Case Study: Restoration of Mangrove Forests in Vietnam

Since the 1950s, Vietnam lost over 80% of its mangroves due to war-time defoliants and post-war aquaculture expansion. Restoration efforts since 2001 have added a net 18,000 hectares. In northern Vietnam, restoration focused on disaster risk reduction through top-down, monoculture plantations that protected sea dikes. In southern Vietnam, a bottom-up approach integrated poverty alleviation and livelihood diversification, utilizing species-rich plantations and land-use leases for households. While economically beneficial—with some mangrove areas generating more value than aquaculture—sustainability is threatened by declining incentives in the north, tenure conflicts, and overlapping regulatory mandates for payments for ecosystem services (PES).

• Vietnam experienced massive mangrove loss starting in the 1950s, with over 80 percent of forests disappearing. During the American War (1955–75), 105,000 hectares (36 percent) were sprayed with defoliants. Post-war loss was driven by aquaculture, specifically shrimp farming; between 1983 and 1987 alone, 102,000 hectares were cleared for this purpose.
• Mangrove restoration since 2001 has reversed coastal deforestation, resulting in a net increase of 18,000 hectares of new forest, which brought the total cover to 172,000 hectares by 2008.
• Restoration in northern Vietnam utilized a top-down approach focused on disaster risk reduction. A Red Cross project restoring mangroves along a 100-kilometer sea dike reduced wave height in Kien Thuy District from 4 meters to 0.5 meters during tropical cyclone Damrey in 2005. This initiative cost US $1.1 million but reduced annual dike maintenance costs by US $7.3 million.
• Restoration in southern Vietnam employed a bottom-up approach aimed at poverty alleviation and livelihood diversification. These efforts produced species-rich plantations and provided land leases to nearly 8,000 households, integrating infrastructure development like schools and roads.
• Mangrove restoration can be more economically viable than aquaculture. One estimate indicated that restoring 150 hectares of mangroves would generate VN$21 billion over 22 years, compared to VN$10 billion for aquaculture.
• Sustainability of restoration is threatened by several factors: declining compensation for local protectors in the north since 2006, tenure conflicts between the shrimp industry and locals, and regulatory overlap between MARD, MONRE, and People's Committees which undermines payments for ecosystem services (PES).

APA

Buckingham, K., & Hanson, C. (2015). Case Study: Restoration of Mangrove Forests in Vietnam. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_Vietnam.pdf

Chicago

Buckingham, Kathleen, and Craig Hanson. Case Study: Restoration of Mangrove Forests in Vietnam. World Resources Institute, 2015. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_Vietnam.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Buckingham |first1=Kathleen |last2=Hanson |first2=Craig |title=Case Study: Restoration of Mangrove Forests in Vietnam |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2015 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_Vietnam.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{buckingham2015case, author = {Buckingham, Kathleen and Hanson, Craig}, title = {{Case Study: Restoration of Mangrove Forests in Vietnam}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_Vietnam.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }