Bac Giang seeks to improve forestry production value

Bac Giang (VNA) – The northern province of Bac Giang is striving to increase the average forestry production value by 6% a year by 2030, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The province is also working to expand the forest area with sustainable forest management certification to over 10,000 hectares by 2025, and over 15,000 hectares by 2030.

The province is focused on developing the forestry economy, including developing the wood and non-wood processing industry, supporting industries, and new products with high added value. The goal is for the province to have an export value of wood and forest products to reach 3.5 trillion VND (144.3 million USD) by 2025 and 5 trillion VND by 2030.

To that end, Bac Giang is stepping up mechanisation and application of science and technology, and improving productivity, efficiency of planted forests in the direction of optimising the production system and forest product value chain. It will create a mechanism to mobilise investment from all sources and legal contributions from businesses, and call for sponsorship from domestic and foreign organisations and individuals in the field of forestry, and forest protection and development.

Bac Giang will pay attention to building linkages in various forms between economic sectors, cooperative economy, and sharing economy in forestry, while continuing to innovate and improve the operational efficiency of businesses and develop cooperatives and households participating in forestry production.

It will well structure three types of forests in accordance with the provincial forestry planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister. The province's focus will be to manage and protect existing forest areas, especially over 55,000 hectares of natural forests, and stabilising the concentrated material forest area of about 80,000 hectares (accounting for 74% of the total production forest land area).

In addition, the locality will invest in intensive farming and apply silvicultural techniques to improve productivity and quality of planted forests, to raise the area of large timber plantations in Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam and Yen The districts to about 17,000 hectares by 2025.

It will strive for an average planted forest productivity of 22 cubic metres per hectare a year or more by 2025, timber output of 1 million cu.m, of which 40% of timber output from planted forests is processed for export.

In implementing the provincial forestry masterplan for 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister in Decision 219/QD-TTg on February 17, 2022, the province has gradually formed concentrated planted forests based on market needs, and shifted the forest management, protection and development work towards sustainability.

The province has strengthened the implementation of measures to manage and protect over 160,000 hectares of existing forests, especially more than 55,000 hectares of natural forests.

In the 2021-2023 period, the locality has planted 27,155 hectares of concentrated forests (an average of over 9,000 hectares per year) and over 18.5 million scattered trees of all kinds.

Forest management, protection and development in Bac Giang has helped create jobs for tens of thousands of labourers, and contributed to poverty reduction, economic growth, and is playing a major role in protecting the ecological environment./.