The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification has typically focused on the certification of timber products sourced from sustainably managed forests as determined by a set of principles and criteria. Under the Forest Certification for Ecosystem Services (ForCES) project, the idea of expanding FSC to include additional ecosystem services (such as carbon, water, biodiversity and others) will be tested.

Over the project duration of four years, the application of FSC certification will be tested on the ground for the additional services mentioned above and other allied ones such as recreation. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach and system, as well as to provide the so needed ‘evidence-base’, it will need to be tested and its impacts measured in different socio-political as well as environmental conditions. For this reason, the project will be implemented in four countries, Chile, Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam, through local and international NGOs and government agencies. Essential to this is the development of suitable measurable compliance indicators which will be incorporated in FSC national standards in the pilot countries and into international standards.

As part of the project activities under ForCES SNV is looking to hire a consultant or consultant team to provide a comprehensive review of the current FSC standard and experiences with FSC in Vietnam. The review will also include an analysis of existing policies and standards for the provision of other ecosystem services (ES) in Vietnam, which will help to inform a synthesis of the opportunities and challenges for expanding the FSC standard to include additional ES in Vietnam.

I. Objective

The main objective of the assignment is to conduct a review of national initiatives related to ES (laws, standards, etc.) and advice on how the FSC system could be shaped to complement or differentiate with the existing initiatives.

One objective of this assignment is to conduct a review of the existing FSC national standards and initiatives for Vietnam. This includes a review that should look at the current progress of Vietnam towards developing a new national strategy for FSC, and identify the opportunities and challenges of expanding FSC based on previous experience of FSC certification in Vietnam.

Secondly, the assignment should conduct a review of existing policies and initiatives in Vietnam supporting the provision of ES. The review should focus on outlining key policy frameworks or standards supporting the provision of different ES, challenges and opportunities in implementing these policies and standards, and opportunities for the integration of existing standards into an expanded FSC system. This review should be conducted based on initiatives for four key ES most relevant to the sites in Vietnam:



* Watershed services (i.e. PES Decree 99);
* Carbon (REDD+ activities in Vietnam and various international initiatives);
* Biodiversity;
* Landscape beauty (i.e. demonstrated through the GIZ project activities)

Based on the reviews, a final analysis should be undertaken of the opportunities and challenges that will face the implementation of the concept to expand the FSC certification standard to include other ES in Vietnam.