The northern localities have so far this year planted 40,720 hectares of forest. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The northern localities have so far this year planted40,720 hectares of forest, declining 6.1 percent year-on-year, according to theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Rapid tree planting has been seen in the north central region with 12,051hectares, up 26.3 percent and the Red Delta region with 6,635 hectares, down8.7 percent.
Meanwhile, afforestation in the northern midland and mountainous regionexperienced a year-on-year drop of 17 percent with 22,034 hectares of trees.
The localities continue to plant and take care of their forests so that theywill bring high economic efficiency.
Vietnam aims toincrease the nationwide forest coverage to 42 percent, equivalent to 14.4million hectares, by 2020, according to the target programme on sustainableforest development during 2016-2020 recently approved by the Prime Minister.
The country expectsto achieve yearly forestry production growth rate of 5.5-6 percent and haveartificial forests produce 20 cubic metres per hectare per year. Exports ofwoodwork and forestry products are forecast to fetch 8-8.5 billion USD.
Under the programme,15 percent of degrading forests, especially special-use forests, will berecovered and preserved by 2020.
Additional 100,000hectares of special-use forests will be planted while the number of rarespecies which are on the brink of extinction will be increased.-VNA
VNA
