Improving state management capacity for forest product production and processing activities

Gio Linh district forest rangers closely follow the area to update developments in forests and forestry land to serve the purpose of tracing the origin of forest products - Photo: HT

On December 30, 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ) issued Circular No. 26/2022/TT-BNNPTNT regulating the management and traceability of forest products (Circular No. 26). This Circular has received special attention from businesses, organizations and individuals operating in the forestry sector, because it is a detailed and specific legal document on requirements for management, exploitation and traceability of forest products, in order to ensure transparency and legality in forestry activities in Vietnam.

Circular No. 26 has a wide scope of regulation, including regulations on the management and traceability of all types of forest products, from wood to forest products such as bamboo, reed, rattan, and reed. On the other hand, the circular applies not only to organizations and enterprises exploiting forest products but also to all stakeholders in the supply chain, including transportation, processing, and consumption of forest products. This helps state management agencies easily inspect and control the legality of forest products. At the same time, it helps consumers and international partners have more confidence in products from Vietnamese forests.

In order to effectively implement Circular No. 26 and related documents and decrees, the Provincial Forest Protection Department has issued a document to deploy research, dissemination and application; at the same time, advised the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Department of Agriculture and Environment) to issue Document No. 725/SNN-KL dated March 12, 2024 on the dissemination of central documents in the forestry sector.

The districts and forest ranger stations also organized to guide Circular No. 26 and documents related to the management of traceability of forest products to the commercial establishments processing forest products in the management area. Accordingly, in the process of implementing the management of traceability of forest products, the Provincial Forest Protection Department inspected the traceability of 1,368,000 tons of wood of all kinds originating from planted forests. The traceable wood and processed wood products were 1,241,898 tons, of which 862,469 tons were wood chips, 48,566 tons were sawn timber and veneer, 229,926 tons were MDF boards and 100,937 tons were energy pellets, with an estimated value of 3,619.4 billion VND.

At the same time, the Provincial Forest Protection Department has advised the Department of Agriculture and Environment to develop a process of "Confirming the origin of wood before export" to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for decision and implementation. The implementation of wood origin tracing and management of imported and exported wood is strictly implemented, in accordance with the provisions of the law on forest product management. Thereby creating favorable conditions for wood trading and processing enterprises to consume products.

According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, Quang Tri province currently has an area of ​​production forests expected to be exploited annually of about 8,000 - 10,000 hectares, with an annual exploitation output of about 1 million ^m3 (not including the amount of scattered trees).

This is a great potential of the province for developing forestry production in general and wood processing trade in particular. The whole province has 53 licensed forestry processing and commercial production factories, of which 41 are operating; designed capacity is about 2,500,000 tons/year, licensed capacity is about 2,000,000 tons/year, operating capacity is about 1,500,000 tons/year, accounting for 75% of licensed capacity.

In addition, there are 151 forest product processing businesses, mainly producing laminated boards, veneers, saws, furniture, household wooden products... serving the market demand in the province, creating jobs for thousands of workers. Raw materials are mostly purchased from production forests exploited in the province, some are purchased from neighboring provinces such as Quang Binh and Hue City.

In order to effectively implement the traceability of forest products and classify enterprises in the coming time, the Provincial Forest Protection Department will continue to direct forest rangers to closely monitor the area, grasp the situation of forest exploitation in the area to update the development of forests and forestry land as well as accurately count the volume of exploited timber to serve the traceability of forest products.

Strengthen the inspection of forest product processing establishments to determine the legality of forest products and grasp the volume of imported and exported wood of enterprises. At the same time, continue to propagate and guide forest product processing enterprises to update, record forest product import and export books and report the origin of forest products in accordance with regulations, ensuring the correct legal forest product records as prescribed in Circular No. 26 and current regulations of law on forest product processing and trade.

Timely detect and strictly handle organizations and individuals who violate state regulations on exploitation, transportation, trading and processing of forest products. Regarding the classification of wood processing and exporting enterprises, the authorities will provide maximum support and guidance for enterprises to prepare necessary and sufficient conditions to meet the conditions for classifying enterprises to produce wood and wood products for export to the European market.

In addition, businesses also need to change their mindset about international forest product trade, proactively meeting all import market standards by seriously and systematically implementing from the production stage in raw material areas to the processing stage to ensure product output quality.

Thien Long

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/nang-cao-nang-luc-quan-ly-nha-nuoc-doi-voi-hoat-dong-san-xuat-che-bien-lam-san-193141.htm