**6. Acknowledgements**

We wish to thank Dr. Aljoscha Requardt (head of the Observatory for European Forests (OEF) of the European Forest Institute (EFI), Nancy, France) for his help during the preparation of the study. We as well wish to thank the Thai Nguyen University (Vietnam), the Department of International Relations and the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry for their support. Our special thanks go to Dr. Do Anh Tai (Thai Nguyen University, associate professor), Dr. Dai Tran Nghia (Thai Nguyen University, head of the international relations) and Dr. Tran Quoc Hung (Thai Nguyen University, Dean of the Forestry Faculty).

Our strong consideration goes to Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha, Nguyen Huy Hoang and Prem Raj Neupane for their assistance in the field and organisational help. As well we would like to thank Andre Iost for the statistic review of the analysis.
