Son La exploits the potential of more than 1 million carbon credits from forests

On March 29, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Son La worked with the Provincial Forest Protection Department on organization, apparatus, and operating model; results of the implementation of tasks in the first quarter, directions and tasks for the last 9 months of 2025, orientation to 2030; difficulties, obstacles, and bottlenecks that need to be focused on and resolved.

Great potential for forest carbon credits

According to the report of the Forestry Sub-Department, in order to carry out the assigned key tasks, programs and projects, the Sub-Department has advised the Provincial People's Committee to grant investment policies for 4 macadamia development projects, covering an area of ​​over 3,600 hectares; to date, more than 1,600 hectares have been planted, the harvested area is 915 hectares, with an expected output of over 822 tons.

Overview of the working session. Photo: Duc Binh.

The Department has consulted and submitted for approval the policy of allowing the conversion of forest use purposes to other purposes of 14 works and projects, with a total area of ​​more than 243 hectares of forest, of which, more than 111 hectares are for the project of building the Hoa Binh - Moc Chau expressway through the province; more than 77 hectares of the project of building traffic routes under the National Target Program for socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas...

Regarding forest management, protection, and forest fire prevention and fighting, the Department has advised on organizing a conference to sign a commitment between the Chairmen of the People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee on forest management, protection, development, and payment for forest environmental services in 2025. In the first 3 months of the year, the Department inspected, detected, and handled 36 violations in the forestry sector, a decrease of 15 cases compared to the same period.

In particular, regarding the forest carbon credit market, Son La has a large forest reserve, with more than 671,000 hectares of forest, a coverage rate of 47.6%; the number of industrial emission facilities is low. According to preliminary statistics, the estimated number of forest carbon credits in Son La has the potential to reach nearly 1.2 million credits annually.

However, the legal corridor related to the exchange of greenhouse gas emission quotas and forest carbon credits is currently being built and completed by ministries and branches, therefore, the province has not yet had any activities of exchanging forest carbon credits internationally.

Proposal to build a model of grassroots Forest Protection Department

Reporting at the meeting, Head of the Forest Protection Department Nguyen Huy Tuan said that the current problems related to the management and protection of Son La forests are some cases of disagreement on land use purposes and forest land planning purposes between land use right certificates and forest land planning; statistics and monitoring of forest changes are not synchronized with annual land statistics...

Son La is still stuck in some cases of disagreement on land use purposes and forest land planning purposes between land use right certificates and forest land planning. Photo: Nguyen Nga.

Regarding the goal of increasing forest coverage to 50% by 2030, to achieve a forest coverage of 48.5%, the area of ​​newly planted forests in the 2026-2030 period in the whole province is over 14,000 hectares, the investment capital for forest development is about 832 billion VND. Thus, if the forest coverage is increased to 50%, nearly 2,000 billion VND of investment capital is needed. This is a large source of capital that the local budget cannot meet the requirements.

Therefore, the Forest Protection Department recommends that the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Son La propose to the Provincial People's Committee and the Provincial Party Committee to maintain a stable forest coverage target of 48.5%; at the same time, approve the policy of building a project to plant and restore special-use protective forests in the medium-term investment capital plan for 2026-2030.

Notably, regarding the planned roadmap to abolish the district level and rearrange the commune-level administrative units, Mr. Nguyen Huy Tuan proposed assigning the Sub-Department to develop a Project to reorganize the apparatus of the district-level Forest Protection Units in the direction of organizing grassroots Forest Protection Units associated with the communes and wards after the merger, creating favorable conditions for the work of management, protection, forest fire prevention and fighting, and enforcement of forestry laws.

Forest management and protection at the root, linked to the locality

Speaking at the conference, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Son La, Mr. Phung Kim Son acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts and determination of the forest rangers at all levels in perfecting the organization and apparatus, and implementing functions and tasks after the merger.

Mr. Phung Kim Son, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, gave a speech at the meeting. Photo: Duc Binh.

In the immediate future, Son La Forest Protection Department needs to continue to focus on managing the existing forest area well; effectively deploy forest fire prevention and fighting solutions, protect forests at the root, in conjunction with the locality, local authorities; organize and deploy forest rangers as a specialized force in forest fire prevention and fighting, especially during the dry season lasting from October of the previous year to April of the following year.

Mr. Son said that the Department needs to develop topics and solutions to resolve conflicts and bottlenecks in forest management and land management; solutions for stable and sustainable forest development; improve capacity for forest management, protection, forest fire prevention and fighting; develop forest economy associated with improving the livelihoods of people who rely on forests...

The Department needs to make efforts to complete the tasks and targets on forest management and protection set for 2025, including: Planting 1,430 hectares of concentrated forests, planting 1 million scattered trees, increasing forest cover to 48.5%... continuing to implement the Target Program for Sustainable Forestry Development for the period 2021-2025, and developing a Project for Sustainable Forestry Development for the period 2026-2030.

Mr. Phung Kim Son assigned the Department's specialized departments to advise and remove obstacles in adjusting land records, issuing land use right certificates; support the completion of land procedures for businesses and cooperatives developing macadamia; develop coordination regulations between related specialized departments to facilitate the work of advising on the implementation of tasks...

Son La Forestry Sub-Department is an administrative organization under the Department of Agriculture and Environment, including: 5 specialized departments, 2 mobile forest ranger and forest fire prevention and fighting teams, 17 district forest ranger stations, 5 special-use and protective forest management boards.

After the merger, the Forest Protection Department was assigned 21 main tasks and 40 specific tasks, assisting the Director of the Department in performing the advisory function to the Provincial People's Committee in state management of the forestry sector in the province; including 2 new tasks on biodiversity and climate change.

Source: https://nongnghiep.vn/son-la-khai-thac-tiem-nang-hon-1-trieu-tin-chi-carbon-tu-rung-d745489.html