From policy to practice

The basic idea of “payments for environmental services”, or PES, is to create incentives for individuals and communities to protect environmental services by compensating them for any costs incurred in managing and providing those services. In 2004, the government of Vietnam, drawing on the concept of PES, laid the foundations for a nationwide program of Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES), set out in the revised Forest Protection and Development Law. In 2008, Decision No. 380 established conditions to support PFES pilot projects in Lam Dong and Son La Provinces, and in 2010, Decree No. 99 mandated the implementation of PFES nationwide. Vietnam is the first country in Asia to initiate a nationwide PES scheme.