Criteria and Indicators to Define Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation in Vietnam

authored by

Xuan Dinh Vu, Elmar Csaplovics, Christopher Marrs, Trung Thanh Nguyen

Abstract

Balancing biodiversity conservation with land use for agricultural production is a major societal challenge. Conservation activities must be prioritized since funds and resources for conservation are insufficient in the context of current threats, and conservation competes with other societal priorities. In order to contribute to conservation priority-setting literature, we applied an environmental model, Pressure–State–Response (PSR), to develop a set of criteria for identifying priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam. Our empirical data have been compiled from 185 respondents and categorized into three groups: Governmental Administration and Organizations, Universities and Research Institutions, and Protected Areas. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) theory was used to identify the weight of all criteria. Our results show that the priority levels for biodiversity conservation identified by these three factors are 41% for “Pressure”, 26% for “State”, and 33% for “Response”. Based on these three factors, seven criteria and seventeen indicators were developed to determine priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Besides, our study also reveals that the groups of Governmental Administration and organizations and Protected Areas put a focus on the “Pressure” factor, while the group of Universities and Research Institutions emphasized the importance of the “Response” factor in the evaluation process. We suggest that these criteria and indicators be used to identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade

External Organisation(s)

Vietnam National University of Forestry
Technische Universität Dresden

Type

Article

Journal

FORESTS

Volume

13

ISSN

1999-4907

Publication date

09.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Forestry

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/f13091341 (Access: Open)