Vietnamplus

Natural forest area in the Central Highlands region has been declining significantly due to illegal exploitation and deforestation.

The northern province of Thai Nguyen plans to splash out 840 billion VND (37 million USD) to restructure its agriculture, over 700 billion VND (30.8 million USD) of which comes from the state budget and the remainder is mobilised from other legal financial resources.

As of December 31, 2016, Vietnam had a total forest area of nearly 14.378 million hectares, including over 10.242 million hectares of natural forest and more than 4.135 million hectares of planted area, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

MARD announced the National REDD+ Action Programme, which aims to increase forest cover to 45 percent of national territory and contribute to an 8 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030

The forestry sector will work to increase its average production value to between 5.5 and 6 percent a year, forest coverage rate to 42 percent, and export value to at least 8 billion USD annually from now to 2020.

Vietnam set a target to increase its forest coverage to 41.45 percent to raise the timber export value to over 7.5 billion USD by 2020.

The central province of Thua Thien-Hue launched a tree planting festival on February 2 with 120 sao den trees (Hopea odorata), a rare species, planted in An Dong ward of Hue city.

The forestry sector will protect, develop and sustainably use existing forest areas and land fund for forest development with a view to raising the country’s forest coverage to 47.25 percent in 2017.

The northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang has set to plant 11,400 hectares of new forests in 2017, raising its forest coverage to over 60 percent.

The agriculture ministry is drawing up plans for a project on sustainable forest protection, restoration and development in the Central Highlands in an effort to stop the loss of forest coverage.

The planted forest area in Vietnam reached 128,800 hectares in the first eight months of this year, a year-on-year decline of 8.7 percent, due to floods in northern mountainous provinces in August.

Twenty-eight centrally-run coastal cities and provinces have planted 4,486 hectares of forests along their shores since the beginning of 2016, falling short of the quota set in a nationwide project to

The Central Highlands province of Dak Lak is taking a number of measures to reclaim nearly 51,000 hectares of forest land that were illegally occupied for reforestation.

The central city of Da Nang is making every effort to raise the ratio of forest coverage to over 45 percent, with nearly 41,000 hectares of natural and 16,000 hectares of planted forest.

The MARD has proposed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc suspend a project on hydropower plants in the Central Highlands Province of Dak Lak to protect the local environment and wild animals.

Bac Kan province should promote its image and devise more investment attraction policies to lure more Japanese businesses to the locality, said Minister at the Japan Embassy in Vietnam Nagai Katsuro.

The forestry sector will focus on promoting the sustainable management and certification of forests in the coming years, according to Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

The southern province of Long An has set a target of reaching 11.19 percent in forest coverage by 2020.

The northeastern province of Quang Ninh announced a plan on green growth at a workshop on November 17 with the participation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The island district of Phu Quy in the central province of Binh Thuan has raised its forest coverage rate to 45 percent with a total area of 800 hectares.