They said that theforest, which acts as a crucial buffer protecting sea dykes, preventingflooding, facilitating agricultural production and protecting the lifeand livelihoods of thousands of residents, is threatened by climatechange impacts.
The online newspaper of Voice of Vietnam (VOV)reports that the region has about 700ha of preventive forest of mainlymangroves and ban (Sonneratia pagatpat) and mam (avicennia) trees.
Thereport does not mention human actions that have led to deforestation,but cites officials as saying rising sea water levels have "killed" oreroded parts of the forest, narrowing its area.
Forinstance, numerous key spots along the sea dyke stretching more than200km from Tan Thanh commune to Vam Lang commune in Go Cong Dongdistrict are no longer protected by the forest, which has led to seawater encroachment that has penetrated the base of the dyke.
Forest trees are being uprooted or dying of other causes, according to the VOV report.
Itcites an official of the Tien Giang Dyke and Preventive ForestManagement agency as saying that there are at least 10 spots in Go CongDong district's Tan Dien commune where the forest has been eroded bybetween four to 10 metres.
Provincial authoritiessay they have made all-out efforts to popularise afforestation andforest protection activities, intensified patrols to spot violations ofthe forest of the sea dyke, to patrol, examine and deal with anyviolations to forest and invested hundreds of billions of dong to buildconcrete dykes.
These activities are designed todefend a 3,500m-long dyke major portions of which have lost theprotective buffer provided by the forest.
However, theprovince lacks the resources to reforest the areas affected by excessivesalination. Without feasible solutions, the preventive forest along GoCong coastal region is very likely be erased, the report said.-VNA