Amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 99 on payment for forest environmental services

(Baonghean) - On November 2, 2016, the Government issued Decree 147/2016/ND-CP amending and supplementing Articles 5, 8, 11, 15, 20 and abolishing Clause 7, Point b, Clause 9, Article 22 of Decree 99/2010/ND-CP on forest environmental service payment policy. Nghe An Newspaper published on December 8, 2016 published the content of amendments and supplements to Articles 5, 8, 11. Now, we would like to introduce the remaining amendments and supplements, specifically as follows:

5. Point b, Clause 2, Article 15 is amended and supplemented as follows:

“b) Allocate a portion of the budget not exceeding 5% of the total amount of trust transferred to the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund, plus other legal funding sources, as a reserve and support for households, individuals, and village communities assigned to protect forests for long-term stability in case of natural disasters, droughts, and cases where the payment level for forest environmental services on the same area unit is lower than the payment level of the previous year.

For forest areas with forest environmental service payment levels greater than twice the state budget support level for forest protection contracts, depending on the subjects in the same provincial area, the Provincial People's Committee shall decide on the appropriate adjustment level.

6. Point c, Clause 2, Article 15 is amended and supplemented as follows:

“c) The remaining amount to be paid to the forest environmental service provider shall be used as follows:

Forest owners are households and individuals to whom the State allocates or leases forests, and village communities to whom the State allocates forests for long-term stability; forest owners are households, individuals, and village communities that invest their own capital to plant forests on forestry land and are entitled to the entire amount of money above.

The forest owner is an organization that is considered a source of revenue for the forest owner and is managed and used in accordance with the financial law applicable to each type of organization. In case the forest owner has implemented a forest protection contract, the forest owner may use no more than 10% of the total amount of money collected from forest environmental services on the forest protection contracted area to carry out management work and organize environmental education and propaganda activities; the remaining amount must be paid to the contracted household.

The People's Committee at the commune level is assigned by the State to manage forests that have not been allocated or leased according to the provisions of law, which is the source of revenue for the Commune-level Forest Protection and Development Fund, and manages expenditures according to the provisions of Article 3, Decision No. 07/2012/QD-TTg dated February 8, 2012 of the Prime Minister promulgating a number of policies to strengthen forest protection.

Checking the results of forestation at Song Hieu Forestry Company.

Socio-political organizations assigned by the State to manage forests according to the provisions of law must develop a plan to use funds for forest protection and management from the revenue from payments for forest environmental services, submit it to the People's Committee at the district level for approval, and send it to the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund for synthesis in the province's plan for payments for forest environmental services.

7. Point a, Clause 2, Article 20 is amended and supplemented as follows:

“a) The forest environmental service provider must ensure that the forest area providing the service is protected and developed in accordance with the functions specified in the forest protection and development plan approved by a competent state agency;”

8. Abolish Clause 7, Point b, Clause 9, Article 22.

This Decree takes effect from January 1, 2017. The payment level for forest environmental services for hydropower production facilities specified in Clause 3, Article 1 of this Decree shall be applied from the first adjustment of retail electricity prices after this Decree takes effect.

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