Getting ready for the forest carbon market: [2] Dak Lak builds data foundation

A massive carbon reservoir and the push to standardize data

Dak Lak holds substantial advantages for developing forest carbon absorption and storage services. The province has 776,509 hectares of forested land, 530,868 hectares of natural forest and 245,641 hectares of planted forest, reaching a forest coverage rate of 41.06 percent.

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The diversity of forest types, together with large special-use forest systems such as Yok Don National Park, Chu Yang Sin National Park, Ea So National Park, and the Nam Kar Nature Reserve, forms a vast, stable carbon sink. Notably, nearly 300,000 hectares of forestry land not yet under forest cover represent significant room for new afforestation projects capable of generating carbon credits. The province's forestry restructuring strategy also identifies a shift toward large-timber plantations and agroforestry as the optimal solution for boosting both carbon stock and economic value on the same land area.

Through its participation in the Emission Reductions Program for the Central Highlands and South Central Coast (the LEAF Coalition initiative), Dak Lak has contributed more than 2 million tons of CO2 in emissions reductions across 537,319 hectares of natural forest. For the 2021–2025 period, coordinated financing is projected to bring the province between $9.59 million and $14.39 million (roughly 251.95 to 377.92 billion dong). In addition, the province has 212,303 hectares of planted forest and 310,386 hectares of forestry land not yet under forest cover, offering substantial room to proactively generate new carbon credits beyond natural forest alone.

To prepare the data foundation needed for project appraisal, Dak Lak is carrying out a coordinated set of key tasks. The province is conducting a province-wide forest survey and inventory to comprehensively determine forest area, timber volume, carbon stock, and forestry land not yet under forest cover, linked to each managing entity. This work helps track changes in forest resources across administrative levels and standardizes the database for management and monitoring purposes. It also serves as the basis for reviewing overlapping or disputed forest areas, or areas with fragmented distribution — helping create land funds for resettling and stabilizing ethnic minority communities and poor households.

Alongside the inventory, a forest boundary delineation project is reviewing and systematizing legal records on land boundaries and forest ownership to definitively resolve overlapping boundaries. This is a prerequisite, since a carbon project can only be approved when ownership of the green asset is clear and free of disputes. The province is also stepping up the application of advanced technology, establishing a WEBGIS remote-sensing database system with automated data analysis — the technical foundation needed to demonstrate the "emissions baseline" and forest continuity to international verification bodies.

Pham Tan Viet, Director of the Dak Lak Forest Protection, Development and Environment Fund, said Decree No. 180/2026/ND-CP (effective from July 15, 2026) is Vietnam's first official legal framework providing detailed regulations on forest carbon absorption and storage projects and services. The province had already begun participating in international mechanisms such as the LEAF Coalition, holding provincial- and commune-level consultation workshops to raise awareness, prepare technical data, and coordinate with central ministries and agencies to move toward voluntary carbon credit trading. This decree marks a fundamental shift in forestry economic thinking — forest keepers are moving from a mindset of logging and extraction to one of nurturing forests for carbon storage. Natural forests, degraded forests, or protection forests that once held no commercial timber value are now becoming highly profitable assets thanks to their stable carbon stock.

Untangling technical bottlenecks to unlock green asset value

Alongside these advantages, Viet said, developing a forest carbon credit trading scheme in Dak Lak faces significant obstacles. Vietnam remains only at the voluntary market stage, with no compulsory market yet in place, meaning pricing and trading depend entirely on bilateral negotiation. Developing carbon technical measures requires detailed data on biomass and carbon density for each forest type over multiple years, yet the national database of emission factors specific to Central Highlands forests remains incomplete. Access to real-time, high-resolution satellite imagery is prohibitively expensive, while the current monitoring system relies mainly on free imagery with limited reliability at the commune level, making it difficult for forest owners to accurately determine the carbon volume they can offer for sale.

At the same time, establishing a Measurement-Reporting-Verification (MRV) system or Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) process to international standards is highly complex. Forest owners in Dak Lak, protection and special-use forest management boards and forestry companies, face a severe shortage of remote-sensing and carbon-economics experts. The cost of hiring international consultants to prepare documentation and conduct independent measurement is prohibitively high for units already facing financial constraints.

To bring the forest carbon market to fruition, Dak Lak is focusing on digitizing and integrating forestry maps into land-use planning, strictly protecting natural forest area, and safeguarding water security and biodiversity. The province is accelerating the shift toward intensive large-timber cultivation with sustainability certification (FSC/VFCS), promoting high-tech forestry value-chain linkages, and developing economic activity under the forest canopy. At the same time, the province is completing investment in its WEBGIS remote-sensing system, working with international consultants to establish an accurate Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL), and guiding forest owners in preparing documentation to be ready to attract investment capital.

Once the market is operational, revenue from carbon credits will provide forest owners with additional financial resources to strengthen patrols and monitoring, ease pressure from deforestation and forest-land encroachment, and purchase fire prevention and firefighting equipment. This market will drive a shift from short-cycle small-timber production toward intensive, long-cycle large-timber cultivation, promote sustainability certification and agroforestry models, and help increase both carbon stock and economic value per unit of land area. Participating in the market will require forest owners to strengthen their digital management capacity and conduct forest inventories to transparent standards. Notably, given the relatively large forest area managed by communities, household groups, and individual families, the carbon credit market stands to create jobs and directly raise incomes for local residents, making a meaningful contribution to improving livelihoods alongside the sustainable protection of forest resources.