Leaders of Quang Tri province plant trees outside a sports competition centre in Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province. (Photo: VNA)
During the Tet holiday (Lunar New Year) 2024, localities in central Quang Tri provincelaunched a campaign to plant tens of thousands of trees.
In 2024, the province plans to grow 8,000-10,000 hectares of new productionforest.
Over the past three years from 2021 to 2023, the province has planted millionsof trees along roads, landfills and barren hills in areas with wind powerprojects in the mountainous district of Huong Hoa.
The prioritisation of tree planting at wind power projects aims to increasecoverage and stabilise the ecological environment in areas affected by theconstruction of wind power projects, contributing to mitigating damage causedby natural disasters.
From 2021 to 2025, the province aims to plant 15 million trees.
Of which, 10.7 million trees will be planted in urban and rural areas, whilethe remaining 4.3 million trees will be grown in protective forests,special-use forests and production forests to contribute to environmentalprotection, climate change adaptation and socio-economic development.
Vice chairman of the Quang Tri provincial People's Committee Ha Sy Dong saidthat in implementing the Government's project of planting one billion trees,the province has rolled out many solutions including enhancing awareness aboutforest management, protection and development, prioritising suitable treespecies, applying advanced techniques in forest planting, and mobilisingresources.
In neighbouring Thua Thien – Hue province, the locality strives to plant atleast seven million trees, of which, 4.7 million trees will be planted in urbanand rural areas, and 2.3 million trees will be planted in protective forestsand large-scale timber production forests.
In three years from 2021 to 2023, the province has planted over five milliontrees.
In 2024, the province plans to grow 1.4 million trees, and in 2025, 1.3 milliontrees.
Millions of trees have also been planted in many other provinces and cities: 61million trees in Lao Cai, 52 million trees in Phu Tho, 45 million trees in LongAn, 37 million trees in Gia Lai, and 34 million trees in Nghe An.
Ministries, agencies, businesses and individuals have also activelyparticipated in the tree planting movement.
According to the Forestry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development, nearly 770 million trees have been planted nationwide in2021-23 period, reaching 121% of the plan.
The total funding for implementing the project over the past three yearsreaches nearly 9.5 trillion VND (387.5 million USD). Of which, State budgetfunds account for 23.8%, and the remainder comes from other sources.
About 492 million trees will be planted in 2024-25 to reach the goal ofplanting one billion trees by 2025.
However, implementing the project also faces some difficulties due to theincreasingly limited land fund for afforestation, which is often transferred toother uses for socio-economic development, as reported by the ForestryDepartment.
Conditions for afforestation, especially for planting protective andspecial-use forests, are becoming more challenging, particularly in areas withhigh and steep terrain prone to erosion.
Land allocation for coastal forest development has also become increasinglydifficult.
Management, maintenance and development of urban green spaces have not beenadequately addressed. The current urban green space area only accounts forabout 1.2%, much lower than urban planning standards.
The development of greenery in some localities still lacks specific planning.
According to the Forestry Department, there is still no specific guidance onthe use of budgetary resources to support decentralised afforestation,implementation procedures, or the required documentation for support requests.
The main source of seedlings is individual suppliers, or they are bought on themarket, making it difficult to control their origin and quality.
Dr. Ngo Van Hong from the Vietnam Afforestation and Reforestation Society CoLtd said there needs to be close coordination among local authorities, forestrangers and forest owners to address the difficulties related to land issues,forest planting plan, tree species selection, acceptance, and forest managementafter planting.
This is a highly complex and costly process, and mistakes at any stage canaffect the quality of the planted forest, even violating land and forestrylaws.
In addition, policies should encourage people to plant and restore forests withnative species to ensure long-term income for local residents while enhancingthe forest's resilience.
Transforming short-term planted forests into forests planted with nativespecies for restoration purposes should be eligible for payment for forestenvironmental services.
Hong said that the carbon emission reduction programme and carbon creditexchange need to be concretised through specific indices or data, as well asthe exchange and trading process of carbon credits, to form a more specific andtransparent system.
The establishment of regulations under which business entities are required toaccumulate carbon credits and the possibility of exchanging carbon credits mustbe done, not necessarily through state agencies, but could be carried outthrough non-state organisations.
At the recent workshop on the three-year review of the project on planting onebillion trees in 2021-25 held in Quang Tri province, Deputy Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri proposed a comprehensiveassessment of the project's implementation results.
Tree planting should continue according to the approved plan; communicationefforts should be made to ensure public understanding of the benefits andencourage participation in tree planting activities; and flexibility andproactivity are required in the implementation of tree planting activities.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also urged the ForestryDepartment and other relevant units to promptly apply the recommendations oflocal authorities.
The tree planting festival in the Lunar New Year of 2023 saw the nation prepare170 million seedlings for planting thousands of hectares of forests andmillions of scattered trees./.
VNA
