Vientiane (VNA) – The forest protection bodies of Vietnam’s central province of Thua Thien - Hue and Laos’s southern province of Sekong have signed a cooperation deal to promote forest management and protection, natural resource conservation, and forest produce management along the shared borderline.
The document was inked in Sekong on July 31 between the forest protection sub-department under the Thua Thien - Hue Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the forestry inspection sub-department under the Sekong Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
The signing was a step to carry out the two provinces’ cooperation agreement for 2022 - 2026 and the minutes of the annual meeting held on December 22, 2023 between the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Under the freshly inked deal, the two sub-departments will increase sharing information, knowledge, and experience to prevent and control illegal deforestation, natural resource exploitation, hunting, and timber and forest produce trade and transportation.
They will enhance examining and monitoring the timber, forest produce, and wildlife traded across the border; further share information about forest fire prevention and control; and boost communications to raise border residents’ awareness of forest and biodiversity conservation, along with illegal timber, wildlife, and forest produce exploitation, trade, and transportation.
They will also work together to prevent deforestation as well as forestland encroachment in border areas.
In addition, Thua Thien - Hue and Sekong will actively assist each other, propose cooperation projects and plans to seek support from international organisations, and collaborate in monitoring, conserving, and recovering the wild animal species in danger of extinction.
The two sides will also organise meetings on a rotational basis to share experience, review cooperation results, and consider aligning the cooperation deal with the reality, thereby helping strengthen the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between the Vietnamese and Lao Parties, States, and peoples, including between Thua Thien - Hue and Sekong and between their sub-departments./.
VNA
