Designing Payments for Mangrove Ecosystem Services in Vietnam and Bangladesh

Challenge

Mangrove loss continues, incentives for protection are weak, and payment for forest ecosystem services (PFES) design for mangroves remains unclear.

Solution

Assess how PFES could work for mangroves, test policy and practice options, and publish evidence to guide implementation.

Overview

Mangrove forests protect coasts, store carbon, and support local livelihoods. Yet deforestation and degradation persist where incentives for protection are weak. With support from the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Richard J. Harper (Murdoch University, Australia) led this project. The project team examined how payment for forest ecosystem services (PFES) – paying people or communities to protect and manage forests for benefits– could feasibly apply to mangroves, with Vietnam and Bangladesh as case studies and expert input from Australia and China.

The work focused on carbon-oriented PFES (C‑PFES) and its potential co‑benefits. The project team reviewed Vietnam’s restoration record, identified implementation barriers, notably weak monitoring, species–site mismatches, and limited incentives for long-term local stewardship, and explored pathways to make PFES practical for mangroves. Because of COVID‑19 travel restrictions, planned on‑ground activities were curtailed and most empirical work concentrated on Vietnam; Bangladesh was covered through a desk‑based review.

A recurring lesson was that payments require clear metrics for carbon and other services, transparent rules, and institutions that can contract credibly with local landholders. The studies also considered models where multiple buyers, including private firms, government, and international investors, support payments to diversify revenue and reduce risk.

There were three core questions to address:

• How successful mangrove restoration has been in Vietnam
• How livelihoods such as mangrove–shrimp systems can align economic and environmental goals
• Whether C-PFES could be implemented in practice

Engagement and capacity building accompanied the analysis. The project held a stakeholder workshop in Ca Mau Province, an international workshop at Vietnam Forest University, and an online briefing for finance professionals interested in carbon investment.

Policy design and feasibility

Evidence from Vietnam highlighted features that improve success, namely matching species to site hydrology, credible survival monitoring, and payment rules that reflect local opportunity costs. The analysis underscored the value of coupling C‑PFES with livelihood models that already align incentives.

One highlighted example was mangrove–shrimp farming, which can provide environmental, economic, and social benefits when designed and monitored well. For Bangladesh, the work pointed to the importance of governance arrangements that enable communities to participate in PFES while maintaining conservation outcomes. The project also reviewed claims on blue‑carbon sequestration to place carbon expectations in a realistic range and emphasized the role of co‑benefits in investment cases.

Knowledge products

Because mangrove PFES is an emerging field, the project emphasized peer‑reviewed outputs to guide governments and partners. Publications covered feasibility analysis for Vietnamese mangroves, local understanding of mangrove carbon mitigation in Ca Mau Province, Vietnam, and livelihood‑linked approaches such as mangrove–shrimp farming.

A review of Vietnam’s restoration experience synthesized lessons for PFES design, including the need to diagnose drivers of loss, match species to site hydrology, and adopt co‑management with clear community incentives.

Outcomes and results

• 3 peer‑reviewed publications (see Project Permalink) produced.
• Vietnam’s restoration record covered about 200,000 ha of plantings. Long-term survival was often 30–50%. The review identified barriers: weak hydrological assessment, species–site mismatch, and limited incentives for local stewardship.
• Stakeholder evidence gathered in Ca Mau Province: 73 stakeholders (households, companies, authorities, and forest managers) were interviewed on awareness of climate change, the role of mangroves, and C-PFES feasibility; potential buyer willingness to pay ranged from 29–56% depending on sector, indicating a need for targeted training on carbon and environmental markets.
• Livelihood findings from Ca Mau indicated that integrating mangroves with shrimp farming delivered the highest rate of return among systems assessed and can support environmental and social objectives; farmers’ preferred tree cover (~30%) was lower than empirical estimates that point to better performance at higher coverage (~60%).
• Workshops and outreach completed: multi‑stakeholder workshop in Ca Mau Province, international workshop at Vietnam Forest University, online briefing for 35 finance professionals on carbon‑investment opportunities in mangrove restoration.
• Review of blue‑carbon claims clarified that above‑ground sequestration rates are similar to tropical forests and that co‑benefits and robust long‑term monitoring are essential to credible C-PFES design.
• Bangladesh desk review summarized enabling conditions and gaps for C-PFES, highlighting the need for clear tenure, coordination across agencies, and practical monitoring arrangements that support community participation while maintaining conservation outcomes.

Project details

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) under its Collaborative Regional Research Programme (CRRP). Acknowledgments also go to Murdoch University (Australia), Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (Vietnam), University of Chittagong (Bangladesh), and Chinese Academy of Forestry (China).

Related information

• Project Permalink
• Project Final Report
• Hai, N. T., Dell, B., Phuong, V. T., & Harper, R. J. (2020). Towards a more robust approach for the restoration of mangroves in Vietnam. Annals of Forest Science, 77(1). doi:10.1007/s13595-020-0921-0
• Nguyen, H., Chu, L., Harper, R. J., Dell, B., & Hoang, H. (2022). Mangrove-shrimp farming: A triple-win approach for communities in the Mekong River Delta. Ocean & Coastal Management, 221, 106082. doi: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106082
• Nguyen, T.H., Dell, B., & Harper, R.J. (2022). Assessment of the feasibility of applying payment for forest ecosystem services in Vietnamese mangrove forests. APN Science Bulletin, 12(1). doi:10.30852/sb.2022.2016
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