Payment is good, control is better: why payments for forest environmental services in Vietnam have so far remained incipient

The study discusses the types of PES and PES-like initiatives that have been implemented in Vietnam. The authors summarize both the achievements and challenges for using PES in Vietnam based on review and analysis of current projects. They found numerous PES-like schemes, but concluded that no full PES initiatives have been implemented, according to their definition of "the PES principle". The identified reasons for this are 1) a lack of land-use decision-making power among landholder (due to state control of forest land use), 2) a lack of conditionality for receiving payments, and 3) inadequate funding to cover opportunity cost of alternative uses.