Concerns about the afforestation career in Nghe An

(Baonghean.vn) -November 28 is the Traditional Day of Vietnam Forestry Industry - a meaningful anniversary for all cadres, workers and civil servants who have worked, are working and are attached to the forestry profession.

Honor and responsibility

The anniversary of Vietnam Forestry Day on November 28 is also an opportunity for the Party, State, authorities at all levels and people to express gratitude and acknowledge the contributions and efforts of all cadres, civil servants, heroes, emulation fighters, creative workers, advanced workers, engineers, doctors and masters who have been committed throughout the years to protecting, building and developing forests.

Every year, when Tet comes, all levels, sectors, organizations, and localities across Nghe An and the whole country organize the "Tree Planting Festival to forever remember Uncle Ho". Agencies, businesses, military barracks, schools, and people are all enthusiastic to participate.

And that is also the beginning of the year, the first spring activity to propagate and mobilize people to protect forests, prevent deforestation, fight forest fires, prevent and control forest pests and diseases. Compete to plant scattered trees, plant concentrated forests according to technical processes and seasons.

A corner of the cajuput forest in Tuong Duong district, considered an attractive tourist attraction when visiting Western Nghe An. Photo: PV

As a result, millions of shade trees and ornamental trees are planted each year in agencies, schools, barracks and offices. Hundreds of hectares of fruit trees, industrial trees, tens of thousands of hectares of concentrated forests.Up to now, Nghe An's forest area has reached 940,500 ha/1,648,994 ha, accounting for 72%. Of which, natural forest is 786,934 ha, concentrated planted forest is 153,566 ha. Forest cover in 2017 reached 57%.

Forests have played a good role in protecting against storms, floods, limiting erosion, land degradation, and regulating water resources. Exploiting planted forests reaches >1 million m3 of wood/year. Processing laminated wood is thousands of m3/year... Exploiting pine resin is three thousand tons/year. Exploiting rattan, hunting for hundreds of tons to serve traditional weaving villages.

Every year, Nghe An organizes the planting of millions of shade trees and landscape trees. In the photo is the nursery and forest seedlings. Photo: document

Forests create regular jobs and stable income for tens of thousands of people, especially ethnic minorities in 10 mountainous districts and thousands of young people of age working in wood processing factories. Forest products have contributed about 150 million USD/year to the Nghe An provincial budget. Many typical individuals and groups who are good at protecting, protecting and planting forests have been honored.

People in hamlet 8, Nghia Hanh commune (Tan Ky) take care of seedlings for planting forests in the autumn-winter crop. Photo: document

The above results mean that the contributions of leaders at many levels and generations have changed the perception of not considering forest resources as endless, the task of protecting, developing, and rationally using forest resources is a responsibility and a way of life. At the same time, it has contributed to the shift from traditional subsidized forestry production according to plans to social forestry production with the participation of many economic sectors. Therefore, it has promoted the development of forest production to achieve the results as today.

The above results explain the difference that makes Nghe An the province with the largest forest area in general and planted forest in the country. The productivity of planted forest in many areas is now equal to that of countries with developed production. The output of planted wood meets the needs for processing and exporting in the province. Nghe An foresters have known how to get rich from the allocated and contracted forest areas.

Difficulty and challenge

Besides, the forestry industry is also facing some challenges that need to be discussed such as: Forestry production is characterized by its specific characteristics, which are influenced by weather and seasonal factors, long production cycles, and labor results that depend on external factors and are not sustainable.

The increasing demand for forestry land for sectors such as mining, transportation, hydropower, irrigation, and population redistribution affects the sustainability of the use and management of three types of forests. The State's investment and incentive policies have not taken into account individuality, which has hindered and affected the growth and mindset of foresters.

Natural forests in Tan Ky were encroached upon and cut down by people in Quang Thanh commune (Yen Thanh). Photo: Archive

Climate change, a consequence of global warming due to the abuse of fossil fuels, reduces carbon sinks. Extreme climate phenomena such as rising sea levels, droughts, arid lands, forest fires, storms, flash floods, tornadoes, landslides, freshwater shortages, biodiversity loss and increased disease. Therefore, it is very important to quantify, calculate closely, and eliminate emotional factors when deciding to convert the needs of forestry land use.

Wood from upstream flows down and gets stuck by the stream after the flood season. Photo: Archive

On the other hand, there is a risk of resource depletion and forest quality decline. Monitor the results and evaluate the survey factors in the system of positioning plots located in natural forests. Average values ​​of rich wood reserves, average m3/ha. Number of species of upper layers per unit area. Layer structure, composition, age, density changes. Succession from Timber forest → Timber forest + Bamboo → Shrubs → Grass. This change is alarming that resources are being depleted, forests are gradually losing their ability to effectively protect and provide long-term supplies, and forests are being abused beyond the growth threshold.

Risk of falling behind: The smart manufacturing revolution based on achievements in information technology, biotechnology with breakthroughs in digital technology (Revolution 4.0) is developing and being strongly applied in production.

The young scientific and technical team in the forestry sector of the province needs to make a breakthrough to increase the scientific content in forestry production projects to improve labor productivity and investment efficiency if they do not want to be left behind and become outdated.

Some thoughts

- Nghe An is located in the East of the Truong Son range with many high, rugged mountains, narrow and steep. The climate is harsh, hot, drought, heavy rain, flooding. Therefore, the province's current forestry land allocation of 1,187,292 ha is appropriate. Of which: Special-use forest 172,403 ha. Production forest 651,745 ha. Protection forest 363,144 ha. If the above allocation area is stabilized, the border forest belt, the headwaters of the Ca River, Con River, Hieu River, and Giang River basins will be at the very vulnerable protection level. The forest belt on both sides of rivers, streams, lakes and dams will be at the vulnerable level. The forest belt distributed near villages, fields, factories, and schools will be at the less vulnerable level.

If natural forests are well protected and planted forests are exploited on a rotation basis, the coverage of the whole province from 57 - 59% will completely ensure environmental security, national defense security and socio-economic development of the province.

- It is necessary to soon plan to form two concentrated, specialized, high-quality raw material forest planting areas, certified with sustainable forest certification (FSC); with a scale of 185,000 ha; including Phu Quy area with an area of ​​about 100,000 ha (Que Phong; Quy Chau; Quy Hop; Nghia Dan districts). The Southwest region of the province has a scale of 85,000 ha (Con Cuong; Anh Son; Tan Ky; Thanh Chuong districts).

These two concentrated forest planting areas must be invested in synchronous infrastructure including tissue culture propagation facilities. Building a sustainable and stable transportation and export road system. Planted by quality varieties specified in terms of types and sizes of export laminated wood, high-quality MDF boards for export and consumption. This scale can be exploited to supply 4 factories in the area with ≈ 2 million m3/year each year.

- It is necessary to build a system of appropriate and synchronous policies to meet production requirements:

Policy on developing transport and export routes to serve forestry production. Policy on accessing long-term loans with reasonable interest rates to serve infrastructure construction, planting, caring for and protecting forests. Policy on preferential treatment for specialized forest protection forces - If the above contents are done well, production costs will be reduced, labor productivity will be increased, and product quality will be improved; and this is the basis for reducing product prices to meet the demanding consumption markets of the EU, Japan and the US, and this is also a breakthrough, a solution to increase the added value of forests in general.

Along with restructuring the forestry production model, the industry needs to quickly select and recruit a team of cadres with expertise, capacity, and responsibility to train and improve management capacity, professional capacity, and production leadership capacity to create a new turning point in the career of forest construction and development.

Engineer: Hoang Van Long

(Nghe An Forestry Science and Technology Association)