Vietnam’s forest carbon market is entering a new regulatory phase as Decree 180/2026/ND-CP on forest carbon absorption and storage services takes effect on July 15, 2026. The decree, issued by the government on May 21, 2026, was the focus of an implementation conference held July 2 by the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection, the forestry agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Officials said the decree — four chapters, 20 articles and six appendices — lays out rules covering forest carbon project developers and buyers, project registration procedures, management of carbon revenue, and monitoring, reporting and verification obligations.
A central new feature is the formal definition of “forest carbon rights”: the Ministry, provincial authorities, or forest owners will each act as the ownership representative for emission-reduction results or credits generated by projects they directly implement, with such rights established only once a project is actually under way. Deputy Director Pham Hong Luong said credit transfers must not undermine Vietnam’s national emission-reduction commitments and must prevent any result or credit from being counted or transferred more than once. Revenue from forest carbon services on state-owned forestland must prioritize forest protection and management and support livelihoods of forest-dependent communities, alongside funding project development, measurement and credit-issuance work.
Ahead of the decree’s effective date, the Ministry is finalizing an implementing circular on forest carbon pricing methodology, expected before July 15. According to Sustainable Forest Management Certification Center (VFCC) director Vu Tan Phuong, the draft sets out two valuation approaches — a cost method and a comparison method — and covers the full project cycle from registration and approval through measurement, credit issuance and market trading. Under the transition rules, projects must apply Vietnam’s own National Forest Carbon Standard through the end of 2027; only from January 1, 2028 can developers use other methodologies recognized by the Ministry. Credits will only be tradable once the Ministry confirms a project meets eligibility conditions, a safeguard intended to protect the emission reductions the forestry sector must retain for national climate commitments. Household, individual and community forest owners are barred from registering projects directly and must act through partnerships with organizational forest owners; the Vietnam Academy of Forest Sciences has separately submitted the National Forest Carbon Standard to the Ministry of Science and Technology for appraisal.
Carbon Market Context
- Vietnam’s new decree restricts forest carbon projects to its own National Forest Carbon Standard through 2027, with internationally recognized methodologies only permitted from 2028 — meaning existing global afforestation/reforestation crediting methodologies do not yet apply to projects under this framework.
- In the broader afforestation and reforestation credit segment, issuance activity to date has been modest, with roughly 230,000 tonnes of CO2e issued and 75,000 tonnes retired across a small number of projects — underscoring how early-stage this crediting category remains as Vietnam builds out its own domestic standard.
Source
- Hoàn thiện hành lang pháp lý phát triển thị trường carbon rừng Việt NamVnEconomy — Kinh tế xanh (carbon), published 2026-07-02