Vietnam will actively pursue the fight against climate changes and develop its forests to minimise carbon emissions.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hua Duc Nhi, stated this at a workshop on Vietnam ’s forestry policy, the current situation and the way forward for the period 2011-2015, jointly held by the General Forestry Department, the Vietnam-Germany Forestry Programme (GTZ/FP) and the Forestry Sector Support Partnership (FSSP) in Hanoi on December 7.
At the workshop, local and foreign researchers, policy-makers and representatives from private processing sector and forestry businesses discussed a list of priority groups and reviewed policies for 2011-2015.
There are problems with laws relating to forests and forestry, particularly laws on land management and the management of biodiversity and natural resources, said Nhi, adding that the workshop will help to improve policies on forestry protection and sustainable forest development.
He underlined Vietnam’s forestry policy of allocating forests and forest land to households, individuals and organisations to protect, develop and manage, in which the State still has direct management.
Vietnam has obtained major achievements in forestry, but there were still troubles in implementing forestry policies during the 2006-2010 period, said Juergen Hess, Director of the GTZ Programme for the management of natural resources and co-chairman of the FSSP. The revision of policies for the 2011-2015 period should be carried out soon, he added.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, forests had covered almost 14.76 million hectares by early 2009, including 6.58 million ha of forests for production, 6.12 million ha of protected forests and 2.06 million ha of forests for special use.
About 70 percent of forestry land is allocated to households, businesses and State agencies to protect and develop./.
