Nghe An: There are still units that are slow to pay money into the fund to plant replacement forests.

Comrade Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Provincial Party Inspection Committee, Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council chaired the meeting. Photo: Mai Hoa

There are still sluggish units.

With its assigned functions and tasks, over the past time, Nghe An Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund has advised all levels and sectors to implement policies on payment for forest environmental services and reforestation for areas of protective forests and special-use forests recovered to implement projects and works.

Accordingly, from 2012 to 2017, the Fund mobilized a total of nearly 355 billion VND from non-budgetary sources to carry out forest protection and development tasks; contributing to increasing forest cover to 57.15% and eliminating hunger and reducing poverty for people in mountainous areas and ethnic minorities.

Of which, from the forest protection and development fund, the unit has carried out contracts to plant more than 4,200 hectares of forest to replace the area recovered to implement projects and works.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Tien Lam admitted that the replacement forestation has many areas planted with acacia. However, according to him, besides pine trees and flower-trees that are planted in concentrated areas, no other trees have been planted effectively in the province. Photo: Mai Hoa

Along with that, the area of ​​forest protection contracted to forest owners and households has increased annually from more than 47,000 hectares in 2014 to nearly 290,000 hectares in 2017, accounting for more than 30% of the province's total forest area. Thanks to that, forest protection work has been better, gradually reducing violations of laws on forest protection and development.

In addition, according to Mr. Nguyen Khac Lam - Director of the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund, there are currently a number of investors who still owe money for changing the purpose of forest use to implement projects without having the conditions to replant forests to put into the fund. From this reality, Mr. Lam recommends that the province should have sanctions for projects that deliberately delay paying forest regeneration fees as prescribed.

Some areas of protective forests and special-use forests have not met their targets due to acacia plantations. Photo: Mai Hoa

Replacement forestation does not guarantee long-term goals

Through monitoring the management and use of forest protection and development funds in some localities, at the meeting, members of the monitoring delegation raised many concerns. That is, the selection of tree species for replacement forest planting in some localities has not ensured the long-term goals of protective forests and special-use forests, because mainly acacia trees are planted without selective planting of native trees.

It is also necessary to clarify the total amount to be collected, collected and outstanding to have a collection solution, avoid the situation where one unit is active and the other is not, and at the same time have solutions to expand revenue sources to ensure increased revenue for forest protection and development in the province.

Concluding the meeting, Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council Le Hong Vinh highly appreciated the advisory activities of the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund in fundraising as well as effective management and use of basic funds, contributing to the protection and development of forests in the province.

Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council Le Hong Vinh concluded at the meeting. Photo: Mai Hoa

Pointing out some shortcomings in forest management and protection as well as management and use of the forest protection and development fund, Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council Le Hong Vinh requested the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Forest Protection and Development Fund to proactively coordinate with relevant departments and branches to promptly update projects on conversion of land use purposes from protective forests and special-use forests so that investors can fulfill their obligations after conversion; at the same time, have solutions to effectively manage and use the forest protection and development fund.

The Department of Agriculture also needs to focus on designing planted forests to ensure standards; associated with building standards and norms to support replacement forest planting suitable for each type of tree; paying attention to arranging native plants to serve the long-term protection goal for replacement forest planting areas.

The Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council also noted that for the current protective forest areas planted with acacia, the industry needs to focus on exploitation management to protect upstream forests, focusing on the effectiveness of scattered forest planting...