WORKSHOP ON DRAFT TECHNICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE MRV OF LULUCF, AND REVIEW ON FOREST CARBON CREDIT EXCHANGE PROJECTS

On Monday, 27th February 2023, the VN-SIPA in collaboration with the Vietnamese Forestry Administration, cohosted a “Consultation Workshop on Draft Technical Guidelines for the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF), and to examine the review report on the forest carbon credit international exchange projects”.

The objectives of the meeting were to consult with relevant stakeholders on the technical guidelines for the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and MRV for LULUCF; to present the findings of the review of forest carbon credit projects, and the recommendation for a roadmap on joining domestic carbon market and international forest carbon trading system for the LULUCF sector. The workshop was attended by over 60 participants from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (VN-Forest, Department of Science and Technology and Environment); Department of International Cooperation; Department of Planning; Department of Finance; Department of Climate Change – MONRE, MOF; representatives from relevant provinces and research institutes, and international cooperation experts.

Mr. Tran The Lien, Director of Science, Technology and International Co-operation Department – Vietnam Administration of Forestry highlighted, in his opening remark, the support from the IKI project “Support Viet Nam for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (VN-SIPA)” on strengthening forestry policy over last 2 years. The support from VN-SIPA on MRV for LULUCF and review forest carbon projects has laid out the first and important information for VN-Forest to finalize the technical guideline for MRV and Carbon market.

Mr. Daniel Herrmann – Chief Technical Advisor of the VN-SIPA project and Mr. Tran The Lien, Director of Science, Technology and International Co-operation Department – Vietnam Administration of Forestry co-chaired the workshop ©GIZ/Thanh Xuan

During the workshop, the presentation of the technical guidelines for the GHG inventory and MRV for LULUCF sector provided an overview of the legal and institutional requirements for setting up the MRV for LULUCF system at the sector level. Accordingly, the technical guidelines will contribute significantly to the MRV of Viet Nam’s climate change policies. Also, to provide more detailed information about MRV at project level, ICRAF Viet Nam delivered a presentation on the introduction about MRV tool for GHG emission from agro-forestry activities jointly developed by CIFOR-ICRAF.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hung delivered the presentation on the technical guidelines for the GHG inventory and MRV for LULUCF sector ©GIZ/Thanh Xuan

In the second half of workshop, the findings of the forest carbon credit exchange projects were analyzed in depth to reveal the present understanding of forest carbon rights transfers and carbon markets, including aspects of the challenges, driving factors, economic potential and opportunities for Vietnam. The review findings should facilitate a harmonized solution to contributing forest carbon credits to NDC and transferring forest carbon rights at the project and national levels. They also provided recommendations for effective and sustainable forest carbon credit projects in Vietnam in the future.

The workshop closed with a fruitful discussion in which participants offered comments, suggestions and ideas for future improvement of the MRV technical guidelines for LULUCF.

More information on the VN-SIPA project can be found here.