This is part of a series of activities in response to the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought and the28 years of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Vice General Director of the General Department Pham Van Dien saidthat the forum offers a venue for sharing information, promoting ideas andinitiatives and proposing solutions to prevent land degradation and drought.
Hecalled on ministries and sectors to discuss and come up with effectivesolutions to preventing desertification and land degradation in Vietnam inassociation with implementing the Sustainable Forestry Development Programme, towardsdeveloping the forestry industry into an important economic - technical -environmental sector with contributions to the country in the coming time.
Participants proposed solutions to prevent land degradation and combatdesertification in Vietnam associated with sustainable forestry development,improving livelihoods for people living in mountainous areas.
Tran The Lien, Director of the Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation of the General Department of Forestry, announced the messageof UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw on combating desertification to UN memberstates, which emphasised the need for countries to have preparations to dealwith drought effectively.
The UNCCD was adopted in 1994, grouping 197 members. Vietnam joined the conventionin 1998.
Theconvention aims to combat desertification/land degradation and mitigate the effects of drought in regionswith severe desertification and land degradation; and support countriesaffected by land degradation, desertification and drought to developsustainably./.