Nghe An: Continue to review planning of 3 types of forests

On the afternoon of April 16, comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Provincial Steering Committee on the Target Program for Sustainable Forestry Development in Nghe An Province for the period 2016 - 2020 chaired a meeting with members to deploy the 2018 plan.

The target program for sustainable forestry development in the period of 2016 - 2020 is determined to improve forest productivity and quality, contribute to natural disaster mitigation, protect the ecological environment, respond to climate change and rising sea levels associated with the tasks of forest protection, new forest planting, reforestation, forest protection and conversion of small timber forests into large timber forests, and strictly control forestry varieties;

At the same time, increase the added value of forestry products, contribute to job creation; increase income, reduce poverty, and improve livelihoods for forest workers.

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting. Photo: Phu Huong

TImplementing the Program according to Decision No. 886/QD-TTg dated June 16, 2017 of the Prime Minister, in 2017, Nghe An Provincial Steering Committee directed and coordinated thousands of forest patrols, handled 901 cases of forestry law violations, and collected 13,169 billion VND for the budget.

In the province, there are currently 26 projects in the list of programs for the 2016 - 2020 period;13 Management Boards of protective and special-use forests and 5 forestry companies are assigned to manage and protect forests; in addition, many enterprises invest in developing forests to create raw material areas for wood processing factories. The whole province has planted over 18,111 ha/17,000 ha of concentrated forests; forest protection has been contracted to households, organizations and individuals with a total area of ​​over 426,705 ha.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Lam - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development stated that the Steering Committee members need to clearly define the program's objectives for implementation. Photo: Phu Huong

In the first three months of 2018, Nghe An planted 4,885 hectares out of 17,000 hectares of concentrated forests, created more than 30 million forestry seedlings, well protected the existing forest area, and cared for over 46,740 hectares of forest.

Speaking at the meeting, comrade Dinh Viet Hong stated: Although the implementation of the program has achieved many remarkable results, there are still many shortcomings. The work of monitoring, tracking and evaluating the effectiveness of forestry land use is not regular, there is a lack of determination in handling land and forest recovery for violations; the work of forest protection management at the root is still limited; there are signs of laxity in inspection and supervision, leading to violations in forest protection management in the past time...

Taking care of rubber plantations in Thanh Duc commune, Thanh Chuong district. Photo: Phu Huong

In implementing the tasks in the coming time, the Steering Committee determined to continue directing the completion of the review of the planning of 3 types of forests. In the third quarter of 2018, the forestry land allocation project associated with forest allocation will be completed, approved and implemented; forest allocation will be carried out for more than 298,927 hectares of allocated forestry land; the urgent plan to protect key forest areas will be completed, submitted to competent authorities for approval and implementation in the second quarter of 2018; urgent measures will be strengthened to prevent and fight forest fires.

Nghe An also completed the project to reorganize and innovate forestry companies, perfect the apparatus of forest protection management units, avoid duplication and operate effectively.