Illustrative image (Source: VNA) The Government has issued a decree to implement policies on protecting and developing forests in combination with those relating to fast and sustainable poverty reduction for ethnic minority groups from 2015-2020.
Ethnic minority households in mountainous and rural areas are expected to be the beneficiaries of the decree. They will be supported to reforest, protect forests and develop non-wood forest products.
As such, households involved in forest protection will be paid 400,000 VND (17.8 USD) per hectare per year, doubling the current level of payment.
Individuals can earn 10 million VND (445 USD) per hectare if the forest has trees that are more than 10 years old, and 6 million VND (267 USD) per hectare for trees that were planted less than a decade ago.
These households will also be granted additional support, such as a supply of rice and favourable interest rates for bank loans.
Each household can borrow a maximum of 15 million VND (667.5 USD) per hectare for reforestation with the interest rate of 1.2 percent annually from the Bank for Social Policies and the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.-VNA
