Natural forest development remains unattractive to businesses
Vietnam is facing great challenges in attracting investment in forest-based profitable and sustainable business activities, said Nguyen Van Ha, Vice Director of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at a conference in Hanoi on August 7.
Hanoi (VNA)– Vietnam is facing great challenges in attracting investment in forest-based profitableand sustainable business activities, said Nguyen Van Ha, Vice Director of the VietnamAdministration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment at a conference in Hanoi on August 7.
Ha held that socialresources account for 70 percent of total capital for the national targetprogramme on sustainable forestry.
However, mobilising investmentfrom enterprises and individuals hasn’t yet been designed in a synchronic,comprehensive and specific manner, especially in attracting sustainableinvestment to natural forest.
He noted that over thepast years, Vietnam has applied a number of measures to plant and protectforest, thus raising the forest coverage to 41.19 percent in 2016.Vietnamcurrently has 10 million hectares of natural forest, accounting for 71 percent oftotal forest area, but mostly newly-restored and poor forest, he said.
Meanwhile, Nguyen VanTien, head of the Rural Agriculture Department under the Party Central Committee’sEconomic Commission, said that the building of economic and business models thatcreate opportunities for economic sectors in forest development has remained unattractiveto investors.
Ha said that Vietnamhas implemented the polity to stop the exploitation of natural forest in orderto develop natural forest sustainably, along with collectingenvironmental servicefees. However,limited results have been seen.
Ha stressed that it iscrucial to build effective policies to optimise the potential of forest,especially natural forest, while promoting the environment value of forest.
Experts at the eventalso suggested the use of forest for eco-tourism. However, they also pointed todifficulties in finance and long-term benefit.-VNA
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Forest planting. Illustrative image (Source: VNA) 
