Tourists to special-use forests increase sharply

According to the Department of Forestry (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the country currently has 2.394 million hectares of special-use forests; 5.512 million hectares of protective forests, of which the forested land area is 4.646 million hectares.

After controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, by 2023, the number of tourists to special-use forests such as Cuc Phuong will increase sharply.

The country has established a system of special-use forests with 167 zones, with a total natural land area of ​​2.394 million hectares; 54/63 provinces and centrally-run cities have special-use forest areas. Some provinces with the largest areas of special-use forests are: Dak Lak with 229,678 hectares, Nghe An with 173,738 hectares, Quang Binh with 146,588 hectares, Quang Nam with 130,286 hectares, Dong Nai with 102,828 hectares.

In 2023, forest owners have increased the regular and continuous inspection and monitoring of biodiversity to propose solutions for the development of biological conservation of genetic diversity; species and ecosystem diversity. To date, more than 40 special-use and protective forests have applied the SMART toolkit in forest patrolling and biodiversity monitoring.

Mr. Tran Quang Bao, Director of the Forestry Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that special-use forests and protective forests represent most important ecosystems on land, at sea, and in wetlands; increasingly affirming their especially important role and position in socio-economic development and environmental protection, responding to climate change, and ensuring national security.

According to the Forestry Department, there are currently 67 management boards of special-use and protective forests that organize ecotourism business activities, mainly in special-use forests. After the Covid-19 pandemic is controlled, by 2023, the number of tourists to special-use forests will increase sharply.

The total number of tourists was 2.4 million, an increase of 124% compared to 2019 - the pre-pandemic period; total revenue reached VND 323,493 billion, an increase of 175% compared to 2019 (in 2019 it reached VND 185 billion).

Effective implementation of ecotourism project in special-use forests

In addition to the achieved results, the management of special-use and protective forests still has shortcomings and difficulties. Specifically, encroachment on forest land still occurs in some special-use and protective forests without effective solutions; investment policies for forest protection for the special-use and protective forest systems still have some shortcomings; the exploitation and promotion of the service values ​​of the forest ecosystem still have many limitations...

One of the tasks set by the forestry sector in the coming time is to organize, develop and effectively implement projects on eco-tourism, resorts and entertainment in special-use forests and protective forests.

According to the Director of the Forestry Department, in 2024, the Forestry Department sets out the task of restoring 15% of the degraded ecosystem area; promoting propaganda, forest protection, and biodiversity conservation at the grassroots level; continuing to direct and support special-use forest and protection forest management boards to deploy and apply SMART software, set camera traps to manage forest patrol information and monitor biodiversity; develop sets of criteria and indicators for monitoring forest resources and biodiversity.

In particular, we will continue to research and propose the development of mechanisms and policies to develop ecosystem service values ​​in the forest environment such as: forest environmental services from forest carbon absorption and storage services; expanding types of forest environmental services from ecotourism, resorts, aquaculture; promoting the development of sustainable forest management plans...

One of the tasks set by the forestry sector is to effectively organize, develop and implement projects for ecotourism, resorts and entertainment in special-use forests and protective forests.

Complete legal regulations to serve as a legal basis for management boards of special-use forests and protective forests to implement forms of cooperation, association, and leasing of forest environments to organize ecotourism, resort, and entertainment business activities in special-use forests and protective forests...

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