Proposal to temporarily use forests for road and high-speed railway construction

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has just announced the Draft Decree Amending and Supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP dated November 16, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Forestry Law; which mentions a number of important contents such as supplementing the temporary use of forests to build temporary works serving the construction of traffic and railway projects for socio-economic development in the national interest.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, temporary works are necessary and urgent items to implement traffic and railway projects (such as roads for transporting equipment, construction materials, and installing rails)...

Therefore, temporarily using forests to construct traffic and railway projects has a positive meaning and impact on the progress and effectiveness of project implementation; especially projects such as: High-speed railway project on the North-South axis, investment project to build Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway line.

The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment said that the investment policy for the above two important projects has been approved by the National Assembly in Resolution No. 172/2024/QH15 dated November 30, 2024 and Resolution No. 187/2025/QH15 dated February 19, 2025. These are also projects that the National Assembly allows to apply many specific and special policies, including the policy of temporarily using forests to carry out temporary construction works serving the project.

The addition of temporary use of forests to build temporary structures to serve the construction of the above traffic and railway projects also comes from urgent practical needs - when projects only need to temporarily use forest areas during construction, without changing the purpose of using forests and forestry land.

After the project is completed, the area used for temporary works will be returned to its original purpose, the investor will restore the environment and replant the forest and hand it over to the forest owner, so there is no need to change the purpose of using the forest to carry out temporary works.

According to the agency drafting the above draft decree, the content of temporary forest use has been stipulated in Decree No. 27/2024/ND-CP dated March 6, 2024 of the Government.

However, the subjects allowed to temporarily use forests are only regulated on temporary use of forests to carry out temporary works serving the construction of power grid projects for socio-economic development for national and public interests. Decree No. 27/2024/ND-CP also does not have regulations on subjects temporarily using forests for key national "Road and Railway" projects for socio-economic development for national and public interests.

“Based on the above reasons, to ensure the construction progress of the two urgent and important national railway projects, it is necessary to develop a Decree to replace Decree No. 27/2024/ND-CP dated March 6, 2024 of the Government to supplement regulations on subjects allowed to temporarily use forests to serve the construction of traffic and railway projects,” emphasized a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.

Regarding the assessment of the impact on the affected subjects specified in the draft decree, the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment said that according to the reports of 39 localities reporting on the results of temporary forest use as prescribed in Decree No. 27/2024/ND-CP, 37/39 provinces do not have temporary forest use projects.

In the remaining 2/39 provinces, there are 4 projects requesting approval of temporary forest use plans and have been approved by competent authorities to implement power line projects.

Specifically, in Nghe An province, there are 3 projects (Quang Trach - Quynh Luu 500kV transmission line project; Quynh Luu - Thanh Hoa 500kV transmission line project; Nam Sum - Nong Cong 220kV transmission line project) with a total temporary forest area of 6.78258 ha. In Quang Nam province, there is a Dak Ooc 220kV transmission line project and transmission lines connecting Nam Emoun Hydropower Plant (Laos) to the Vietnam power system with a total temporary forest area of 1.3272 ha (including natural forest and planted forest).

According to vietnamplus.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/de-xuat-tam-su-dung-rung-de-phuc-vu-thi-cong-duong-bo-duong-sat-toc-do-cao-post400106.html