Living inside a Vietnamese biodiversity corridor comes with a real income boost, study finds
Households inside two protected wildlife corridors in Vietnam's Annamite mountains earned about 25% more than their neighbors outside, largely thanks to conservation payments and ecotourism jobs.
According to a piece published Friday by Carolyn Cowan on Mongabay, republished via Eco-Business, a study of Vietnam's Annamite mountain region found that households living within two established biodiversity corridors earned roughly 25% more income than households just outside them. Researchers surveyed 120 families across four villages in Quang Nam and Thua Thien provinces to reach the finding.
Inside the corridors, conservation-linked payments for forest ecosystem services made up about half of household income, supplemented by ecotourism and forest restoration jobs, while households outside relied mainly on Acacia plantations and non-timber forest products. The two corridors, established in 2018, span nearly 2,000 square kilometers and aim to protect habitat for endangered species including saola and endemic primates while supporting 11 Indigenous groups and other landowners in the area.
The study also found a trade-off: corridor residents gained conservation income but lost access to forest resources like medicinal plants and other non-timber products, and researchers noted that larger landholders benefited disproportionately from the payments, potentially widening inequality among smaller households.
Carolyn Cowan, Mongabay / Eco-Business: https://www.eco-business.com/news/protecting-biodiversity-brings-income-gains-to-vietnams-annamite-communities/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
