Planting hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest every year, ending the "hunger" for wood materials

According to the Department of Forestry (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in the period of 2021 - 2023, the growth rate of added value in the forestry sector reached an average of 4.6%/year, reaching 92% of the plan; the export value of wood and forest products reached an average of 15.8 billion USD/year, reaching 88% of the plan.

Mỗi năm trồng hàng trăm nghìn ha rừng, hết 'đói' nguyên liệu gỗ- Ảnh 1. — Overview of the workshop

The forestry sector has made a significant contribution to the trade surplus of the agricultural sector, with the trade surplus in 2021 reaching 12.94 billion USD; in 2022 reaching 14.10 billion USD; in 2023 estimated at 12.199 billion USD.

Preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs (Ministry of Finance) show that in the first half of February (from February 1 to 15), wood and wood product exports reached 353.97 million USD; cumulative exports from the beginning of the year to February 15 reached 1.82 billion USD, an increase of 0.61 billion USD over the same period in 2023.

Speaking at the workshop "Solutions to implement Vietnam's forestry development strategy in the new context" held on February 27 in Hanoi, Mr. Trieu Van Luc, Deputy Director of the Forestry Department, said that a very notable point is that during the above period, revenue from forest environmental services reached an average of 3,650 billion VND/year.

In 2023, VND 4,130 billion was collected, including VND 997 billion from forest carbon absorption and storage services, contributing to reducing pressure on state budget expenditures, paying for the protection of about 7.3 million hectares of forest, becoming an important and sustainable financial source for the forestry sector.

Thanks to the impact of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy for the period 2021 - 2023, forest development has made many strides.

In the period of 2021 - 2023, the average concentrated forest planting area will reach 260,400 ha/year; the area of forest protection and regeneration promotion will reach an average of 136,000 ha/year. The average timber exploitation output in the period of 2021 - 2023 will reach about 32 million ^m3 , basically meeting the raw material demand for the wood processing industry and the forest products market.

Strictly manage the conversion of natural forests to other purposes.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri, the results achieved after 3 years of implementing the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy for the 2021-2023 period have made increasingly important contributions to socio-economic development, ecological environment protection, natural disaster mitigation; proactively responding to climate change, ensuring national defense and security, and successfully implementing national goals on sustainable development.

Mỗi năm trồng hàng trăm nghìn ha rừng, hết 'đói' nguyên liệu gỗ- Ảnh 2. — Thanks to the impact of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy for the period 2021 - 2023, forest development has made many strides.

However, the forestry sector is also facing mixed opportunities and challenges. Among them are changes from regulations of relevant laws and legal documents such as the 2024 Land Law; new regulations on implementing Vietnam's international commitments such as the commitment to bring net emissions to zero by 2050; implementing the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)...

Mr. Luc said that the implementation of the forestry development strategy still has shortcomings and difficulties such as low productivity and quality of planted forests; difficulties in planting protective and special-use forests; slow innovation in production organization forms and forestry company arrangement.

In addition, the state budget for forest protection and development is still difficult. Many localities have not paid attention to investing and supplementing the budget for forest protection and development.

To continue effectively implementing the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy for the period 2021 - 2030, many opinions at the workshop said that it is necessary to effectively manage and use over 3.4 million hectares of forests and forestry land currently managed by the People's Committees at the commune level, protect the existing forest area and develop forests; solve the shortage of production land, create jobs, and increase income for local ethnic minorities.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ba Ngai (Vietnam Forest Owners Association) emphasized that it is necessary to develop and organize the implementation of a forest restoration program according to the appropriate forest management cooperation method for each type of forest such as: allocating land and forests to communities to implement community forest management; allocating land and forests to households and individuals; allocating land and forests to forest management boards and forestry companies, and encouraging the implementation of cooperation and association with communities in forest management.

"In particular, it is necessary to strengthen strict management of the conversion of natural forests to other purposes," Mr. Ngai said.

By the end of 2023, the country will have 465,000 hectares of forest certified for sustainable forest management, reaching 93.0% of the area target by 2025 (500,000 hectares). The national forest coverage rate remains stable at 42.02%.

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