Nghe An Provincial People's Committee approved the proposal to draft a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council to support funding for specialized forest protection forces.
(Baonghean.vn) - At the regular meeting in January 2023, the Provincial People's Committee unanimously approved the proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council stipulating support policies for forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province.
On the morning of January 30, comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the regular meeting of January 2023 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province.
Attending the meeting were comrades: Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Bui Thanh An - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; and members of the Provincial People's Committee.
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Overview of the regular meeting in January 2023 of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee. Photo: Pham Bang |
At the meeting, the Provincial People's Committee listened to and commented on the Proposal to draft a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on regulations on support policies for forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province.
According to the proposal of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the subjects of application are the Management Boards of special-use forests, Management Boards of protective forests where no Forest Ranger organization is established; State-owned enterprises, organizations not belonging to the armed forces to which the State allocates forests, leases forests and forest land and has organized a specialized forest protection force; the specialized forest protection force is a contract worker of forest owners; Departments, branches, sectors and other relevant organizations and individuals.
The support condition is that forest owners use specialized forest protection forces as contract workers to manage and protect forests for areas of protective forests, special-use forests, and production forests that are natural forests that are in the period of forest closure, but have not been allocated funds for forest management and protection or have been allocated but the unit price is lower than 300,000 VND/ha/year.
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Comrade Phung Thanh Vinh - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development presented a proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on policies to support forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province. Photo: Pham Bang |
Support level: For areas that have not been allocated funding for forest management and protection, the support level is 300,000 VND/ha/year. For areas that have been allocated funding for forest protection from the forest environmental service payment policy, programs, projects, and other legal capital sources, but the total supported unit price is less than 300,000 VND/ha/year, additional support will be provided to reach 300,000 VND/ha/year.
The support content is to support funding for forest protection work for the Forest Protection Force according to the provisions of Decree No. 01/2019/ND-CP dated January 1, 2019 of the Government and Circular No. 12/2022/TT-BNNPTNT dated September 20, 2022 of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The implementation cost is guaranteed by the provincial budget. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development estimates the cost of implementing the policy: The expected forest area within the scope of the Resolution in the province is about 136,166.88 hectares per year, with the total support demand each year being about more than 40,850 billion VND/year.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the issuance of a Resolution of the People's Council on regulations on support policies for forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province is extremely necessary.
Thereby, contributing to the effective implementation of the goal of protecting the existing forest area in the province; ensuring the operation of the specialized forest protection force in the province, overcoming the current situation of workers quitting their jobs and leaving their jobs among the specialized forest protection force.
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Specialized forces protecting Pu Mat National Park on patrol. Photo: Contributor |
Because currently, in the province, there are 19 forest owners who have organized specialized forest protection forces assigned to manage and protect 427,698.67 hectares, accounting for 35% of the forest area and forestry land of the whole province. To organize the management and protection of the assigned forest area, forest owners need to sign labor contracts to organize the establishment of specialized forest protection forces. Especially for forest areas far from residential areas where it is impossible to organize contracts and forest areas with high risk of encroachment.
According to the total number of employees working as of May 30, 2022, there are 955 people. Including 172 people on the payroll, accounting for only 17%; 658 people on long-term contracts, accounting for the majority of 66%; 159 people on short-term seasonal contracts, accounting for 16%; 6 people on contracts under Decree 68/2000/ND-CP, accounting for 1%.
Decree No. 01 of the Government clearly stipulates the tasks, powers and guarantees for the operation of the forest protection force of the forest owner. However, since the Forestry Law and Decree No. 01 took effect, there has been no clear policy on the allocation of budget sources to ensure forest protection funding for the forest protection force to perform the task of forest management and protection, including both the central and local budgets.
Recently, the situation of quitting and changing jobs has been on the rise. Statistics show that in the period from 2016 to the first 4 months of 2022, 130 workers have applied to quit their jobs, of which 9 people have applied to quit their jobs in the first 4 months of 2022. The situation of illegal logging and deforestation is complicated in the forest areas of forest owners due to the lack of patrolling and protecting forces, as well as resources to carry out patrolling and protecting the forest.
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Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee concluded the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang |
After listening to the opinions of the meeting participants, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung emphasized that the issuance of policies is urgent and the Provincial People's Committee unanimously approved the proposal to build a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on regulations on support policies for forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province.
The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to be the presiding agency, coordinate with the Provincial People's Committee Office to review and complete the dossier proposing the drafting of the Resolution, and report to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council.
In particular, supplement and clarify the beneficiaries of the policy; clarify the implementation resources, besides the provincial budget, mobilize other legal resources. On the other hand, review the working regulations of the Provincial Party Committee to study and report to the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee in accordance with regulations.