Vietnam's forestry sector faces unique governance challenges due to a landscape characterized by highly dispersed smallholder ownership, contrasting with concession-based models. As international markets increasingly demand sustainability certifications (e.g. FSC or PEFC), cost and complexity deter most smallholders, prompting wood processing firms to finance certification themselves. Such investments of processing firms can be at risk of opportunistic behaviour by smallholders who may side-sell at harvest. The risk can be compounded by weak legal enforcement. Drawing on transaction-cost economics and network theory, we employ a relational contracting lens to examine how such agreements persist. We analyse 15 key stakeholder interviews and six documents. We find evidence that contract stability rests less on legal stipulations and more on relational mechanisms: flexible contingent terms, co-investment in technical capacity, and embedded governance via local authorities and social networks. These informal institutions and networked enforcement substitute for formal mechanisms, enabling sustainable long-term contracting in emerging markets. • Vietnam's certified timber supply hinges on relational, not formal, negotiations. • Flexible terms and co-investment counter “reverse hold-up” in timber deals. • Social networks and local authorities provide informal contract enforcement. • Informal governance enables certification in fragmented smallholder forestry.

The experience of recreationists is known to influence their willingness-to-pay for conservation. This paper presents key findings from a survey of visitors to three old-growth forests in Austria, Italy and Belgium. The results show that respondents hold preferences for nature conservation in regard to the expansion of old-growth and more naturally managed forests for their recreational purposes. Respondents indicated that they would be willing to pay between €2.1 and €4.1 per person a day to fund conservation management. The questionnaire identified the paths and areas where visitors spent their time in the forest. This approach makes it easier to distinguish between the actual use and the presence of old-growth forest. Visitors who experienced old-growth forests also expressed a higher willingness-to-pay for the conservation of these ecosystems. This is also an important finding for conservation management: While there are differences between socio-economic groups and the three forests, visitors who experienced the old-growth forests had a higher willingness-to-pay of roughly €1 per person a day. These results clearly show that visitors value recreation in old-growth forests, and that conservation management could capitalize on this higher valuation by directing visitors to areas associated with high biodiversity values while protecting sensitive areas and funding conservation activities. • Old-growth forests provide unique recreational experiences for visitors, and are also perceived as such. • The perception of the conservation status is mixed even in long-standing parks. • The recreation value of visitors depends on the areas of recreation evaluated by indicating the areas on maps. • Willingness-to-pay of visitors for conservation depends on variables connecting the recreational experience to the naturalness of the forest. • Management and planning can contribute to conservation funding by adding a conservation surcharge on existing fees.

Reforestation efforts carried out with local communities need to confront health, safety, security, and environment (HSSE) challenges different from those experienced in industrial forestry. Here we describe our collaborative and iterative approach to HSSE development and implementation in a community-based reforestation for carbon project in the Philippines. Community participants recognised many HSSE risks related to tree seedling production, planting, and plantation maintenance and monitoring, but previously lacked resources to mitigate them. Investments in HSSE (i.e., training, safety equipment, and staff health insurance) were substantial, amounting to 3.14 % of Project expenditures in the Philippines. Over a three-year period, 33 % of reported health-and-safety incidents were related to illness and 31 % to vehicular accidents or near-misses, most of which (92/95) were reported by staff members not community workers. Difficulties in changing cultural and behavioral norms substantially impeded development of a safety culture with shared understanding of HSSE responsibilities. Engagement of contractors with different HSSE policies to those of the Project also resulted in inconsistencies in practices. Fundamental lessons continued to be learned about safe reforestation, but further research is needed on how to improve safety culture in community-based reforestation. Recognising HSSE responsibilities should be explicitly acknowledged as part of carbon market requirements for issuance of carbon credits from community-based reforestation. • Community forestry requires unique safety protocols. • Safety protocols are best developed collaboratively and iteratively. • Incident reporting gaps are challenging to close. • Safety cultures can emerge over time with effort and shared learning. • Carbon markets should reward safety investments in community-based forestry.