A worker waters saplings in a Dong Nai nursery (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA)- Ineffective forest management has exposed shortcomings in the 2004 Law onForest Protection and Development that need to be addressed through amendments,officials said at a conference on December 16.
Participants at thenational conference in the capital city said the law defined the forest as anecosystem but failed to clarify the scale and minimum areas involved. Criteriafor forest trees was also lacking, they said.
Deputy Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan said the law only focused on managing,protecting, developing and using wood but did not pay attention to the value ofthe forest environment services.
The value of suchservices was much higher than that of wood, he said, adding that annualimplementation of the policy on forest environment services netted revenuesequal to 22 percent of total social investments in the forestry sector.
He also said the lawshould also be amended to deal with shortcomings relating to forestclassification, renewing forest land allocation and leasing of forest land tohouseholds. This must be done to exempt them from land use taxes and landrental fees, thus encouraging the planting of new forests.
More regulations werealso needed on forestry product processing and trade activities, as alsocredit outlays for the sector, he said.
The changes shouldfacilitate investment in protecting and sustainably developing the nation’sforests, he added.
Nguyen Ba Ngai, DeputyHead of the Vietnam Forestry Administration, proposed that provisions are addedon allocating forest land to residents so that forest management becomesefficient,
In several localities,residential communities have proved to be very effective forest managers
Participants alsoproposed changing the name of the law to the Law on Forestry.
They wanted to increasepunishments for forest protection and management violations and speed upapplication of science and technology advances in forest protection andmanagement.
The draft amendments tothe law will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal this monthbefore it is submitted to the Government and the National Assembly. - VNA
VNA
