There are forestry enterprises whose trees were destroyed by Typhoon Yagi.
That is the painful reality of many planted forest areas managed by forestry enterprises in Quang Ninh province after storm No. 3 - Yagi swept through.
Sharing at the Conference on solutions to overcome the consequences of storm No. 3 in the forestry sector organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the morning of September 24, Mr. Vu Duy Van, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Ninh province, said that storm No. 3 swept through Quang Ninh with wind gusts of level 17, challenging all calculations and response scenarios and causing terrible devastation, with estimated damage of up to VND 24,223 billion.
“Forestry is one of the sectors that suffered the most damage from storm No. 3. The whole province had 40,000 hectares of planted forests, but now only about 10,000 hectares remain intact, the rest were all destroyed by the storm. Eight forestry companies in the province suffered heavy damage, some companies such as Tien Yen Forestry Company have no intact trees left in their entire forest area; Ba Che Forestry Company only has 138 hectares of forest left. To have the current developed forest area, businesses had to spend 10 years planting and caring for it and no one knows when it will be restored,” said Mr. Van.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri, Director of the Forestry Department Tran Quang Bao and representatives of localities acknowledged the support and cooperation of the wood industry business community. Photo: Bao Thang.
What Mr. Van is more worried about is that the production - processing - export supply chain in the wood industry of Quang Ninh province may be broken because the infrastructure of many wood processing enterprises was also severely damaged by the storm. "11/13 systems for transporting wood chips to ports in Quang Ninh province were destroyed by the storm, making it more difficult for ships to "take" wood chips, so the price of wood chips is currently decreasing," Mr. Van informed.
Bac Giang is also one of the localities with a large area of forest damaged by storm No. 3. According to the report of the Bac Giang Forest Protection Department, the whole province has 160,000 hectares of forest, of which 102,000 hectares are planted forests (raw material forest area is 80,000 hectares), but 40,000 hectares were damaged by storm No. 3 (the damaged area is over 70%, up to 14,000 hectares).
According to Mr. Trieu Van Luc, Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), quick statistics from localities show that as of September 23, 2024, a total of 13 provinces suffered forest damage with an area of 169,588 hectares (this area does not include the area of natural forest that was eroded and slid); of which the 4 provinces with the most severe damage were Hai Phong City with 10,045 hectares; Lang Son with 19,729 hectares; Bac Giang with 26,415 hectares and Quang Ninh with 110,713 hectares.
Not only were the planted forests severely damaged, but wood businesses in the industry were also greatly affected in terms of infrastructure and factories, and most of the factories in the storm-affected areas operated in the fields of plywood, wood chips, and pellets.
A planted forest was devastated by storm No. 3 in Quang Ninh. Photo: Huong Quynh.
Preliminary statistics from the Plywood, Wood Chip, and Pellet Associations under the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association show that businesses under the Plywood Association suffered a loss of 130 billion VND due to damaged factories, washed away raw materials/products, broken machinery, etc. The Wood Pellet Association suffered a loss of 70 billion VND; the Wood Chip Association suffered a loss of over 310 billion VND due to a broken conveyor belt at Cai Lan port (Quang Ninh); 17,000 tons of chips were washed away; 1,950 hectares of the enterprise's planted forest were broken...
“Storm No. 3 has caused damage to the volume of raw wood (small wood) up to 12 million m3; the cost of exploiting and transporting fallen trees is difficult, the price is high, while the value of raw wood from fallen trees has decreased. The most worrying thing is the risk of reducing the supply chain of raw wood in the coming years. Wood chip, peeled board, and plywood businesses have suffered damage to machinery, equipment, products, and infrastructure. It is estimated that the export value of wood chips, pellets, and boards in 2024 may decrease by about 300 million USD,” Mr. Luc informed.
Mr. Tran Quang Bao, Director of the Forestry Department, assessed that with the cycle of planting production forests for fast-growing trees (from 5-7 years), the amount of raw wood from domestic forests is estimated to decrease by about 3.5 million m3/year. The reason is that the areas that were broken down by storms must be replanted for 5-7 years before they are eligible for exploitation.
With the spirit of mutual support, the Ho Chi Minh City Handicraft and Wood Processing Association, Binh Duong Wood Processing Association, Vietnam Plywood Association, and Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association have contributed 1.56 billion VND to join hands and support businesses, workers, and people to overcome difficulties, stabilize their lives, and restore production.
Vietnam Forestry Science Institute also supported people affected by storm No. 3 Yagi with 1 million forestry seedlings to soon restore production.
Restore forest area
Facing the risk of a broken forestry chain, Mr. Vu Duy Van said that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Ninh will develop a project to restore and develop the sustainable forestry sector and submit it to the Provincial People's Committee for approval; while a representative of the Bac Giang Forest Protection Department proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development advise the Government to soon issue a Decree on liquidation of planted forests.
Sharing the difficulties and losses of forest growers and wood industry enterprises after storm No. 3, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities will soon have solutions to support people to restore damaged forest areas.
The factory of Binh Thuan Joint Stock Company in Hoanh Bo district, Quang Ninh province was completely damaged by storm No. 3. Photo: Quynh Huong.
Accordingly, for severely damaged forest areas, where the forest trees are completely broken or the remaining trees do not meet the criteria for forest formation (fallen or broken rate over 70%), a dossier must be prepared to liquidate the forest according to regulations; all trees must be exploited and harvested. After exploitation and harvesting, the forest owner is responsible for replanting the forest in the next crop when the weather is favorable.
For lightly damaged forest areas, the remaining trees that meet the criteria for forest formation should only be harvested if they are fallen or broken. Forest sanitation and forest fire prevention.
Review seed sources, seedling supply capacity and demand to develop production plans and support reforestation seedlings. Urgently repair, disinfect and sterilize nurseries to put into production. Proactively prepare about 200 million quality seedlings with tree species and planting standards suitable to technical standards and technical instructions for each tree species and specific site conditions.
“In the immediate future, localities need to focus on immediate exploitation and at the same time review the seed sources and supply capacity of units ready to supply to forest owners so that forests can be replanted in the upcoming planting season,” Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri emphasized.
Faced with increasingly complex natural disasters, the Forestry Department also recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development propose to the Government to direct the Ministry of Finance to develop a policy on insurance for production forests.
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