In Vietnam's Ca Mau province, shrimp farmers who keep at least 50% mangrove cover on their ponds get Naturland organic certification, a per-hectare PES payment and a 10% price premium from buyer Minh Phu; over 1,000 farmers across ~7,000 ha have signed conservation contracts.
1000+
Farmers under contract
7000 ha
Area under integrated mangrove-shrimp management
50 %
Minimum mangrove cover required
500000 VND (~USD 20)/ha
Per-hectare PES payment
~300 million VND, 200+ households
PES payments reported
~600 million VND, 500+ certified farmers
Price-premium payments (Minh Phu)
741
Farmers benefiting from certification
10 %
Shrimp price premium
Details
Maturity
Established
Promoter
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation & IUCN (Mangroves and Markets project), with Minh Phu Seafood Corporation and Naturland certification
The Mangroves and Markets (MAM) project, run by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and IUCN with funding from Germany's International Climate Initiative (IKI), links mangrove conservation to shrimp farmers' incomes in Vietnam's Ca Mau province.
Objectives
Use organic certification (Naturland) plus per-hectare PES payments and a buyer price premium to incentivise shrimp farmers to maintain mangrove cover on integrated mangrove-shrimp ponds.
Activities
Under the Naturland standard, each certified farm must maintain at least 50% mangrove cover and is barred from further clearing (former mangrove areas must be replanted). More than 1,000 farmers managing roughly 7,000 hectares have signed contracts. A per-hectare cash payment (~500,000 VND, ~USD 20) is paid under Vietnam's forest/aquaculture ecosystem-service payment mechanism, and Minh Phu Seafood Corporation contractually pays certified farmers a 10% price premium for Naturland-certified shrimp.
Results
SNV reports PES payments reaching over 200 households, totalling close to 300 million VND, and close to 600 million VND in price-premium payments to over 500 certified farmers; Germany's IKI reports 741 farmers benefiting from the certification scheme (figures come from different reporting dates and cover slightly different farmer cohorts). The project has also fed into the legal groundwork for a national PES framework covering aquaculture in Vietnam.
Conclusions
The sources document the payment mechanism, certification rules and farmer/area counts in detail, but do not publish independent measurements of mangrove-area change, carbon sequestration or biodiversity recovery specific to this scheme.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — ~500,000 VND (~USD 20)/ha PES payment plus a 10% Minh Phu price premium on certified shrimp; cumulative reported payouts in the hundreds of millions of VND.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Ongoing since 2013, feeding into Vietnam's national aquaculture PES legal framework.
Staffing & skills
SNV/IUCN Mangroves and Markets programme staff, Naturland certifiers (independent audit), Minh Phu Seafood Corporation buyer relationship managers, local farmer groups
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