During his visit to Quang Ninh province during the Tet holiday of At Ty 1965, on the way from Hon Gai to Uong Bi, Uncle Ho stopped at Yen Lap pine forest. Here, he advised: "Do not destroy forests, plant trees, afforest, and green bare land and hills". Following Uncle Ho's advice, over the years, the Party Committee, government, and people of all ethnic groups in Quang Ninh province have strived to compete in planting trees and afforesting, bringing green to the forests.
"Forest is gold"
Bang Anh village (Tan Dan commune, Ha Long city) has a special forest, covering an area of up to 32 hectares with over 3,000 Bau Do trees, along with other precious trees such as: Dinh, Lim, Sen, Tau, De, Vang Tam... The primeval Lim forest alone has about 200 trees. That is the forest of Mr. Trieu Tai Cao's family, or affectionately called by many people as the forest of "Gia Cao", who has devoted his whole life to caring for, preserving and multiplying the green color of the forest. Mr. Trieu Tien Loc (youngest son of Mr. Trieu Tai Cao) said: In 1969, following Uncle Ho's call for Tet tree planting, my father chose the foot of Ha My pass to live and started planting precious perennial trees. In my memory, I still remember those years, with a basket on his back and rice balls in his pocket, he traveled all over the forest to collect saplings and seeds to bring back to the hill behind his house to plant. In 1980, the government assigned him to manage 32 hectares of forest. With more forest, he and we planted more precious trees such as ironwood, lim, sen tau and low medicinal plants under the forest canopy. After nearly 60 years, the small lim trees have now become large trees that several people cannot hug, and then the large trees that shed seeds grow new ones, helping the forest to become thicker with precious trees. The medicinal plants also bring us a stable income.
Imbued with a deep affection for the forest, considering the forest as “flesh and blood”, even though many traders come to buy it for billions of dong, Mr. Trieu Tai Cao’s family is still determined to preserve the forest. Following Uncle Ho’s advice and his father’s wishes before he passed away, Mr. Trieu Tien Loc and his brothers now protect and develop the forest every day, while also researching to renovate and turn this precious forest into one of the eco-tourism destinations, an attractive experience for visitors. “We will preserve these great forests until our last breath,” Mr. Loc shared.
Being loyal to the forest, "living off the forest" since starting their business, up to now, in the province, there are thousands of households that have escaped poverty and become rich from the forest. Taking the forest as a source of livelihood has increasingly permeated the blood of every local person, so now in Quang Ninh, there is no more deforestation. Many forest owners have boldly replaced acacia forests to travel to learn and bring large timber trees to plant in forest gardens. Organizations, households and people have stabilized and feel secure in planting forests, protecting forests, and attaching their lives to forestry, so the area of forest planting has increased every year, reaching an average of 10,000 - 12,000 hectares/year. Many households and individuals have harvested hundreds of millions of VND each year from exploiting wood, non-timber forest products and other products from forest gardens, creating jobs for many workers and contributing to increasing income, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty for a large number of people in mountainous areas. The whole province currently has over 10,000 combined medium and large-scale forest garden farms (RVACs) with tens of thousands of hectares of forestry trees, specialty trees and fruit trees that have grown well and have produced many harvest cycles, increasingly increasing their contribution to the provincial agricultural and rural development sector's economy.
Many correct, effective policies
Quang Ninh province is considered one of the localities with a large proportion of forest and forestry land (about 70% of the natural area). The whole province has 434,378 hectares of forest and forestry land, of which 30,034 hectares of forest and forestry land are planned for special use; 132,855 hectares of forest and forestry land are planned for protection; 272,508 hectares of forest and forestry land are planned for production.
Identifying forestry as a specific economic and technical sector with a long production cycle, Quang Ninh has strengthened the planning and management of three types of forests. In particular, there have been long-term, strategic policies for sustainable forestry development. A typical example is Resolution No. 19-NQ/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee issued on November 28, 2019 on sustainable forestry development in Quang Ninh province to 2025, with a vision to 2030. This is considered the first specialized resolution on forests in Quang Ninh and also the first specialized resolution on forests in the country.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Bong, Deputy Director of the Provincial Forest Protection Department: Quang Ninh Province has made very timely, accurate, and correct decisions in investing in forests, so that forests have the value they have today and have more value in the future. The good thing about Resolution 19 is that it has clearly defined the goal of protecting and developing natural forests. This is the foundation for forests to develop sustainably and with high value, making forests a strong and vibrant economic sector.
With timely and correct policies, the province's forest coverage has increased significantly: from 26% in 1992, to 36% in 2000, to 45% in 2005, to 50.3% in 2010, 51.5% in 2011 and 52.5% in 2012. From 2019 to present (before Typhoon Yagi made landfall), the province has always maintained a forest coverage of 55%, ranking 14th in the country. The targets and tasks in the forestry sector of the province have achieved very positive results, improved and have higher stability and sustainability such as: Awareness, responsibility, actions of Party committees at all levels, authorities, organizations, agencies, units, communities, businesses and the whole society in the management, protection and use of forests and forestry land have been improved and have had fundamental and profound changes; creating livelihoods for people through the policy of forest protection contracts and commercial forestry production; no encroachment on forests, illegal exploitation of forest products and minerals. The province has established a special-use forest to protect the landscape of Ha Long Bay; approved the task of establishing Dong Rui Wetland Conservation Area (Tien Yen), Red Melaleuca Forest Protection Area, Primitive Troi Forest (Co To), Melaleuca Forest (Van Don), Quang Nam Chau Habitat Conservation Area (Hai Ha, Dam Ha, Binh Lieu); the structure of forestry crops has changed towards increasing native species and large timber trees; the average annual production value of the forestry sector has increased by nearly 100 billion VND.
Continuing to promote the strengths of the forest, in the period of 2025-2030, Quang Ninh aims to maintain a stable forest cover rate of over 55%, a forestry growth rate of 4-5%, and reduce the number of small processing facilities to less than 170 facilities. In particular, in this period, the province focuses on developing medicinal plants that are the strengths of the locality, including: 7,000 hectares of star anise, 3,790 hectares of cinnamon, 1,700 hectares of cassia, 2,179 hectares of morinda and 2,135 hectares of medicinal plants. At the same time, maintain 24,000 hectares of large timber forests, 70,000 hectares of small timber forests and raw materials, and convert 6,000 hectares of small timber acacia forests into large timber. However, in September 2024, Typhoon Yagi made landfall and destroyed over 133,000 hectares of forest, making the task of replanting and re-greening the forest far from simple.
Mr. Vu Duy Van, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, affirmed: "For the benefit of a hundred years of planting trees, for the benefit of a hundred years of cultivating people", rebuilding forests after storms is the top priority of the agricultural sector in this period. In the immediate future, the sector will work with localities to focus on forest restoration after storm No. 3, striving for the whole province to complete planting the entire area of broken forest of about 98,000 hectares, of which in 2025, concentrated forest planting will be on over 32,090 hectares, encouraging forest owners, especially Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. to balance and allocate a certain land fund for planting large timber and native trees. At the same time, effectively organize the implementation of sustainable forest management plans; increase the area of forests with forest certificates, striving for the whole province to have over 30,000 hectares of forests certified for sustainable forest management by the end of 2025; Complete the arrangement, innovation and development, improve the operational efficiency of agricultural and forestry companies according to the direction of the Central and the province.
With the determination of the province, locality and forest owners, the new forests will certainly continue to grow green and lush, proving the solidarity, unity, and determination of the people of Quang Ninh ethnic groups to overcome difficulties to fully implement Uncle Ho's teachings.
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