Vietnam has poured an increasing sum into forest projects which include social security measures, thus better protecting forest resources and the people, said a senior official.

Hua Duc Nhi, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), made the statement at an annual review of the Forestry Sector Support Partnership (FSSP) in Hanoi on February 2.

The meeting evaluated the progress made in implementing the sector’s five-year development strategy through 2010, reviewed their partners’ performance and discussed plans on financial and technical assistance to the sector.

At the meeting, FSSP Co-Chair Juergen Hess expressed satisfaction at the effective cooperation between the FSSP and its partners as well as an initiative on holding workshops to work out sound solutions to climate change, especially a programme on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REED).

The FSSP forums are considered an important channel of information to strengthen dialogues on policy and increase the efficiency of the forestry sector’s performance, aimed at managing over 12 million hectares of forests in a sustainable way and improving living conditions for 25 million farmers living in or on forests.

The forestry sector is managing over 16 million of land, making up half of the national territory. Of the figure, 1.83 million ha is forest land and 3.41 million ha is bare hills.

The sector has been coping with numerous difficulties and challenges such as natural disasters and the global economic meltdown which led to decreases in exports, attraction of foreign direct investment and official development assistance in 2009.

Challenges are still looming over the sector in 2010, warned the deputy minister.

To solve the problems, MARD has worked out a number of solutions such as intensifying investment in forest planning and protection and encouraging institutional and individual investors as well as farmer households to expand productive forests, especially timber trees.

MARD leaders said Vietnam’s role and position is increasing at international negotiations and forums on forestry. The country is the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission and has raised a number of initiatives to improve the agency’s performance.

Vietnam is one of the leading countries in original tropical forest conservation and one of the nine countries selected by the UN to implement the UN-REED./.