Vietnam hopes USAID and WWF will continue to support sustainable development of the forestry sector

Overview of the working session

In recent years, the cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and USAID has achieved many positive results, contributing to the sustainable development of Vietnam's agricultural sector. In the past 5 years, USAID has funded hundreds of millions of USD to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities of Vietnam through programs and projects, including forestry, natural disaster and epidemic prevention, and climate change adaptation. In particular, USAID has provided much support to Vietnam in the fields of wildlife conservation, sustainable forest management, and biodiversity conservation with the active participation of WWF.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri proposed that USAID and WWF continue to support Vietnam in sustainable forestry development.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri thanked USAID and WWF for their support and cooperation in the field of forest biodiversity conservation. Thanks to that, Vietnam's forestry sector has achieved many successes in recent years. After many efforts, Vietnam now has a forest area of nearly 15 million hectares, a forest coverage rate of over 42%, and an export value of wood and forest products of over 15 billion USD. These results come not only from the efforts of people, businesses, units and individuals who are forest owners and forest management and protection forces, but also from the support and cooperation of international organizations, including USAID and WWF.

Ms. Aler Grubbs, Director of USAID Vietnam, said that in recent times, USAID has had many cooperative activities with Vietnam, focusing on responding to the impacts of climate change, illegal wildlife trade, and biodiversity conservation. She highly appreciated Vietnam's achievements in the field of nature conservation, which showed that the cooperation between the two sides was very effective. In particular, recently, the Vietnamese delegation visited major National Parks in the United States. After the visit, Vietnam drew lessons to apply to forest management, protection, and biodiversity conservation in the coming time. At the same time, the visit became a source of inspiration for Vietnam to apply a "national park passport" with the aim of further promoting forest ecotourism activities.

Ms. Aler Grubbs, Director of USAID Vietnam, shared at the meeting.

Mr. Prasanna De Silva, Senior Executive Director, Manager of WWF Global Offices, highly appreciated the support from Vietnam in the biodiversity protection activities implemented by WWF. He expressed his joy that in a short time, the cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and WWF has achieved positive results, creating a foundation for the process of support and learning between the two sides in the future in many fields, including forest management and protection as well as other aspects in the management and development of protected areas and national parks.

Not only at the central level, the cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and WWF has also received support from localities and achieved positive results in raising awareness as well as implementing practical activities on biodiversity protection. These are bright spots that can be proud of the cooperation between the two sides.

Mr. Prasanna De Silva, Senior Executive Director, Managing WWF Global Offices shared at the meeting.

Sharing at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri expressed his gratitude to USAID and WWF for their active support to Vietnam in overcoming the consequences of the recent storm No. 3 ( Yagi ). After the historic storm Yagi, USAID provided a lot of support to Vietnam to help improve climate change resilience and enhance the capacity to respond to natural disasters and catastrophes for communities across the country.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri affirmed that investment in the forestry sector and forests is the least expensive and fastest way to combat climate change.

“Vietnam’s goal in the coming period is to preserve and develop the existing forest area, effectively exploit planted forests and production forests. In particular, with the motto of “using forests to nurture forests”, the Vietnamese forestry sector will focus on exploiting the biodiversity potential of forests to develop forest ecotourism, aiming for everyone to visit, enjoy the fresh air and forest landscape, at the same time, everyone is responsible for managing, protecting and developing forests”, Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri emphasized.

To achieve that goal, Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri suggested that in the coming time, USAID and WWF continue to support Vietnam in a number of areas such as maintaining the results of projects that have been and are being implemented, making an important contribution to the sustainable development of the forestry sector. At the same time, promoting the dissemination of project results to many other areas across the country.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri also requested USAID and WWF to support the development of strategies for biodiversity conservation and improve the capacity of forest management teams through more frequent organization of study tours, and experience exchange programs between forest management forces and between national parks, as well as support for modern equipment for this field.