Efforts to speed up the implementation of agricultural and forestry economic development projects - Lang Son Newspaper and Radio and Television Station

Officers of Dinh Lap District Forest Protection Department guide people in taking care of acacia trees.

The project "Developing sustainable agricultural and forestry economy associated with forest protection and increasing people's income" is implemented in the province to create jobs and income for people working in forestry; support the development of agricultural and forestry economy, especially the development of economy under forest canopy associated with sustainable forest protection in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, contributing to maintaining stable forest cover, protecting ecological environment, conserving biodiversity, minimizing the impact of climate change.

Problems and difficulties

According to the latest report from the authorities, the implementation progress and disbursement rate of Sub-project 1 under Project 3 are at a low level, significantly affecting the goal of improving the lives of people in disadvantaged areas.

Up to now, the project has only supported forest protection contracts for special-use forests, protection forests, and natural forests directly managed by the People's Committees at the commune level of 92,215 ha/127,284 ha (reaching 72% of the plan for the period 2021 - 2025); supported forest protection for protection forests and production forests which are natural forests assigned to communities and households 36,221 ha/172,024 ha (reaching 21% of the plan); supported regeneration with additional afforestation 170.8/40,414 ha (reaching 0.4% of the plan); supported planting production forests with timber trees and non-timber forest products 1,530 ha/9,715 ha (reaching 15.7% of the plan); supported planting protection forests 15.4/840 ha (reaching 1.8% of the plan); Rice subsidy for poor households participating in planting production forests, developing non-timber forest products, and protective forests is 0/3,920 tons (reaching 0% of the plan).

To date, the entire Sub-project 1 has only disbursed over 3.6 billion VND out of a total of nearly 176 billion VND, equivalent to 2.05% of the capital plan. It is expected that by the end of 2025, it will only reach about 20-30% of the capital plan.

Mr. Hoang Van Chieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment (DARD), said: The reason for the slow progress of the project and the low results of the targets is that the forest area eligible for protection support of small, fragmented households is not favorable for designing and preparing project documents. The beneficiaries of the project have gradually decreased over the years because communes in region II and region III will become communes in region I when they meet the new rural standards, while the beneficiaries of the project are people in communes in region II and region III. In addition, the level of support for natural forest protection is still low compared to the harvest from planted forests, so some households do not want to receive support to protect natural forests but want to convert natural forests to planted forests to have higher income soon. In some places, there are disputes over forest land between households that have not been resolved, leading to the failure to implement the project in those areas.

In addition, the cost of preparing design documents for forest protection and conservation is low (50,000 VND/ha), making it difficult to hire design consultants. Regarding support for production forest planting, although the support level according to the new regulations has increased to 15 million VND/ha (compared to 5 - 10 million VND/ha according to Decree 75/2015/ND-CP on mechanisms and policies for forest protection and development, associated with the policy of rapid and sustainable poverty reduction and support for ethnic minorities in the period 2015 - 2020), it only includes the cost of seedlings and fertilizers, not labor costs as in the old regulations. Along with that, according to Decree 58/2024/ND-CP of the Government on a number of investment policies in forestry, the funding for forest protection managed by the People's Committee at the commune level is only granted to communes in regions II and III at 180,000 VND/ha, however, when contracting forest protection to households, they must pay 600,000 VND/ha. Moreover, with this payment level still low, many households are not interested in participating.

Ms. HTV, Khanh Khe commune, Van Quan district said: Khanh Khe is a commune in region 3, our lives are still difficult, the economy mainly depends on hills and forests. The forest area of ​​my family was surveyed by the authorities to support the forest protection fund. However, the support level is only 600,000 VND/ha/year, my family has 2 hectares, so 1.2 million VND is too low. I propose that the State pay attention to raising the support level higher so that we have more funds to invest in more effective forest management.

Along with the above reasons, there are also subjective reasons such as the slow delivery of planning targets and capital from the district level to the grassroots level, in some places taking up to 2-3 months after the Provincial People's Committee has made a decision. At the grassroots level, many officials have to take on many jobs concurrently, their professional qualifications are limited, leading to confusion in the implementation process, especially in preparing verification and design documents. The heavy dependence on consulting units also causes the approval process to be prolonged, resulting in low disbursement results. For example, in 2024, only Loc Binh district disbursed the highest amount of nearly 3.4 billion VND, while most of the remaining districts had low disbursement or had not yet disbursed.

Focus on solving difficulties

Faced with many difficulties and obstacles in implementing Sub-project 1, in order to speed up the disbursement of capital to ethnic minorities and achieve the goals of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas by the end of 2025, all levels and sectors in the province have been focusing on providing solutions to overcome difficulties in the project implementation process.

Through our research, we learned that the Provincial People's Committee has issued specific and strong directives to the districts in implementing the project, and at the same time requested the People's Committees of the districts to strengthen the inspection and supervision of the contents related to the sub-project. At the end of 2024, the Provincial People's Committee also requested the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions (the standing agency of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas for the period 2021 - 2030) to preside over and coordinate with the central ministries and branches to advise the Government on decentralizing the implementation mechanism and policies for each region to ensure the application of mechanisms and policies suitable to the socio-economic characteristics, especially in mountainous areas such as Lang Son province; increase the support level for contents such as: support for forest protection contracts, support for forest protection, and afforestation for beneficiaries. In the context of Decree 58/2024/ND-CP taking effect (from July 15, 2024), the Provincial People's Committee has been actively coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to soon have specific instructions, and promptly issue regulations and investment levels under the province's authority, creating a favorable legal corridor for project implementation. There should be reasonable transitional solutions so as not to interrupt ongoing activities...

Regarding the relevant departments and branches, mainly the Department of Agriculture and Environment, they have been focusing on solving arising problems. Mr. Hoang Van Chieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, added: In the coming time, the Department will speed up the early implementation progress of specialized agencies and local authorities. At the same time, actively connect and link between product consumption units and forest households to develop non-timber trees under the forest canopy. The Department will promptly implement the State's policy on creating forest carbon credits from natural forest areas to increase stable and long-term sustainable income for households assigned to protect natural forests. The Department has also requested the People's Committees of districts to strengthen measures to direct and manage more drastically and effectively, ensuring the implementation progress according to plan; at the same time, it is necessary to strictly implement the information and reporting regime according to regulations, promptly reflect difficulties and problems to have a basis for advising and proposing to competent authorities to remove them.

During this time, the People's Committees of the districts have also been actively promoting propaganda and guiding policies and laws to the people, especially propaganda for ethnic minority and mountainous people to actively participate in project activities; at the same time, urgently assigning forest protection targets to the People's Committees at the commune level. Mr. Do Minh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Lang district, said: From 2022 to 2024, each year the district is assigned from 4 to 9 billion VND to implement Sub-project 1, however, the district has only disbursed nearly 30% of the total allocated capital. To speed up the implementation progress, from the beginning of 2025 until now, the People's Committee of the district has requested the People's Committees at the commune level to step up propaganda so that people clearly understand the meaning and benefits of forest protection and the provisions of law on controlling the conversion of natural forests to planted forests; assigning forest protection targets for special-use forests, protection forests, natural forests, etc. to the communes. Immediately after the 2025 capital is allocated, the District People's Committee will carry out disbursement steps according to regulations.

Through this, it can be seen that all levels and sectors in the province have been actively and resolutely removing difficulties and obstacles arising when implementing Sub-project 1 of Project 3. However, to truly remove the "bottlenecks", in the coming time, there need to be more drastic and synchronous solutions, contributing to promoting socio-economic development in the province's disadvantaged areas.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/diem-nghen-trong-thuc-hien-du-an-phat-trien-kinh-te-nong-lam-nghiep-5043389.html