In 2024, wood and forestry product exports are targeted to reach 17.5 billion USD.

On the afternoon of December 27, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to review the forestry sector in 2023 and set out tasks for 2024. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri chaired the conference.

Conference Overview

Forestry industry achieved many achievements

According to Mr. Trieu Van Luc - Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in 2023, units in the forestry sector closely followed assigned tasks, strengthened coordination with agencies and localities, advised the Ministry on timely guidance solutions and achieved remarkable results.

Notably, in 2023, a very important milestone was marked. For the first time in Vietnam in the forestry sector, the procedures for successfully transferring the emission reduction of 10.3 million tons of CO2 to the Forestry Carbon Partnership Fund through the World Bank (WB) were completed at a unit price of 5 USD/ton of CO2, equivalent to 51.5 million USD.

To date, the Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund has received the first payment from the World Bank of 41.2 million USD and has disbursed the entire amount so that the provinces can urgently make payment plans for forest owners in 6 provinces in the North Central region.

Proactively grasp the situation of hot spots and isolate key areas of deforestation, large storage and transit points of forest products in key areas. Continue to maintain the forest coverage rate at 42.02%. Total revenue from forest environmental services in 2023 is 4,130.4 billion VND.

Communication work in the forestry sector has been promoted, diversifying the forms of information on forest protection, fire prevention and fighting, large timber plantation development, forest certification, promoting the multi-value of forests, forest carbon absorption and storage services... always receiving attention with thousands of news and articles.

The application of science and technology in forestry has developed strongly, many research topics have truly contributed and applied to production practices.

International cooperation in forestry has developed in both breadth and depth, thereby enhancing cooperation in production development and promoting the export market for forest products.

In addition to the achievements, in 2023, due to the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, the weather is unusual, hot and dry, so the risk of forest fires is always high. There are still hot spots of deforestation, illegal trading and transportation of forest products in some localities, especially in the Northwest, Central Highlands and South Central regions. The situation of specialized forest protection forces quitting their jobs and quitting their jobs occurs in many places, many areas have difficulty recruiting new workers.

Infrastructure for forestry development has not been properly invested, especially at forest management boards and forestry companies where infrastructure is weak, equipment and facilities for research and seed production are lacking and outdated.

The world economy continues to face many difficulties, high inflation in some developed countries, so the Governments of many countries have issued many monetary tightening policies, leading to consumers tightening their spending; the Russia - Ukraine conflict continues to be complicated and prolonged, affecting the production and business activities of enterprises,... Consumers in the US and EU markets are tightening their spending on non-essential products, including wood products.

Along with that, the protectionist policies of countries to protect domestically produced products and goods have affected Vietnam's wood product trade. Accordingly, wood and forestry product exports are estimated at 14.39 billion USD, down 15.8% compared to 2022, of which imports are estimated at 2.191 billion USD. The whole industry's trade surplus is estimated at 12.199 billion USD.

Many goals for 2024

In 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development set a target of maintaining a stable national forest coverage rate of 42.02%; forestry production value growth rate of 5.0 - 5.5%; concentrated forest planting of 245,000 hectares; scattered tree planting of 140 million trees; timber exploitation output of planted forests of 23 million m3; forest environmental service revenue of 3,200 billion VND; wood and forest product export value of 17.5 billion USD.

To achieve the set goals, The Ministry will Focus on developing sustainable forestry economy towards promoting the multi-use value of forest ecosystems on the basis of effective management and use of forest resources; protect and sustainably develop 100% of existing forest area; diversify types of forestry production and business organizations towards green, sustainable and circular production.

Strengthening the management of forestry seed quality, focusing on the selection and creation of forestry seed, indigenous trees, and intensive forest cultivation suitable to the ecosystem to increase productivity and output of planted forests, and develop large timber production forests. Developing forms of association, cooperation, and benefit sharing in the forestry production and business chain.

Continue to effectively implement the policy of payment for forest environmental services, promote the implementation of carbon absorption and storage services and rapidly develop the forest carbon credit market. Implement the plan to issue sustainable forest management certificates, implement the recognition of the national forest certification system and meet the conditions for linking with the international PEFC forest certification. Actively cooperate internationally to mobilize and attract capital through programs and projects; develop the forest product export market in accordance with international law; signed agreements...

Source link