VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), in coordination with the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet), organised a seminar in Hanoi on October 27 on regenerating national forests.

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Photo: VOV

The seminar established several proposals for environmental regrowth, and confirmed the potential reduction in hunger and poverty.

Nguyen Ngoc Binh, Deputy Head of the Forestry Department under MARD, said Vietnam now has about 14 million hectares of forest, including 10 million hectares of natural forest and 4 hectares of planned forest. The seminar aimed to regrow last natural forest land.

Qu Guilin, President of the APFNet, said it will be the first project in Vietnam with assistance from APFNet. The project will be carried out in Phu Tho province over 24 months, cost total US$499,750. “It aims to increase forest coverage in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region to at least 20 million hectares by 2020,” he said.

The project is scheduled to build 50 hectares of planted forest and 500 bamboo hedges, also contributing to raising local people’s income.

It also focused on building policies with the purpose of attracting people’s attention to managing the forest firmly and creating conditions for hunger eradication and poverty reduction.

VietNamNet/VOV