Central Highlands works toward sustainable forest development
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference on May 24 to deploy a freshly approved project on sustainable forest recovery and development in the Central Highlands for 2016-2030.
Inside the Ta Dung natural reserve in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong (Illustrative photo: VNA)
Lam Dong (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development held a conference on May 24 to deploy a freshly approvedproject on sustainable forest recovery and development in the Central Highlandsfor 2016-2030.
The entire project costs over 28.55 trillion VND (1.22billion USD), of which 7.8 trillion VND is sourced from the state budget, 3.75trillion VND from official development assistance, and the rest from othersources.
It aims to push the region’s total forest areas to 2.72million hectares and coverage rate to 49.2 percent by 2030. Other works includemanaging sustainable forest development, protecting the environment andbiodiversity, and offering environmental forestry services.
In order to achieve the targets, the ministry set out keytasks such as protecting the current 2.2 million ha of natural forests andboosting community-based forest management. The planting of 7,100 ha ofprotection forests and 136,600 ha of production forest were also a part of theplan.
It also requested that relevant agencies and the fiveCentral Highlands provinces work together in implementing the project in asynchronous manner.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha CongTuan recommended that localities orientate forestry work toward the formationof value chains, expand production forests, and obtaining sustainable forestcertificates.
The Central Highlands spans 5.4 million ha with a populationof about 5.1 million. The local areas earmarked for forestry developmentamounted to 3.2 million ha, accounting for 19.9 percent of the country’s total.
In 2018, the region had 2.55 million ha of forests, up 3,502ha from 2017, with forest coverage rate hitting 46.1 percent.–VNA
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Inside the Ta Dung natural reserve in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong (Illustrative photo: VNA) 
