The effectiveness of the policy on payment for forest environmental services.

Strengthen communication efforts.

Over the past period, the Nghe An Forest Protection and Development Fund has truly played an important role in mobilizing social resources for forest protection and development. To ensure that relevant levels, sectors, organizations, units, and people effectively implement the policy of payment for forest environmental services, the Nghe An Forest Protection and Development Fund has focused on disseminating information through various forms and methods of communication, thus creating positive changes in the implementation of the policy.

The Forest Protection and Development Fund has designed, printed, and distributed communication materials including: forest protection jackets, protective helmets, and safety equipment; student backpacks with content promoting the payment policy; and designed forest environmental services, edited, and printed a handbook. From the beginning of 2024 to the present, 12 training and awareness courses on the payment policy for forest environmental services have been organized, disseminating new content and relevant documents on forest protection and development in 12 communes in river basins providing forest environmental services in 6 districts: Que Phong, Quy Chau, Quy Hop, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, and Ky Son.

In addition, the Forest Protection and Development Fund collaborates with media outlets to disseminate information about the policy on payment for forest environmental services and regularly updates information and policies on the Forest Protection and Development Fund's website...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, Deputy Head of the Inspection and Monitoring Department – ​​in charge of communication work of the Forest Protection and Development Fund, said: “In 2024, the Fund focused on implementing communication activities according to the approved plan, and at the same time, the inspection and monitoring of the implementation of the forest environmental service payment policy was always emphasized. The Fund organized professional training courses on the forest environmental service monitoring framework for forest owners and Forest Ranger Stations in districts implementing the forest environmental service payment policy. The Fund proactively monitored, supervised, and regularly updated the situation of payment implementation and forest protection work in localities implementing the forest environmental service payment policy.”

The planting and care of replacement forests in the projects are carried out through a reporting system combined with on-site inspections, specifically: In the first 10 months of 2024, the Fund organized 13 inspection and monitoring visits on replacement forest planting, forest protection, and payment of forest environmental services at several projects, forest owners that are organizations, and district-level payment organizations in the districts.

Effectively mobilize revenue sources.

From the beginning of 2024 until now, the weather has been complex. In the first half of 2024, water levels in rivers, streams, lakes, and dams dropped, leading to a shortage of water for hydropower production, affecting revenue from forest environmental services and the income of forest owners and people protecting the forests. In addition, the division of administrative boundaries of many communes, villages, and hamlets in the forest environmental service area, and the ongoing forest allocation associated with forestry land allocation, have led to relatively significant changes in data on forest owners and forest managers.

From that revenue, the Fund disbursed forest environmental service fees and allocated funds to the reserve fund (from January 1, 2024 to November 5, 2024) totaling nearly 122 billion VND, including: nearly 109.84 billion VND for forest owners and forest protection activities; and over 6.4 billion VND for the reserve fund... Through these funds, in 2024 the total area of ​​forest for which forest environmental service fees were paid exceeded556,000 hectares.

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To effectively implement the policy on payment for forest environmental services, the Fund will continue to guide and urge forest owners (organizations) and district-level payment organizations to determine the area of ​​forest eligible for payment for forest environmental services in 2024. Simultaneously, it will share satellite imagery for reference to improve the forest area determination process. Forest owners (organizations) and district-level payment organizations will conduct verification/determination of the 2024 area based on: the results of annual forest change monitoring, the results of forest environmental service payments from the previous year, the results of field inspections and reviews, and consistency in the forest's characteristics and current status with the results of program reviews and verifications. By the end of 2024, the Forest Protection and Development Fund will advise the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to establish an inspection team to finalize the results of determining the area of ​​forests providing forest environmental services in the province. This will be based on the results of determining the forest area of ​​forest owners who are organizations and district-level payment organizations, serving as the basis for determining the unit price for payment and disbursing forest environmental service fees for 2024 to forest owners and beneficiaries.

Mr. Pham Ba Hung – Deputy Director of the Nghe An Forest Protection and Development Fund