The Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial People's Council agreed to develop a policy to support specialized forces in forest protection.

Specialized forest protection force on patrol. Photo: Contributor

The content of Document No. 58/HĐND-TT is as follows:

“The Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council received Report No. 898/TTr-UBND dated February 15, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee on the 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. Based on the review opinion of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council in Report No. 35/BC-KTNS dated March 7, 2023, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council has the following opinions:

1. Agree with the proposal to develop a Resolution on policies to support forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province submitted by the Provincial People's Committee.

2. The Provincial People's Committee directs the drafting agency to draft the resolution to ensure quality and follow the correct procedures as prescribed by the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and related legal documents.

Forest rangers on patrol. Photo: Contributor

Previously, the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council also had a report stating the necessity of issuing a proposal to draft a resolution:“Article 17 of Decree No. 01/2019/ND-CP dated January 1, 2019 of the Government on forest rangers and specialized forest protection forces stipulates: Forest owners are responsible for ensuring operating costs, salaries and other regimes; means, working equipment, support tools, uniforms, professional training for specialized forest protection forces according to regulations.

The specialized forest protection force is the core force to help forest owners manage, protect and develop forests. It is both a direct patrol and inspection force and a propaganda and mobilization force for people and households contracted to protect forests to perform the task of protecting and developing forests; performing the tasks and powers prescribed in Article 14, Decree No. 01/2019/ND-CP.

The source of funding to ensure income for the specialized forest protection force has so far mainly come from forest owners using capital supported, forest protection from programs, projects, revenue from forest environmental services and implemented through contracts on the basis of annual contracted budget limits and norms. However, most forest owners have not been allocated enough funding for the assigned forest area; the support level for contracted allocation has not been specifically regulated, is often low and unstable. Forest owners cannot balance the funding source for operations, especially the source of payment for the forest protection force, leading to the alarming situation of resignations occurring more and more frequently among forest owners in the province, causing a shortage of forest protection forces, the risk of forest encroachment is very high (in the period 2016 - 2022, 130 workers have resigned, the remaining part is not really interested in the work and attached to the profession).

In order to remove difficulties and obstacles in forest management and protection, contributing to improving the effectiveness of forest protection and management, the proposal of the Provincial People's Committee to develop a Resolution on policies to support forest owners to carry out forest protection work in Nghe An province is necessary, in accordance with practical conditions in Nghe An and legal regulations.

A meal on patrol by forest rangers. Photo: Contributor

The Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council assessed that the proposal to develop a Resolution basically meets the provisions of Clause 34, Article 1 of the Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents in 2020; basically agreed with the proposal to develop a Resolution on Regulations on support policies for forest owners to carry out forest management and protection in Nghe An province.

Accordingly, the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council proposed that the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council agree with the proposal to draft a Resolution submitted by the Provincial People's Committee; at the same time, assign the Provincial People's Committee to direct the agency in charge of drafting the resolution (step 2) to fully implement the order and procedures in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and related legal documents.