Business consultation on coffee transformation and water use in Vietnam’s Central Highlands

On September 10, 2020, IUCN organized a business consultation in Ho Chi Minh City on opportunities to transform coffee production in the Central Highlands to a more diverse and climate resilient crop mix.  The event, which attracted representatives from 15 coffee roasters, retailers, and buyers, was co-funded by two IUCN initiatives: Vietnam Business for Environment (VB4E) (www.vb4e.com) and Building River Dialogue and Governance (BRIDGE) (https://www.iucn.org/theme/water/our-work/current-projects/bridge).

Coffee is Vietnam’s most valuable agricultural export.  Export volumes peaked in 2018 at 30 million bags worth $3.54 billion and the industry supports the livelihoods of over 2 million people, mainly in the Central Highlands.  However, coffee production there is suffering from wasteful irrigation, seasonally declining water tables, more frequent droughts, and declining productivity, which together threaten supply chains at a time when global coffee consumption is growing at 1-3% a year.  During the 2016 drought, hundreds of reservoirs ran dry and over 165,000 hectares of coffee plantation were affected, of which 40,000 hectares were lost.

At the consultation, Dr. Dave Dhaeze presented the results of a study he prepared for IUCN on the costs and benefits of transforming 200,000 hectares of coffee monoculture in Dak Lak Province into a less water consuming coffee, pepper, durian, and avocado crop mix. LINK This would produce 2.5 times the crop value, maintain existing coffee production, and save about 150 million cubic meters of water a year in reduced irrigation.  The total cost is about $300 million over 30 years (equivalent to $60/farmer/year), a trivial amount relative to the economic and environmental benefits.

Participants raised questions about the feasibility and the scale of the transformation.  Questions covered the ability of the market to absorb a large increase in pepper, durian, and avocado, the need to include additional tree crops, whether this approach provides a better model than certification to deliver genuine improvements in environmental sustainability, the need to pilot this approach at a sufficiently large scale such as a district or sub-river basin, and the need for a more detailed study 3-5 year period, which is a more relevant time-period for farmers.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is that it would take farmers 10 years to breakeven (i.e., NPV > 0).  Covering this income gap would require active government participation.  The next steps, therefore, is a government consultation in Hanoi.

On 17 June 2020, IUCN launched Vietnam Business for Environment (VB4E) Alliance to strengthen the role of businesses in nature stewardship in Vietnam. Ninety participants from government, NGOs and companies attended for the unveiling of the new initiative in Hanoi. The launch also introduced a new conservation designation known as “Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures” (OECMs). OECMs are seen as opportunities to recognize the contribution of businesses and communities to biodiversity conservation through improved management of their own properties.

“This is an exciting opportunity to work with businesses to improve environmental protection. It is the first initiative of its kind that IUCN has developed  in Vietnam, and we are optimistic about the future. Instead of having individual bilateral relationships with businesses, we can now work together as a group of like-minded businesses and government and NGO partners” said Jake Brunner, head of IUCN Indo-Burma.

VB4E will focus on capacity building, policy advocacy, and building a concept bank. VB4E will match business “supply” with the CSO “demand” for joint projects to address environmental challenges. Projects can cover one or more of eight themes: biodiversity conservation, plastic waste management, sustainable tourism development, marine and coastal conservation, forest landscape restoration, water and wetland conservation, renewable energy, climate change.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen The Chinh, Director General of ISPONRE, congratulated IUCN on creating such a positive vision. Alluding to the environmental change seen in his hometown over recent decades, Dr. Chinh described how important the role is for businesses to ensure environmental protection and appreciated TH Group’s pioneer role in this alliance.

As a founding member of VB4E, TH Group emphasised their commitment to environmental protection. Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy, Head of Sustainable Development Coordination of TH Group, spoke of their duty to enforce strong corporate social responsibility around their business practices and gave details of their biodiversity conservation plan in Nghe An Sugar Limited Liability Company, an affiliate of TH Group, in Nghe An Province.

Harry Jonas of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas presented the second element of the agenda on OECMs as a new biodiversity conservation designation.

OECM is a conservation designation for areas that achieve the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. Harry outlined how an OECM must meet key conditions such as being outside of a protected area, such as having sustained governance authority and how it must deliver effective in situ conservation in the long term.

Nguyen Duc Tu, Biodiversity Coordinator of IUCN Viet Nam, discussed OECMs in the Vietnam context: “We have a number of wetland protected areas in forest systems but there is a lot of overlap. OECMs provide us with the opportunity to clearly designate sites of unique identity that need preserving”.

To conclude the event, there was a discussion about how OECMs. Some participants recommended caution when putting OECMs in the legal framework as it is so new, while others argued that OECMs have the potential to stimulate bob-state contributions to biodiversity conservation. Several pointed out the need to ensure quality so that OECMs don’t dilute conservation efforts. IUCN clarified that although the initiative is in its infancy, all steps are being taken to develop the appropriate OECM guidance.

To learn more about Vietnam Business for Environment please visit: https://www.vb4e.com/en/

To learn more about OECMs, please visit https://www.iucn.org/news/viet-nam/202005/oecms-a-new-conservation-opportunity-viet-nam

Floating agriculture is an age-old practice in Bangladesh. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah of IUCN Bangladesh writes on the recent introduction of this famous, traditional farming system to the Mekong Delta as an example of south-south cooperation.

Winds of change in Mekong Delta

An Giang and its neighbouring provinces in Viet Nam practice an agriculture system called ‘3 years 8 crops’ where fields are left fallow every third year, during the time when the third crop would usually be planted, and flood water is allowed into the fields to replenish the nutrients in the soil.

If the flooded areas could bring in acceptable economic benefits through alternative, innovative agricultural practices, floods could be allowed there more frequently, improving soil fertility. In this way, this part of the Mekong Delta, once a natural floodplain, may partially return to its original state.

After four decades of intensive rice cultivation, Viet Nam is now the world’s second largest rice exporter. Its ‘rice-first’ food security policy therefore needs a revisit, creating avenues for alternative cropping and innovative agriculture systems.

To harness these opportunities, the IUCN Viet Nam office has recently started initiatives to identify, test, and promote flood-based agriculture in the Mekong Delta.

As a part of this venture, IUCN teams in Viet Nam and Bangladesh have worked together this year to pilot floating agriculture in the Tri Ton district of An Giang Province.

Traditional agriculture from Bangladesh

Floating agriculture is a traditional practice in south-central Bangladesh. Over the last 20 years, IUCN, NGOs, and the government of Bangladesh have been promoting it in other parts of the country to enhance nutritional security and for alternative livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.

The basic technology is simple: widely available, invasive water hyacinth plants are used to make thick floating platforms and allowed to decompose. Seedlings are raised and crops are cultivated on the rotten surface of the beds during the flood period when dry land is scarce.

Introducing floating agriculture to Viet Nam

In the last week of September, I shared Bangladesh’s experience with floating agriculture from the last couple of decades with a group of agriculturists, farmers, government officials, academics, and researchers from An Giang and adjacent provinces.

That talk was followed by a training session on floating bed preparation and farming techniques. Finally, a practical demonstration on floating bed-making, seed sowing and seedling transferring were done in the shallow water behind a farm in Tri Ton belonging to IUCN’s partner, the An Giang Fruit-Vegetable & Foodstuff Joint Stock Company (ANTESCO).

I had a frank discussion with the group about the fact that, despite recognitions from the IPCC, the UNFCCC, and the FAO, floating agriculture has some inherent limitations. These include the availability of water hyacinth, arrival of floods and stagnation period, vulnerability of beds to natural calamities, and pollution of floodwaters.

Bangladesh also saw a number of challenges restricting floating agriculture’s success in newly introduced areas, such as overlooking research and evaluation while introducing such innovation or not thinking of a business model to sustain this agriculture practice beyond the initial scope of the project.

Adoption in action

Listening to Bangladesh’s experiences, the Viet Nam team explored the potential challenges of and opportunities for floating farming in the Mekong Delta.

In recent years, especially during the flood season, the region has been experiencing a scarcity of labour. High labour costs were therefore identified as a challenge to making floating beds. To overcome this, alternatives to Bangladesh’s ‘thick-water-hyacinth-bed model’ were proposed.

Floating platforms could be built by tying banana stalks together on which a thin layer of rotten water hyacinth would be spread for cultivation. Bamboo platforms could also be used, and reused every year, to carry a slimmer water hyacinth layer, reducing bed-making costs.

Whether floating farming could be a full-time job for the farmers was also discussed. A model was suggested where poorer farmers could become skilled platform makers and sell floating beds to wealthier farmers.

To make this agricultural system profitable, high value crops need to be grown on the platforms. Other potential areas in the Mekong Delta region were also explored where this system could be promoted to communities with limited livelihood options.

Collaboration at two levels has already given floating gardening a strong basis in Viet Nam, which was missing in Bangladesh. First, as I write this article, Natural Science University is testing the concentration of heavy metals in the floating beds and the vegetables grown on them to determine the potential accumulation of toxic elements.

Second, the partnership between IUCN and ANTESCO has made the pilot project – including training, field demonstrations, and taking care of seedlings on floating beds − possible. Bringing in other interested companies would expedite the promotion of flood-based agriculture in the Mekong Region.

Piloting of floating agriculture in Viet Nam, in collaboration with Bangladesh, is an excellent example of how the countries of the global south can help each other by sharing technologies, experiences, and expertise.

The floating agriculture pilot project in the Mekong Delta was supported by IUCN Viet Nam and funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and the Coca Cola Foundation. Andrew Wyatt, Gian Tang Phuong and Tien Trinh of IUCN Viet Nam conceptualised, planned, and organised the pilots with support from Haseeb Md. Irfanullah of IUCN Bangladesh

“Green Eyes” – the inspiration for “Youth for the Environment” project

On the morning of May 27th, For Vietnamese Stature Foundation (VSF) announced the “Youth for the Environment” project which gathered 8 talented young people, who came from different universities in Hanoi, to create a group named “Green Eyes”.

The “Youth for the Environment” project, established by VSF has overcome 82 candidates in the Asia-Pacific region to be in the top 13 initiatives successfully received funding from Asia Pacific Media Grant 2020 (Earth Journalism Network EJN) and BAC A BANK.

The project aims to increase youth participation in addressing environmental issues, as well as to create positive changes in government and business environmental policies for sustainable development. After many rounds of selection, the project selected 8 “Green Eyes” members, who are students from universities in Hanoi (Academy of Journalism and Communication, VNU School of Law, RMIT University etc.).The members will participate in the operation and development of social media channels to spread messages about environmental protection.

The group will also produce and edit media products, articles, images, video clips, graphics to raise public and stakeholder awareness and to promote environmental solution. As planned, the group aims to expand to 200 core members in 2020.

During the workshop, many exciting activities were organized. 8 members of the Green Eyes performed a skit which which was not only humorous but also invoked some sadder realities of the current state of affairs. The story concerned a young man and his dog (Lu) and depicted how their livelihood depends on scavenging at a landfill called Nam Son. They needed to confront a “gang of wicked brothers and sisters”, who spread harmful substances around the landfill to poison trees and crops and to lure people away. The climax of the skit started when the young master was beaten and Lu suddenly spoke in human language. Unfortunately, in the end, Lu was killed at the landfill, which made the young master deeply upset . The acting of these amateur artists was considered by the audience to be young, emotive, and engaging.

Nguyen Hai Phong, a student at RMIT University – Hanoi branch, also a member of the “Green Eyes”, said that many people thought what they did to the environment was not enough to harm it. Some argued that the protection action for the environment is the responsibility of the government. Therefore, the project will be an opportunity to connect young people who admire the responsibility to protect the environment.

“Although it has just come into operation, the project has received attention from many people. We hope there will be more students joining the group” – Phong added.

At the launching ceremony, the project also received lots of advice and contributions from national and international experts such as Ms. Do Van Nguyet – Director of Live & Learn for Environment and Community, Mr. Tran Van Mieu – Vice Chairman of Vietnam Association for Conservation Nature and Environment, journalist Do Doan Hoang, and so forth.
Director of For Vietnamese Stature Foundation – Ms. Tran Thi Nhu Trang said, apart from the content issues, the project will focus on showing the methods of modern and youthful communication. Therefore, the message can be spread widely to touch the young generation

In the framework of the workshop “Youth for the Environment” project, a meaningful activity attracted many delegates and guests to participate. Delegates and guests will together stick love leaves which convey messages about environmental protection. Each leaf is presented as an environmental concern as well as a “green commitment” Green Eyes is the official fanpage of “Youth for environment” project. The project is run by VSF (Website http://vitamvocviet.vn, [email protected]).

Youth for environment: Innovative social media channel on environmental issues

Objectives

The project aims to increase the voice and action of young people on environmental issues, and generate positive changes in governmental and business environmental policies for a more sustainable way of life through two strategic solutions: 1) To support young people develop a social media channel with a variety of innovative tools to communicate environmental issues in an accurate and compelling way; 2) Partnership building and networking between the social media channel of youths and other stakeholders, such as policy-makers, journalists, researchers, activists, and the business sectors.

Background

Vietnam – a developing country in Asia – is currently facing many environmental challenges such as soil pollution, forest resources degradation, biodiversity loss, water pollution, air pollution, and solid waste management. Meanwhile, Vietnam also has a significant shortage in timely, accurate and multidimensional environmental data and information conveyance. As such, there is a disconnection between environmental facts and the distribution of this information to the public resulting in a lack of efficiency in educating communities and relevant organizations how to best preserve their surroundings and keep the population safe. On the ground research, initiatives and actions related to environmental issues may have already been produced and distributed online, however this information requires systematic screening in order to be communicated to communities.

Many Vietnamese youths have not yet participated in the discussion surrounding environmental challenges. Some youth groups have been actively encouraging their communities to join the fight to save the environment, however, they are yet to gather momentum amongst their peers let alone other parties. Through their ability using technology and their young creative minds, a dialogue via a social media channel would be an excellent way to make a connection between young people and communities, policymakers and businesses.  This will also help those young activists who are rurally situated to be part of the environmental sustainability community, without being left out due to their lack of proximity to gatherings. This is especially key, as those in rural areas can face the hardest challenges in terms of environmental degradation, so having their voice heard is of utmost importance.

With this considered, it is clear that there is a great need for a project to support young people to develop a social media channel to report on environmental issues in an accurate and compelling way; and enhance partnerships and networking between young people and other stakeholders

For Vietnamese Stature Foundation (VSF) is in a great position to effectively connect between young environmental activists and stakeholders. The VSF recently created the project named “Strengthening capacity and network for university students”– DynaGen Initiative. Furthermore VSF is a member of the National Coordination Body of Vietnam Business for Environment (VB4E) – a platform to expand business participation in environmental protection and biodiversity conservation in Vietnam.

Target

• Youths, and communities who have been affected or are at risk of being affected by environmental issues;
• Reporters, journalists and mass media agencies;
• Enterprises;
• Policy makers and executives;
• Researchers and social activists

Outputs

Outputs: The social media channel attracts 200 young participants and reaches 3,000 people/ post on average; Stakeholders such as businesses, policy-makers, researchers and activists have open and direct discussions with the “Voice of Youths” team; 10 media agencies become our partners.

Outcomes: Youths become agents of change in raising awareness of communities and stakeholders, as well as in taking actions to solve environmental challenges; Stakeholders have concrete actions and long-term commitments in solving environmental issues.

Partner

• Asia – Pacific Media Grants 2020
• Earth Journalism Network
• International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)
• Vietnam Business for Environment (VB4E)
• Bac A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (BAC A BANK)

Contact information

Ms. Tran Hong Diep – Deputy Director

For Vietnamese Stature Foundation (VSF)

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (+84) 24 3823 8008

Website: http://vitamvocviet.vn/

Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/quyvitamvocviet/