The localities have implemented the directions of the Party Central Committee’sSecretariat and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on closing natural forests toavoid over-harvesting wood.
Accordingto Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan, the CentralHighlands has evaluated the projects, including 565 utilising forests and forestryland to grow rubber and 220 others turning exhausted forestry land into rubberfarms.
Local authorities have strictly punished organisations and individualsviolating State management on forests and forestry land.
They are also intensifying forest management, protection and wildfireprevention efforts.
Tuan said the localities will strictly manage socio-economic development plansthat may harm the area and the quality of forests, especially natural andprotective ones.
They will also weigh the social, economic and environmental efficiency ofprojects and suspend wood processing facilities violating legal regulations, headded.
Forestcoverage hit 46.01 percent in 2016, a year-on-year decline of 0.07 percent.
In 2016, violations of forest protection and management fell by 8 percentcompared to the previous year. However, in the first six months of 2017, casesrose by 7 percent.
Regional localities are speeding up forest planting aiming for 49.8 percent inforest coverage in 2020.-VNA