Prepared for forest fires

Phu Yen Newspaper interviewed Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, Deputy Head of the Provincial Forest Protection Department regarding the plan to inspect forest protection and forest fire prevention and fighting in 2025.

Mr. Nguyen Van Toan

* What is the current status of natural forests and planted forests in the whole province, sir?

- According to the results of forest developments and the announcement of forest status in 2024, the whole province has 260,898.18 hectares of forest (including: natural forest area of ​​126,959.84 hectares, planted forest area of ​​113,318.16 hectares, and forest area that has been planted but has not met the criteria for becoming a forest is 20,620.18 hectares). Of which, the forest area managed by protection and special-use forest management boards and economic forest planting organizations is 124,898.07 hectares; households, individuals and communities manage 52,777.18 hectares; the remaining commune People's Committee manages the forest area that has not been assigned or leased, 83,222.93 hectares. The forest area calculated as forest cover ratio is 240,278 hectares, equivalent to 47.8%.

To achieve the above figures, in recent years, the Forestry sector has made efforts in forest management and protection, including forest fire prevention and fighting (FF) in the dry season. Currently, Phu Yen is entering hot days, with potential risks that can cause forest fires. With the assigned responsibility, we have issued a plan to inspect FFF in 2025. This is the basis for the Forestry sector to proactively respond to forest fire situations in the coming time.

* How has PCCCR work been in recent years? What are the advantages and difficulties, sir?

- In recent years, forest protection and PCCCR activities have received comprehensive attention and leadership from the Party, National Assembly and Government, and have been implemented synchronously and effectively from the central to local levels.

Every year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) issues documents directing, urging and guiding localities on forest protection and forest fire prevention and control; develops plans for forest protection and forest fire prevention and control; develops or reviews forest fire prevention and control plans. At the same time, it issues directives, telegrams and many documents directing and urging localities during the peak of the dry season to strengthen forest protection and forest fire prevention and control.

In April, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan 60/KH-UBND to proactively implement PCCCR work. On that basis, the Forestry sector deployed many documents to carry out tasks on forest protection and PCCCR to the Provincial Forest Protection Department, protection and special-use forest management boards and economic forest planting organizations.

Regarding coordination, we focus on coordinating with functional agencies and press and media agencies in the province to do a good job of propaganda, gradually improving people's awareness in forest protection and forest fire prevention and control.

Over the years, the Forestry sector has always had proactive plans to prevent and fight forest fires. Photo: NGO NHAT

In terms of advantages, the forestry sector receives regular attention from ministries, sectors and localities, so there are many specific policies and solutions on forest management, protection and PCCCR. The system of legal documents, mechanisms and policies on forest management, protection and PCCCR is increasingly complete, suitable for practice, creating a legal corridor to mobilize resources for forestry development. The policy of socializing forest management and protection, diversifying economic sectors in forestry, allocating land, allocating forests, and contracting forest protection has come into life.

In recent times, the role and responsibility of state management of forests of sectors, authorities at all levels, and social organizations have been increasingly clarified and enhanced; awareness and responsibility of localities and people about the importance of forests have been significantly raised.

Currently, we have many solutions to improve capacity in forest fire prevention and control. The ability of forest rangers to forecast, warn of forest fire risks and detect forest fires early has been improved, enhanced, proactive, and ready to respond to forest fire situations.

Inter-sectoral coordination, especially mobilizing military and police units stationed in the area to participate in inspection and examination activities of fire prevention and control work, is increasingly effective.

Regarding difficulties, the Project to enhance the capacity of forest rangers in forest management and protection and forest fire prevention and control in Phu Yen province in the period of 2021-2030 has received attention and direction from the Provincial People's Committee. However, the central government has not yet promptly arranged investment funding to organize the implementation of this project.

Investment in facilities, means and equipment for forest fire prevention and control work is still limited and does not meet the requirements. Research, application and transfer of science and technology in forest fire forecasting, warning and forest fire prevention and control solutions are still limited. Along with that, access to advanced science and technology in the world still faces many difficulties in terms of investment costs and applied technology; training and coaching are not commensurate with the task.

Forest rangers inspect fire prevention and fighting equipment. Photo: NGO NHAT

* The Provincial Forest Protection Department has just planned to inspect forest protection and fire prevention and control work in 2025. Are there any differences compared to previous years? Are the authorities proactive, have they developed any plans and solutions?

- According to the plan to inspect forest protection and PCCCR work in 2025, we plan to inspect 3 forest owners which are organizations and 9 commune-level People's Committees, from May 7-14.

Compared to previous years, in 2025, in addition to Plan 06/KH-CCKL dated April 21, 2025 of the Provincial Forest Protection Department, the Department of Agriculture and Environment issued a plan to inspect the management, protection, use and development of forests of protective forest management boards, including integrating PCCCR inspection.

Currently, most People's Committees of districts, towns and cities have proactively issued plans to implement forest management, protection and fire prevention and control in 2025. Forest rangers of districts, towns and cities have proactively organized reviews and added forest fire risk areas to the forest status map in 2024 to inform forest owners and commune-level People's Committees to continue to proactively, drastically, synchronously and effectively implement solutions on fire prevention and control in 2025.

* Thank you!

Source: https://baophuyen.vn/kinh-te/202504/san-sang-ung-pho-voi-chay-rung-2426340/