This report, Forestry and poverty data in Viet Nam: status, gaps, and potential uses, presents a synthesis of the data compilation and a discussion of the data based on the work of the working group.

It focuses on understanding the current situation of data availability with regard to forest resources, forest tenure, markets for forest products, and poverty, with a view to identifying policy barriers, constraints, and issues for further work under the initiative.

Well-grounded knowledge of recent trends in forest land and resource use is an essential precondition for making well-targeted and effective policies and regulations. Moreover, predictive models—which are crucial in anticipating future forestry scenarios and in preparing necessary policy measures—are greatly enriched when they are based on a range of data points that encompass the past and present.

This particular study was conducted to acquire a better understanding of the availability, quality, and potential uses of forestry data from 1990 to 2005 in the following focus areas:

• Forest resources (e.g. forest area by forest type)
• Forest tenure (e.g. types of rights and access, types of recipients in the forest land allocation process)
• Forest products and marketing (information on the harvesting, value-added processing, and trading of forest products and processing facilities)
• Forest forecasts (e.g. prediction on the future uses and supplies of forest products)
• Poverty, focusing on the poverty rate

It is crucial to understand these topics in order to improve policy formulation processes in Viet Nam.

Read Forestry and poverty data in Viet Nam: status, gaps, and potential uses.