Economic advantages of forests in Nghe An: Great potential

(Baonghean) - Forests are an extremely valuable resource for human life. Since ancient times, our ancestors have emphasized the advantages of "golden forests and silver seas". Currently, in addition to conservation, the development and planting of raw material forests in Nghe An has proven to be effective in bringing about great economic benefits, while maintaining ecological balance and protecting the living environment.

Located in the center of North Central Vietnam, Nghe An has the largest forest and forestry land area in the country. According to the forest inventory results of Nghe An province (April 2016), the whole province has 942,508 hectares of forest, of which, planted wood material forest is 145,526 hectares; land without forest under production forest planning is 166,745 hectares. This is a great potential for developing wood material forests to serve the needs of processing planted forest wood in the province.

Forestry is an economic sector that takes advantage of the terrain in Nghe An. In particular, there are a number of wood processing factories in the area, ensuring stable output for the forestry industry. Photo: NS

Con Cuong is one of the districts with a fairly large forest area with nearly 154,600 hectares of forest and forestry land, accounting for 88.91% of the total natural land area. Mr. Ho Dang Tai - Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Board, former Vice Chairman of the Con Cuong District People's Committee said: "Con Cuong has 13 communes and towns, of which 10 communes are located in extremely difficult areas enjoying the Government's 135 regime. All communes and towns plant forests and their main income comes from forests."

We went to Mau Duc commune, Con Cuong district on the left bank of Lam river with over 90% of the population being Thai ethnic people. Previously, Mau Duc people's lives mainly depended on agricultural production, the poverty rate was over 40%. Taking advantage of the local forest land, the Party Executive Committee of the commune issued Resolution No. 01-NQ/DU "Making acacia one of the key trees in Mau Duc's economic development in the coming years". Planting raw material forests was discussed and included in Party cell meetings in villages, with cadres and party members as the core and leading by example. In 2003, the whole commune planted only 2 hectares of acacia, in 2012 there were 650 hectares, and by 2016 the area of ​​raw material forests had reached 1,800 hectares.

Mr. Lo Van Thang in Na Duoi village (Mau Duc commune) affirmed: "Thanks to planting acacia, my family's life has been able to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty". According to Mr. Ha Manh Linh - Chairman of Mau Duc Commune People's Council: Forest planting has now become an attractive profession for people in the commune. People of Mau Duc ethnic groups can live on the forest and get rich thanks to the forest. Currently, Mau Duc has over 80% of households in the commune participating in planting raw material forests.

Exploiting planted forests in Quy Chau district. Photo: Nguyen Son

Like Mau Duc, many places in Nghe An have raw material forests, people's lives have improved a lot. For example, in Quy Chau district, in 2010, the newly planted area and post-exploitation planting area was more than 5,325 hectares, in the period of 2011 - 2016 it reached nearly 7,000 hectares, including key trees such as hybrid acacia, bamboo, meters and indigenous trees with high economic value, most concentrated in the communes of Chau Binh, Chau Hoi, Chau Hanh and Chau Binh. In addition to afforestation, the protection and conservation work has been focused on promoting, thereby increasing the current forest cover to 78%.

According to the calculations of forest planting households, with the current price of raw materials, each hectare of forest planted with raw materials at harvest time earns an average of about 60 million VND/ha; minus the cost of seeds, fertilizers, labor and bank loan interest of about 20 million VND, the profit is 40 million VND. Not to mention the income from intercropping plants when the forest canopy has not closed yet such as aromatic roots, cassava, pineapple... Thus, the average profit is more than 5 million VND/ha per year, only having to plant and care for the first 3 years; the remaining years only have to protect, it can be said that this is a significant income for households with forest land and affirms the effectiveness of forest planting.

In addition to the efforts of localities, in recent years, Nghe An Forestry sector has made a strong shift from exploiting natural forests to protecting, planting, enriching forests and developing raw material forests towards sustainable development, contributing to making Nghe An one of the localities with the highest forest coverage in the country, reaching 57.2% in 2015. From 2011 to present, the area of ​​newly planted forests has always reached over 15,000 hectares/year.

The development of forest plantation has impacted the export turnover from wood processing in the whole province to increase sharply: In 2010, it was only 30 million USD, in 2015, it was 115.9 million USD, accounting for more than 25% of the total export turnover of goods in the whole province. In 2016, the export turnover reached over 150 million USD from planted forest materials.

Talking about the economic potential of forests in Nghe An, Mr. Nguyen Tien Lam - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: Nghe An forests have many advantages that investors need: Large production forest land fund to plant wood raw materials to provide stable supply for the processing industry. Nghe An's export results in recent years show that the proportion of forestry accounts for the majority, with great potential to become the province's main export spearhead. Therefore, the province needs to actively reform administration, improve competitiveness to attract investment, to become the largest center for raw materials and processing of planted forest wood for export in the country.

Production at MDF Wood Factory (Nghia Dan). Photo: PV

To do so, it is necessary to issue support, incentive and investment attraction policies to develop raw material forests in the province. Create conditions for investors to intensively cultivate, apply advanced scientific and technical advances to raw material forests and have conditions to complete FSC certification (Forest Stewardship Council - a system of standards on certification of wood origin for operators) to increase the economic value and competitiveness of processed products when exporting. In addition, it is necessary to select and adjust the licensing for investors according to an appropriate roadmap, to ensure raw materials for deep processing (artistic wood, laminated wood, MDF...) in the direction of increasing the proportion of product value.

In fact, developing the forest economy also creates jobs and increases income for tens of thousands of households from contracting forest protection, afforestation, forest product exploitation and other services. The lives of forest workers are increasingly improved, while contributing to protecting the ecological environment and limiting damage caused by climate change. Through investment in developing raw material forests, people can access new scientific and technological advances, raise awareness and intellectual level, innovate production thinking, shift crop structure, improve production efficiency, and contribute to comprehensively changing the socio-economic landscape of the locality.

Planting raw material forests in the western region of Yen Thanh district. Photo: HN

In particular, the development of raw material forests associated with the processing industry is an effective solution to exploit the potential and strengths of the vast Western region - one of the three growth poles of the province, effectively implementing Decision 2355/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the project on socio-economic development of Western Nghe An to 2020, Resolution 26-NQ/TW of the Politburo on the development direction of Nghe An province to 2020 and the following years. In addition, afforestation and forest economic development not only meet the requirements of employment, improve material and spiritual life but also contribute to maintaining political security and social order in the province.

(To be continued)

PV Group