The irony in forest protection policy in Nghe An: Money is available but cannot be spent!

On November 22, 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai signed Decision No. 1449/QD-TTg on supplementing public funding for implementation.Sustainable Forestry Development Programyear 2022

The content of Decision No. 1449/QD-TTg is as follows:

“Article 1: Supplement 795,454 million VND (Seven hundred and ninety-five billion, four hundred and fifty-four million VND) from the source of economic activities of the Central budget in 2022 to implement the 2022 Sustainable Forestry Development Program for Ministries, Central agencies and localities as proposed by the Ministry of Finance in Official Dispatch No. 10824/BTC-HCSN dated October 20, 2022, specifically:

- Additional funding for ministries and central agencies is 129,170 million VND.

- Additional funding for localities is 665,484 million VND.

Article 2: The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are fully responsible for the contents and data of reports and proposals, ensuring compliance with legal regulations. The Ministry of Finance notifies the additional budget for 2022 for relevant ministries, central agencies and localities to implement according to regulations.

Forest rangers of Pu Mat National Park patrol to protect the forest. Photo: Contributor

Article 3: Ministries, central agencies and localities shall base on the above-mentioned additional funding to implement the 2022 Sustainable Forestry Development Program. The management, use and settlement of the additional funding must ensure compliance with regulations, efficiency, economy, publicity and transparency.

According to the supplementary appendix of the 2022 Sustainable Forestry Development Program expenditure estimate of Decision No. 1449/QD-TTg, Nghe An province is granted a total budget of VND 54,356 million.

According to the representative of the Forest Protection Department, previously the source of funding to pay salaries for the specialized contract labor force to protect forests in the forestry units of the province was all taken from the forest protection fund of the Sustainable Forestry Development Program provided by the Central Government.

To have funding for 2022, from July 19, 2021, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has developed and issued Report No. 349/BC-SNN-CCKL on the Provincial Forestry Development Plan for 2022 to the General Department of Forestry. Here, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development reported in detail on the capital needs for 2022, including funding for forest protection. However, it was not until November 22, 2022 that it was granted according to Decision No. 1449/QD-TTg on supplementing career funding to implement the Sustainable Forestry Development Program in 2022.

Forest protection force of Thanh Chuong Forest Protection Management Board on patrol to protect the forest. Photo: Contributor

What is worrying is that this year, on September 20, 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT dated September 20, 2022 guiding a number of forestry activities to implement the Sustainable Forestry Development Program and the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period, Phase I from 2021-2025.

In Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development stipulates that the subjects assigned to protect forests include households, individuals; communities; armed forces, and socio-political organizations in localities with forests that need protection. Meanwhile, the specialized forest protection forces of the Protective Forest Management Boards, Forestry Companies, and the Youth Volunteer Corps are not included in the subjects assigned to protect forests.

Therefore, although the 2022 Sustainable Forestry Development Program has been supplemented with funding of VND 54 billion 356 million, it has only been able to implement steps to pay funding to the subjects contracted to protect forests as clearly specified in Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT, including households, individuals; communities; armed forces, and socio-political organizations in localities with forests that need protection.

The budget planned to be allocated to the Forest Protection Management Boards, Forestry Companies and the Youth Volunteer Corps to pay salaries to full-time forest protection workers has yet to be implemented.

The daily life of forest rangers is always in extremely difficult conditions. In the photo is Khe Suong Forest Protection Management Station (Thanh Duc Commune, Thanh Chuong). Photo: Contributor

Question: The specialized contract labor force of forest protection in the provincial forestry units is waiting for their salary every day, every hour. Some people have quit their jobs because of the hard and dangerous work while life is too difficult, or are submitting resignation letters. The reality of forest protection work shows that there needs to be a solution to retain this force, but how to deal with the problem of salary system?

According to the representative of the Forestry Department, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued a document directing the provincial Forestry units to urgently synthesize and report on the capital needs for implementing the Sustainable Forestry Development Program in 2022 so that relevant agencies have a basis to prepare documents for funding allocation.

On the other hand, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has also reported to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the General Department of Forestry on the actual situation of the province's specialized contract labor force for forest protection, and has made recommendations on unclear issues in Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT.

“When there is agreement from the General Department of Forestry and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, based on the dossier of capital needs for the implementation of the 2022 Sustainable Forestry Development Program of the Forestry units that has been prepared, the relevant competent authorities will allocate funds from the 2022 Sustainable Forestry Development Program to pay salaries for contract workers specializing in forest protection according to the provisions of law…” - the representative of the Forest Protection Department discussed.

A meal on patrol by forest rangers in Nghe An. Photo: Contributor

It is known that currently, the Provincial Forest Protection Management Boards, Forestry Companies and Youth Volunteer Teams are responsible for managing more than 318,000 hectares of natural forests; of which, the specialized forest protection forces of these units are responsible for managing and protecting 131,000 hectares.

According to statistics from the Forest Protection Department, from 2016 to now, the entire forestry sector has had 158 people quit their jobs; most of them are specialized forest protection forces. At present, some forestry units continue to receive resignation letters from specialized forest protection forces. Specifically, at Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board, out of a total of 33 specialized forest protection workers, 12 people have written resignation letters.