Sustainable forests project launched
Quang Tri (VNA) - A project on sustainable forests,
jointly implemented by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
(BMEL) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), has
officially launched.
The project, entitled ’Promotion of Sustainable
Management of Production Forests by Forest Companies in Vietnam, will be
carried out in the period between 2017 and 2019, with a total funding of
692,185 EUR (772,000 USD) and a counterpart fund of 55,000 EUR (61,000 USD).
The project was assigned to the Vietnamese
Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS), as the project owner, and DFS and
HessenForest (Germany), as consultants to provide technical support.
The three main objectives of the project are strengthening sustainable forest
management in the selected State forest companies; establishing a training
centre for sustainable forest management and forest certification; and
replication of capacity building for forest companies and related agencies
through training courses.
Currently, sustainable forest management and
forest certification is one of the top priorities in the forestry sector in
Vietnam, according to forestry experts.
The Forestry Development Strategy 2006-20 has
set a target of having at least 3 percent of production forest areas certified
as managed in a sustainable fashion by 2020, they said.
However, the implementation of sustainable
forest management and forest certification in Vietnam was far behind the
expected targets.
To promote sustainable forest management and
forest certification in Vietnam, one of the current priorities was to build the
capacity of forest owners and stakeholders for sustainable forest management.
With the support of the project, the training
centre for sustainable forest management and forest certification will be
established to deliver the training courses to forest owners across the country
from 2018.
This is a first model of training centre in Vietnam on sustainable forest
management and certification that will be built on a joint cooperation between
forestry research institute and forest companies (for demonstration
activities).
It is expected to make significant contribution to capacity building for the
stakeholders in the field of sustainable forest management in Vietnam,
contributing to the implementation of forest sector restructuring project.
As of 2016, about 205,000ha of forest were certified
for sustainable forest management.
On June 15, the project launch workshop was held
in Dong Ha city of Quang Tri province with the participation of representatives
from Vietnam Administration of Forestry, International Cooperation Department,
and Agriculture and Rural Development departments of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and
Thua Thien-Hue provinces and project partners.-VNA