The Vietnam Administration of Forestry has proposed a USD896m sustainable development plan to protect, restore and develop the forest in the Central Highlands.

People illegally cultivate forest land in Kon Tum Province

On September 20, the Forest Protection Department, under the Administration of Forestry, held a meeting about improving forest management and protection activities during 2016-2020.

Statistics from the Administration of Forestry show that forested area in the Central Highlands are being reduced at alarming rate. There are only 2.56 million hectares of forested land left in the five provinces with coverage of 46.08%. From 2010 to 2015, the region lost 25.5 million cubic metres of forest reserves. In addition, afforestation is being too slowly implemented, with only 49,500 hectares regrown from 2011 to 2015.

Illegal logging and encroachment by individuals and organisations have been blamed. State agencies are also said to have failed to carry out their responsibility.

The administration proposed the forest protection, restoration and sustainable development plan from 2016 to 2025. According to the plan, the forest area will be increased by 2.76 million hectares and the coverage increased to 49.6%.

The administration said they would need nearly VND20trn to carry out this project. They plan to use VND7.34trn (USD329m) from the state budget, VND3.33trn from ODA and the rest from other sources.

However, many people claimed that the project is impractical. A forest ranger in Dak Lak Province said in order to increase the forested land, it must be completely protected from illegal loggers and encroachment and this would be a difficult task.

Over 791,000 hectares are allocated for forestry development but a large areas aren’t capable of supporting more trees. It's almost impossible to recover the area that have been encroached by the locals to raise industrial crops. They also have no solution to deal with immigrants from other regions who illegally cultivate forest land.

Associate Professor Bao Huy From Tay Nguyen University expressed doubts over the management and feasibility of the project.

Nguyen Viet Dung, deputy director of People and Nature Reconciliation, said, "The forestation plan will only succeed when the people see profits and sustainable benefits similar to growing cassava or coffee farms."

In response, Nguyen Quoc Tri, vice head of the Administration of Forestry said they had made calculation on how much forest would be planted annually.

Dtinews