Policy Responses to Direct and Underlying Drivers of Deforestation: Examining Rubber and Coffee in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

Viet Nam's Central Highlands are a priority region for its National REDD+ Action Plan (NRAP) to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation but are under strong pressures from rubber and coffee production and expansion into forests, and future climate stress. This research explores to what extent REDD+ and sectoral policy interventions have addressed both the direct and underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in this region, with particular focus on the actors and scales that policy interventions must reach to affect driver pressure. National-level policy responses to driver pressures are assessed, with the results indicating poor correlations between the direct drivers and related underlying drivers. The research proposes a framework to guide the policy design and evaluation of response options to enable identification of the causal connections between direct and underlying drivers, and consider future pressures, which actors to target (or not miss) and which scales are best suited for interventions (from international to national, sub-national and local). This is highly relevant for countries pursuing forest and land use sector solutions through Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement and REDD+.

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