The northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang is taking the lead in forest acreage, increasing its forest coverage to 64.3 percent in 2013, up from 31.2 percent 20 years ago.
According to statistics, the province has planted almost 45,000 ha of forest since 2010. In 2013 alone, the locality invested nearly 400 billion VND (18.8 million USD) to plant 13,788 ha of forest. Forest planting plays an important role in reducing poverty in Tuyen Quang, generating on average 60-70 million VND/ha in revenue.
Tuyen Quang has almost 447,000 ha of forest, accounting for 76 percent of its natural land. The province considers afforestation an important economic sector, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction and environmental protection.
In recent years, the province took several measures to encourage the investment and involvement of the whole of society in afforestation as well as forest development and protection.
In addition, Tuyen Quang devised a plan for developing areas to grow raw materials for wood and paper processing plants with a total area of over 209,000 ha.
In order to continue tapping the effectiveness of forest planting and promoting forestry-based economic development from now until 2015, and beyond to 2020, the locality focuses on developing special use and protective forest, while creating links between forest planting, product processing and consumption.
It will also focus on mobilising social resources and calling on economic sectors to participate in forest protection and development.
The province has set a target of reaching a planted forest output of 90 cu m of timber/ha/period against the current output of 75 cu m of timber/ha/period, creating jobs for about 90,000 labourers by 2015.-VNA
