38 A locally developed due-diligence system in Viet Nam

BOX 38 A LOCALLY DEVELOPED DUE-DILIGENCE SYSTEM IN VIET NAM

Assessing timber legality is necessary for ensuring that only legal or low-risk timber enters responsible supply chains and markets. In Viet Nam, the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA) has developed a technology platform to support transparency and due diligence for each seller–buyer transaction involving members of HAWA’s due-diligence system. For domestic timber sources, real-time and georeferenced evidence can be uploaded together with the required documentation or verifiers. The HAWA team flags possible risks and makes information available to potential buyers. As well as providing an opportunity for forest owners to register their plantations and document their harvests, the platform facilitates and documents a transparent due-diligence process for transactions and sales along the timber supply chain.

SOURCE: FAO–European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Programme. 2021. Locally developed due diligence system launched in Viet Nam | FAO-EU FLEGT Programme [online]. [Cited 11 November 2021]. https://www.fao.org/in-action/eu-fao-flegt-programme/news-events/newsdetails/ru/c/1414433/

Digital technologies can support farm and landscape-level planning, monitoring, production logistics and access to markets

The potential for digital technologies to change forestry is high. To date, the main developments have been in the inventorying and monitoring of forest resources; land-use planning and land-change monitoring; forestry production and machinery logistics; transport logistics and the traceability of forest products (Box 38); and business management and marketing support (Box 39). Box 40 provides an example of remote-sensing-supported planning of restoration. Multiple non-technical obstacles exist to the mobilization of digital innovations and scaling up their use, however.

Digital technologies can be useful in forest protection, such as by assisting in the detection of fire, illegal forest use, forest degradation and forest-cover change and for obtaining data on sustainable forest management. Geospatial forest-mapping products are becoming more accessible, as are excellent participatory mobile-phone global information system-activated forest monitoring products; even the camera function of smartphones is a valuable tool. More advanced approaches might involve drones (Box 41). Digital technology is becoming easier to use (and can encourage the involvement of youth). This, coupled with their increasing affordability, will make digital approaches more cost-efficient.

Information from public and private technical and extension services is becoming available online and as apps, including for various public services, making them more inclusive, especially for those who live far from physical service centres. E-services can cover many aspects of forestry, such as applications for logging and transport permits and ordering tree seedlings.

The rise of online marketing and sales in rural settings. Digital marketing and commerce have become more important in the pandemic. Many forest products can now be sold via e-commerce, including NWFPs. Digital online marketing events can help promote products, and mobile-assisted services are being tested to deliver products to customers.

Timber producers and traders in tropical countries have been severely affected by the pandemic, with cancelled orders and a wide range of logistical challenges, with associated impacts on livelihoods. Many micro, small and medium-sized enterprises have turned to digital solutions to facilitate market access