Vietnam in the Canopy Global 1000

Ranked of 1,000 by conservation value. Both rankings are shown: plant data is being added, and neither is the final word. Lower is higher priority.

Who manages protected areas

From Canopy’s country evidence record for Vietnam, compiled 2026-10-05 from the sources named under each item. A field marked not reported was not verified in those sources, which is not evidence that it does not exist.

Managing agency: Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (Department of Forestry and Forest Protection; Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Agency), with most special-use forests run by boards under provincial People's Committees. Decree 35/2025/ND-CP (in force 2025-03-01) gives the merged ministry state management of forestry and of nature and biodiversity conservation (Art. 2) and lists the two units (Art. 3, cl. 12 and 22). The Law on Forestry requires a management board for each national park, nature reserve, species-habitat reserve or landscape protection zone (Art. 26). After the 1 July 2025 province mergers (Resolution 202/2025/QH15) provincially managed parks moved to the merged provinces, e.g. Phong Nha-Ke Bang from Quang Binh to Quang Tri (Decision 423/QD-UBND, 2025-07-01); in July 2026 the ministry proposed keeping four inter-provincial parks (Cuc Phuong, Tam Dao, Bach Ma, Yok Don) under central management, with Cat Tien approved for transfer to Dong Nai.

System: Special-use forest system (rung dac dung) and conservation zones.

Sources: Allen & Gledhill: Significant restructuring of Vietnam government underway, 2025-07-08; LuatVietnam (English translation): Decree 35/2025/ND-CP on the functions, tasks, powers and organisational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, 2025-02-25; LuatVietnam (English translation): Law on Forestry, Law No. 16/2017/QH14, 2017-11-15; Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board: Releasing wild animals back into their natural environment at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, 2025-07-28; Vietnam Law and Legal Forum: Parliament passes historic resolution to cut provinces and centrally run cities from 63 to 34, 2025-06-12; VietNamNet: Four key national parks may remain under central management, 2026-07-03.

Legal framework

Law on Forestry (No. 16/2017/QH14), 2017-11-15.

Administration: Classifies forests as special-use, protection and production; special-use forests comprise national parks, nature reserves, species-habitat reserves, landscape protection zones and research, botanical and seed forests (Art. 5). The Prime Minister decides those of national importance and provincial chairs those in their localities (Art. 25); each park or reserve has a management board (Art. 26). In force 2019-01-01. Finance: Payment for forest environmental services: users pay providers, directly or indirectly, as part of product prices (Arts. 61 to 63); forest protection and development funds receive and disburse such money (Art. 21 refers to the provincial fund). Limits on application: Article-level use restrictions inside special-use forests were not read; the summary relied on a law-database page that truncates part of the text.

Source: LuatVietnam (English translation): Law on Forestry, Law No. 16/2017/QH14, 2017-11-15.

Law on Biodiversity (No. 20/2008/QH12), amended by Law No. 35/2018/QH14, 2008-11-13.

Administration: Four conservation zone types: national parks, nature reserves, species/habitat conservation zones and landscape conservation zones, at national or provincial level (Art. 16). The Prime Minister establishes national-level zones (Art. 23) and provincial People's Committees provincial-level zones (Art. 24); ministries and provinces manage them as assigned by the Government (Art. 27). In force 2009-07-01. Finance: not reported. Limits on application: Financing and benefit-sharing articles were truncated in the source page and not read.

Statute summary paraphrased from the cited text; a missing finance entry means no finance provision was verified, not that none exists. Sources: LuatVietnam (English translation): Law on Biodiversity, No. 20/2008/QH12, 2008-11-28; UNEP LEAP and LuatVietnam (search results): Law on Biodiversity: amendment and entry into force.

Decree 156/2018/ND-CP detailing the Law on Forestry, 2018-11-16.

Administration: Sets procedures for establishing special-use forests (Arts. 9 and 10) and for management boards; the Minister establishes boards under the ministry and provincial chairs those under local management (search snippet for the board provisions). Amended by Decree 27/2024/ND-CP (2024-03-06). Finance: PFES rates: VND 36 per kWh of commercial hydropower, VND 52 per m3 of commercial clean water, VND 50 per m3 for industrial water users, and at least 1 percent of turnover for eco-tourism and aquaculture users. Management boards may earn from eco-tourism leasing and forest environment leasing (Arts. 14, 21, 23). Limits on application: Use rules beyond the leasing provisions were not read; the database page is truncated in Chapter III.

Source: LuatVietnam (English translation): Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Forestry, 2018-11-16.

Decree 35/2025/ND-CP on the functions, tasks, powers and organisation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, 2025-02-25.

Administration: Creates the merged ministry from 2025-03-01 with state management of forestry and of nature and biodiversity conservation (Art. 2); the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection (Art. 3, cl. 12) and the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Agency (Art. 3, cl. 22) assist the Minister. Finance: not reported. Limits on application: Organisational decree; no protected-area use rules.

Statute summary paraphrased from the cited text; a missing finance entry means no finance provision was verified, not that none exists. Sources: LuatVietnam (English translation): Decree 35/2025/ND-CP on the functions, tasks, powers and organisational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, 2025-02-25; Allen & Gledhill: Significant restructuring of Vietnam government underway, 2025-07-08.

Resolution 202/2025/QH15 on reorganising provincial-level administrative units, 2025-06-12.

Administration: Cuts provincial units from 63 to 34 (28 provinces and 6 centrally run cities), with merged local governments operating from 2025-07-01; provincially managed special-use forest boards passed to the merged provinces (Phong Nha-Ke Bang example). Finance: not reported. Limits on application: Administrative reorganisation; no protected-area use rules.

Statute summary paraphrased from the cited text; a missing finance entry means no finance provision was verified, not that none exists. Sources: Vietnam Law and Legal Forum: Parliament passes historic resolution to cut provinces and centrally run cities from 63 to 34, 2025-06-12; Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board: Releasing wild animals back into their natural environment at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, 2025-07-28.

Protected-area coverage

Terrestrial: 7.6% of national land area, 313,429 km²; as of 2025.

World Bank WDI indicator ER.LND.PTLD.ZS for 2025 (7.6 in every year 2016 to 2025), updated 2026-07-13. Protected area km2 not stated by the source. It differs in scope from the special-use forest inventory. Land area is the 2023 WDI value. Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators API: Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area), Viet Nam, ER.LND.PTLD.ZS, 2026-07-13.

Marine: 0.5% of territorial waters, its area not stated by the source; as of 2025.

World Bank WDI ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS, percent of territorial waters (not EEZ), updated 2026-07-13; 0.5 in 2024 and 2025, 0.6 in 2016 to 2023. Denominator area not given. Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators API: Marine protected areas (% of territorial waters), Viet Nam, ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS, 2026-07-13.

National inventory, as of 2025-12: 176 protected areas, 2,200,000 ha.

Special-use forests as reported by Viet Nam News on 2025-12-09 from the forestry department: 176 sites, 2.2 million ha (rounded), with 35 national parks, 56 nature reserves, 18 species and habitat areas and 63 landscape sites (these four sum to 172). Terrestrial and marine split not found; marine protected areas under the fisheries law are not included.

Sources: Vietnam Agriculture and Environment newspaper (search result): Vietnam has added 7 new national parks, 2024-10-10; VietNamNet: Four key national parks may remain under central management, 2026-07-03; Viet Nam News: Viet Nam to speed up shift to modern, sustainable forest management, 2025-12-09.

Funding mechanisms

Selected programmes, each with the basis its source states. Amounts are programme or fund totals, not annual protected-area receipts, and are not added together or converted between currencies.

Payment for Forest Environmental Services, collected through the Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund (VNFF) and provincial funds, 2024.

Amount: not stated (Over VND 3.76 trillion in national PFES revenue in 2024 (ministry article, 2025-06-04); VND 3.3 trillion collection target for 2025. All forest owners and areas, not special-use forests only; no FX conversion made.). Administrator: VNFF, a state financial fund outside the state budget under the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection (charter, Decision 3215/QD-BNNMT, 2025-08-15). Scope: Hydropower, water, industrial, tourism and aquaculture users pay forest owners and managers, including special-use forest boards.

Sources: LuatVietnam (English translation): Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Forestry, 2018-11-16; Ministry of Agriculture and Environment: Vietnam promotes international cooperation to unlock forest economy potential, 2025-06-04; Open Development Vietnam (search result): Viet Nam aims to collect USD 131.5 million for forest environmental services; LuatVietnam (English summary): Decision No. 3215/QD-BNNMT on the Charter of the Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund, 2025-08-15.

FCPF Emission Reductions Payment Agreement, North Central Coast (Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue), 2020-10-22.

Amount: USD 51,500,000 (Up to USD 51.5 million for 10.3 million tCO2 at USD 5 per tonne; USD 41.2 million paid in August 2023 and disbursed via VNFF to the six provinces). Administrator: World Bank FCPF (buyer); then MARD, now Ministry of Agriculture and Environment; VNFF disburses. Scope: Jurisdictional REDD+ across 5.1 million ha (3.1 million ha forested), all forest owners.

Sources: Government of Viet Nam online newspaper: Viet Nam earns USD 51.5mn from first forest carbon credit sale, 2024-01-04; World Bank: Vietnam signs landmark deal with World Bank to cut carbon emissions and reduce deforestation, 2020-10-22.

LEAF Coalition / Emergent letter of intent for jurisdictional REDD+ credits, Central Highlands and South Central Coast, 2021.

Amount: not stated (5.15 million tCO2 over 2022 to 2026 at a floor of USD 10 per tonne (about USD 51.5 million); ERPA not signed as of 2026-08-05, with signing targeted for COP31 in November 2026). Administrator: Emergent (LEAF trustee) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Scope: 4.26 million ha of forest (3.24 million ha natural, 1.02 million ha planted).

Sources: VnEconomy (Vietnamese): Viet Nam enters a week of negotiating the emission reductions purchase agreement with the LEAF Coalition, 2026-08-05; Viet Nam News: Viet Nam commits to reduce emissions by 2030, 2023-09-28.

What this record does not establish

Comparable C-RISK/readiness and delivery scores. No country calibration or model assessment authorized for Southeast Asia.

Current annual national PA financing need, agency budget and gap. No validated cost rate, executed agency budget or complete current funding inventory was verified; programme totals cannot fill these fields.

Complete park, carbon and legal-event inventories. Selected national documents do not establish complete inventories, status-change (PADDD) histories or park observations.

Research limit. Special-use forest totals come from press reports of ministry statements, not an official gazetted list; the terrestrial/marine split, marine protected areas under the fisheries law and the full Law on Forestry and Decree 156/2018 texts (including later amendments) were not read in full.

Research limit. No Viet Nam debt-for-nature or debt-for-climate swap was found in web searches; this is a search result, not proof that none exists. PFES revenue reaching special-use forest boards specifically was not established.

Not here yet

Canopy’s country readiness score (C-RISK) and its PACE management scores cover Africa today. They have not been published for Vietnam.

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