VietNamNet Bridge – The investors, who want to build hydropower plants or exploit minerals on the forest land, will have to re-plant the same area of forests.

From July 1, 2013, the Circular No. 24 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on growing forests to replace the forests to be destroyed for other purposes would take effects.

Under the circular, the investors would have the responsibility of compensate the area of forests they would use for the projects with the same area of forests to be planted in other places.

According to Nguyen Quang Duong, Director of the Finance Planning Department, an arm of MARD, the new circular aims to prevent from the forest area decline.

The government’s Decree No. 23 that guides the implementation of the Forest Protection Law also stipulates the responsibility of the investors to destroy forests to clear site for the project development. However, the decree says investors only have to compensate people or afforestation yards when using their forest land.

The investors who take the forest land to develop hydropower plants, exploit nature or build roads and don’t have to make compensation, because the forest land belongs to the state.

Nevertheless, too much forest land has been cleared in the last few years and used by investors to develop industrial projects, which has led to the sharp decline in the natural forest area.

With the Circular No. 24, when an enterprise wants to use a certain forest land in one locality for developing its projects, it would have to grow a forest on the same area in this or another locality.

The decline in the natural forest area due to the development of mining and hydropower plant projects was put into discussion at the National Assembly’s working session in December 2012. At that time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed not to license hydropower plant projects, if there is no land fund for the new afforestation.

Regarding the afforestation costs, Duong said that it costs VND15-20 million per hectares during a period of four years on average.

The investors, who cannot re-plant forests to replace the forests they take away, would have to pay money to the central fund of forest protection and development, which would organize the plantation and protection of forests in other places.

The Circular No. 24 takes effects from July 1, 2013, and the projects which had fulfilled the conversion of the forest use purposes prior to July 1 would have complete the procedures on afforestation by 2014 at the latest.

A report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that 20,000 hectares of forests had changed their use purposes by the end of 2012, i.e. the forests land had been used for other purposes. The majority of the forests have been converted for the development of hydropower plants.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam has programmed 1.100 hydropower plant projects with the total designed capacity of 26,000 MW.

The massive development of hydropower plants which have caused serious consequences is now a burning issue put into the discussion at the ongoing National Assembly’s session. Supervising hydropower projects, together with the restructuring of the banking system, is one of the most important duties congressmen have asked to focus on in the immediate time.

Thien Nhien