The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam came into force on June 1, 2019, which is an important milestone in the implementation of sustainable forest management and sustainable development. To implement the commitments of the VPA / FLEGT, the Vietnamese government has issued a series of Decrees and Circulars guiding the implementation of the Law on Forestry 2017. Notably, on September 1, 2020, the Government of Vietnam approved Decree No. 102/2020/ND-CP regulating the system of ensuring legal timber in Vietnam. This Decree has an important meaning in the state management mechanism of timber origin control in domestic and international supply chains.
In addition to efforts to enforce government regulations to prevent illegal timber from circulating in the supply chain, domestic consumers also play an important role, because they have a demand for legally sourced timber, the timber trader will have to ensure the legality of the product.
To enhance the understanding of Vietnamese consumers’ knowledge and attitudes regarding legal timber and timber products, the Center for Education and Development (CED) conducted a survey of consumers using and buying timber products. This study is one of the activities of the project “Ensuring the legality of timber in the domestic market and promoting the legal and sustainable use of timber in Viet Nam” sponsored by the FAO-EU FLEGT program, implemented by CED in 2020 and 2021.
The content of the study included 3 main parts:
- Knowledge and perceptions of consumers about legal timber (legislation; market requirements; environmental impacts; climate change); The use of legal timber and timber products being related to the protection of the environment, resources, long-term environmental impacts, climate change, and product labels.
- Consumers’ attitudes toward the environment, the proportion of people wanting to buy legal timber origin from reputable companies or individuals; the proportion that the purchase of legally sourced timber is important; Requirements for the origin of raw materials (certificates, origin); The rate required on the manufacturing company; the required rate of place/country of production; awareness of law enforcement, implementation of regulations on legal timber and timber products origin.
- Pratices of domestic trading and using of timber in reality: buying patterns, buying reference channels, factors influencing consumers’ decisions when purchasing timber/timber products, options disposing of timber products after disposal.
For any further information and main findings of the report, please download: KAP_Report_FAO_FLEGT_2020.en