossing different sources: - provincial legislative texts and reports, - field surveys along 20 transects, - interviews of local authorities and populations living along these transects, to identify their expectations and their actions. FP have disservices, which are now well-known: increased vulnerability to pests, risks of erosion in clear-cut areas and inhibition of spontaneous regeneration. But FP also provide ES, first provisioning ones. Formed by fast-growing species, they offer short-term resources and contribute to the poverty alleviation. But these forests also provide other ES and contribute to improve the environment: rapid restoration of forest cover on savannah hillocks, improvement of soil quality and increase of forest areas. This growth is direct but also indirect, by helping to reduce extraction from spontaneous forests. By a systemic approach, ES concept allows to improve the representations of FP. Nevertheless, on cultural ES, the research has to be carried on, especially to know how the inhabitants consider these forests, from esthetic view point. We already know that, unlike spontaneous forests, they’re not regarded as “sacred” but as “economic” forests.