Uong Bi City: Preparing conditions for new forest planting season

After more than 2 months of the storm, Uong Bi City has completed 3 rounds of approval for support for households with damaged forests with a total cost of over 1.5 billion VND. Currently, households and forestry companies are still actively implementing collection, clearing and preventing forest fires (PCCR), and preparing the site for new forest planting.

Households in Vang Danh ward take advantage of the opportunity to collect and clean up the forest.

Vang Danh Ward is one of the localities in the city with a large affected forest area with a total of nearly 600 hectares of 395 households completely damaged, of which the area severely damaged by 30% or more accounts for over 70%. The damaged forest areas are mainly acacia and eucalyptus trees that are 3 years old or older. Immediately after receiving instructions from the province and the city, the ward established a Review Council and a support team to inspect and verify the damage. By October 30, 2024, the ward had completed the appraisal and approval and was in the process of publicly posting the list of households with damaged forest areas that were supported at cultural houses.

The family of Mrs. Truong Thi Mui (Vang Danh ward) is one of the households with a heavily damaged forest area with 8 hectares of mainly acacia trees aged 3 to 5 years completely broken. After the local authorities verified, counted and promoted fire prevention and control work, her family proactively hired workers to collect the trees that could still be used, while simultaneously cleaning up broken trees, undergrowth, limiting combustible materials and preparing the site for new forest planting.

Ms. Truong Thi Mui said: If the weather is favorable and there is no storm, the family's 8ha will earn an average of 80 million VND/ha, however, the storm has damaged all of the family's acacia area, and even if they try to harvest it, they will only earn about 20 million VND/ha. However, the family is still trying to overcome this, first cleaning up the scene, and after Tet, when they have seedlings, they will plant a new crop.

Workers of Uong Bi Forestry Company Limited collect and clean the forest, preparing the site for new forest planting.

For Uong Bi Forestry One Member Co., Ltd., although it is still facing many difficulties due to the large forest area affected by storm No. 3, including production forests and protective forests with about 2,300 hectares, mainly acacia and eucalyptus, of which the damaged area of 70% or more is nearly 1,700 hectares, the remaining area is from 5 to less than 70%. At this time, the Company is also arranging human resources to try to collect and do a good job of fire prevention and control. For the area of natural forests and protective forests with state budget capital, the unit is currently carrying out demarcation and counting, waiting for a solution.

According to Mr. Vu Van Bong, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Director of Uong Bi Forestry One Member Co., Ltd.: For the production forest area that has been contracted to households, the Company directs households to actively collect, process the ground cover, clean the forest, and build firebreaks. At the same time, coordinate with local authorities to strengthen information and propaganda work to people not to bring flammable materials when going to the forest to avoid the risk of forest fires during the dry season. Currently, the natural forest area is still in the demarcation and counting stage, while the Company has overcome about 60% of the production forest. The Company is preparing about 4 million seedlings, and it is expected that by April 2025, the broken areas will be planted.

In order to promptly overcome the consequences of storm No. 3 and minimize difficulties for those who directly live on forestry and do business in the area, the People's Committee of Uong Bi City has issued more than 20 directive documents to review and count the damage, support and restore production for affected households. According to initial statistics, the whole city has more than 5,200 hectares out of nearly 13,000 hectares of forest damaged by storm No. 3 by 30% or more, affecting more than 2,000 households, units and forestry companies. The main damaged trees are pine, acacia, eucalyptus, sassafras, lim, giổi, lát, and camellia yellow... After nearly 2 months of review, inventory and assessment, the City's Appraisal Council approved 3 support periods for 228 households with over 460 hectares, with a total cost of over 1.5 billion VND. Currently, the People's Committees of communes and wards are publicly posting the results, and after 30 days will make payments to production households according to regulations.

Mr. Tran Phi Long, Head of the Economic Department of Uong Bi City, said: The city is still receiving documents and appraising and approving households with damaged forest areas that are eligible for support. At the same time, directing specialized departments, People's Committees of wards and communes and related agencies to develop plans for forest clearance, sanitation and fire prevention. In addition, the City People's Committee has directed wards and communes to review and make a list of damaged production households to request the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee to support forest clearance and sanitation with a budget of 1 million VND/ha. It is expected that the proposed budget will be over 1 billion VND.

Source