Since 2011, over 2,000 people have participated in training and awareness raising events organized by the Grassroots Capacity Building for REDD+ in Asia Project (hereafter referred to as the Project) in Viet Nam. Many of the participants were from the grassroots level in the four provinces of Bac Kan, Ha Tinh, Lam Dong and Ca Mau. One of the main objectives of these events was to improve understanding of climate change and REDD+ and place participants in a position to take advantage of any potential benefits from REDD+ in the future.
At the same time, the National REDD+ Action Program (NRAP) of Viet Nam is about to move to the pilot implementation phase. For REDD+ to be successfully implemented in Viet Nam in and in selected provinces, it is important that REDD+ implementation responds to local concerns. Failure to do so may lead to unfulfillment of Cancun safeguard requirements on effective participation of local communities. Most importantly, it may threaten the livelihoods of local (forest dependent) communities and create reverse impacts on existing forest resources (i.e. engraving the deforestation and degradation of existing forests).
A series of consultation meetings with grassroots stakeholders have been organized by the Project with the aim to understand their concerns for REDD+ implementation and to identify possible ways to address these concerns. This paper presents key concerns of local stakeholders, collected through participatory processes, about the implementation of REDD+ and suggested ways forward.