A mangrove forest in the southernmost province of Ca Mau. (Source: VNA)Ca Mau (VNA) – The southernmost province of Ca Mau is taking active efforts to plant mangrove forests on targeted land to adapt to climate change.
The locality plans to plant between 10,000 – 15,000 hectares of forests by 2020, costing an estimated 20 billion VND (900,000 USD). The figure includes 5,000 hectares of coastal preventive mangrove forests and some 9,000 – 10,000 hectares of commercial forests.
In 2016 alone, 1,000 hectares of new preventive forests will be developed.
To that end, communication work has been promoted to raise the awareness of the significance of afforestation among the community.
Afforestation quotas have been allocated to all leaders of relevant bodies while incentives have been offered to encourage local farmers’ involvement in planting and managing forests.
Ca Mau has the 67,000-hectare U Minh Ha cajuput forest and 35,000 hectares of preventive forests stretching along its 254 km coastline.
However, the province loses around 100 hectares of coastal forest each year due to erosion. The loss of forest also leads to further erosion of land.
In addition, the forest coverage in Ca Mau has also decreased considerably since the 1990s as local people cut down coastal mangroves for shrimp farming.
There are more than 3,000 households living in the province’s mangroves forests. Over 1,200 of them are in unsafe conditions, especially during the rainy and stormy season.
Vietnam is one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change and its rice granary, the Mekong Delta, is among the three hardest hit deltas on the globe.-VNA
