Expanding solutions to combat deforestation and forest degradation across Lam Dong province

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Phuc - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting. According to information at the meeting, on June 29, 2023, the EU regulation on combating deforestation and forest degradation (abbreviated as EUDR) officially took effect and will be implemented on December 30, 2025.

Scene of the working session between Lam Dong provincial leaders and IDH organization.

Coffee, rubber, wood and wood products are Vietnam's key commodities that are greatly affected by this regulation, especially the coffee industry. Europe is Vietnam's largest coffee market with direct exports accounting for 40-50% and indirect exports accounting for 20-30% of total coffee product exports in recent years.

According to statistics, in 2023, the coffee growing area in Vietnam will be 715 thousand hectares, with an output of 1.97 million tons and an export turnover of 4.2 billion USD. The coffee industry is currently the main source of income for more than 600,000 small-scale farmers and has a great impact on the economic, social and environmental development of coffee-producing localities.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Phuc - Vice Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee responded to proposals from IDH organization.

Lam Dong province alone has 176,862 hectares of coffee, with an output of 591,892 tons/year, 90% of which are exported as raw beans, of which 45% are exported to the EU. In recent times, IDH has coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, domestic and foreign coffee companies, and Di Linh district, Lam Dong province to successfully implement pilot solution packages to help the coffee industry comply with EUDR regulations. The program is implemented in 2 phases: Phase 1 (2020–2021) and Phase 2 (2022–2025).

After a short pilot period, by 2024, the EUDR pilot program in Lam Dong has achieved some outstanding results such as: Forest protection (reducing the number of violations of the Forestry Law); Building a database system (CSDL) of forests and growing areas (focusing on coffee trees) classifying growing areas into low - medium - high risk areas; Surveying and updating information on growing areas into the database system; building a system to trace the origin of coffee products at the plantation level; issuing documents guiding the construction of a database of growing areas for the coffee industry.

IDH representatives reviewed the results of compliance with regulations on combating deforestation and forest degradation.

Based on these results, IDH wishes to expand EUDR compliance solutions in Lam Dong province. After discussing and evaluating the effectiveness of EU compliance solutions on combating deforestation and forest degradation, Lam Dong province and IDH agreed to expand EU compliance solutions on combating deforestation and forest degradation in the entire Lam Dong province.

Developing coffee in a sustainable direction associated with forest protection.

To realize this goal, Lam Dong province and IDH agreed to establish a provincial public-private working group consisting of representatives of state agencies, IDH, enterprises, coffee production and export cooperatives to implement the EUDR compliance plan; at the same time, continue to build data on forests, cadastral maps, etc. as well as promote communication on EUDR compliance.

From November 17, 2021, the European Commission proposed a bill on the "zero deforestation regulation (EUDR), approved by the European Council on May 16, 2023; the official implementation date for verification is December 30, 2025. The main requirements of the bill: Ensuring no deforestation or forest degradation; ensuring legality - traceability of products (from production - exploitation/harvesting - transportation - processing - export/exchange of goods); having geographical coordinates, area of ​​each cultivated land plot; having a mechanism for sharing and feedback on information to serve the appraisal. There are 3 Vietnamese product lines that are greatly affected by the EUDR: coffee, wood and wood products, and rubber.

Mai Long

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/mo-rong-cac-giai-phap-chong-mat-rung-va-suy-thoai-rung-tren-toan-tinh-lam-dong-post546361.html