Solving difficulties for forest growers after storms

After Storm No. 3 passed, forest growers in Quang Ninh province were heartbroken by the devastation caused by nature that took away their family's hard-earned business. Building mechanisms and policies to restore forestry production is one of the urgent issues that Quang Ninh province is concerned with.

Forests in Son Duong commune (Ha Long city) were broken and collapsed due to the storm.

Early implementation of support policies

According to the report of the Forestry Department ( Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ), storm No. 3 caused forest damage of about 170,000 hectares (this area does not include the area of natural forest that was eroded and slid). Of which, Quang Ninh is the most severely damaged locality with nearly 120,000 hectares. Estimated damage in the forestry sector is over 6,400 billion VND with a total of over 22,000 damaged households, including households assigned land, forests and households assigned to plant forests by Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. in the province.

Mr. Ly Van Thang (Nam Son commune, Ba Che district) said: My family planted more than 8 hectares of acacia, storm No. 3 caused the acacia forest area to be almost completely lost. Not only me but also households in the commune suffered damage, small households lost 1-2 hectares, lost tens of millions of VND, large households lost dozens of hectares, lost tens of billions of VND. Not only that, the price of acacia is decreasing day by day, hour by hour. Currently, we collect broken and fallen acacia trees over 4-5 years old, just enough to pay for labor costs, transportation, environmental sanitation to prevent forest fires... To replant new forests is really very difficult.

Working group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development inspected the damage in the Cao Van Lake protective forest area.

In addition to directly affecting forest growers, the damage caused by storm No. 3 also affected forest workers, reducing forest cover, seed production, forest planting as well as infrastructure serving forestry development.

Mr. Nguyen Van Bong, Deputy Head of the Provincial Forest Protection Department, said: To overcome the damage and support people to soon restore production and business, the Department has been implementing a series of urgent solutions related to statistics, assessment, and documentation according to the support mechanisms of the Central and the province.

For forests planted by households and individuals with damage of over 70%, support of 4 million/ha will be provided; forests with damage of 30-70% will be supported with 2 million VND/ha.

Accordingly, in order for forest owners who are households and individuals to enjoy support in Decree 02/2017/ND-CP of the Government issued on January 9, 2027 and Decision 1568/2017/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee on mechanisms and policies to support agricultural production to restore production in areas damaged by natural disasters and epidemics, the Provincial Forest Protection Department has guided localities on how to count and re-evaluate all forest areas damaged by 30% or more.

At the same time, based on the draft Decree regulating the liquidation of planted forests of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, it is necessary to guide forest owners to prepare records and determine the damage to planted forests from the state budget and replacement forests. Thus, for planted forests of households and individuals with damage of over 70%, they will receive support of 4 million/ha; forests with damage of 30-70% will receive support of 2 million VND/ha. Up to now, the People's Committees of localities are actively organizing the implementation of inventory work and preparing support records. The estimated support budget according to Decree 02/2017/ND-CP is over 233 billion VND.

People in Nam Son commune (Ba Che district) are actively collecting wood and peeling acacia bark in the forests.

Along with the support mechanism of the Central Government, the Provincial Forest Protection Department has assigned the Forest Protection Units to proactively coordinate with the People's Committees of communes to propagate and guide each person to plant large timber forests with land and forest allocation according to Resolution No. 37/2024/NQ-HDND dated July 10, 2024 of the Provincial People's Council stipulating a number of specific policies to encourage sustainable forestry development in Quang Ninh province to conduct damage statistics and prepare support records. Households with large timber forest areas of 3 hectares or more will be supported with 20 million VND/ha and 400,000 VND/ha to hire a consulting unit to prepare records.

In addition, the Provincial Forest Protection Department has also reported to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to propose the Provincial People's Committee to support forest growers to overcome the damage after storm No. 3 from the provincial Fatherland Front's capital. Specifically, it will support forest environmental sanitation for forest areas damaged by over 30% at 1 million VND/ha. The estimated budget for the first phase of support is over 77.5 billion VND.

30 days and nights of cleaning and harvesting the forest

Nearly 120,000 hectares of forest in the province were "wiped out" after the storm.

Along provincial road 234, National Highway 279, National Highway 18 stretching from Ha Long to Van Don, up to the mountainous areas of Hoanh Bo, Tien Yen, Ba Che, Binh Lieu is the desolate scene of dead forests after super typhoon Yagi. According to statistics, out of about 120,000 hectares of damaged forest, nearly 78,000 hectares are forests of households and individuals. In fact, in all localities with forests in the whole province, the work of calculating damage, making support records, and recovering forests after the storm is being actively carried out by local authorities and people. However, the recovery work is facing many difficulties. First, the work of calculating damage, counting, and making records is lacking in human resources, means, and many procedures are quite complicated.

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, each hectare of forest must have a standard plot (about 100m2) and to conduct GPRS measurements, there must be cadastral officers of communes and wards accompanying it. On average, the damage counting operation for 1 hectare of forest will take about 30-60 minutes, not including the time to travel to the location for measurement and bad weather days. With this method, many localities calculate that on average, 1,000 hectares of damaged forest will take months to count and complete the records. This will greatly affect the people's forest recovery because the longer it is left, the drier the wood and the greater the risk of forest fires. For example, in Ha Long City, by the end of October 4, this locality had only completed the counting and records for 700/18,000 hectares of forest of households and individuals.

Mr. Vu Thanh Tuan, Chairman of Dong Lam Commune People's Committee (Ha Long City) said: In this urgent situation, to confirm standard plots, there needs to be flexible solutions such as using visual methods and recording images to speed up the process of statistics, counting, and making records, creating conditions for households to soon recover forests.

Many forest owners have to take advantage of the forest to have more funds to pay for cleaning and sanitation work after the storm.

In addition to difficulties in counting and documenting, the lack of human resources and means to collect fallen trees is also causing many households to fall into dire straits. Currently, many forests after the storm have no way to get up because most of the transport routes are eroded, damaged, and fallen trees block the way. Meanwhile, the price of acacia purchasing is decreasing day by day because the quality of the wood is not up to the standards of 6-7 year old acacia forests and purchasing units also lack gathering areas due to overloaded processing factories, even some factories have damaged factories, machinery, and cannot be put into operation... All of this is accumulating, weighing heavily on the shoulders of forest growers.

Grasping the difficulties of the people in a timely manner, in addition to implementing support policies and mechanisms, on October 1, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document No. 2832/UBND-KTTC to launch a 30-day peak period to support forest clearing, sanitation, collection and utilization of forest products in damaged forest areas. Implementing the campaign, functional forces and local People's Committees are also proactively mobilizing forces and means to support forest owners in clearing, sanitation, circulating transportation routes, and collection of forest products in damaged forest areas, determined to complete the work before October 31, 2024. At the same time, the Provincial People's Committee also requested localities to work with establishments that consume and purchase recovered wood from people to stabilize prices, and review the supply of seedlings to ensure reforestation immediately after people have finished harvesting. Seriously implementing the province's direction, localities have issued launch plans, clearly assigning tasks and responsibilities to each unit.

Mr. Le Van Thang, Deputy Head of the Economic Department (Ha Long City) said: The city has issued a plan, requiring the armed forces to closely coordinate with the People's Committees of communes, wards, and the City Forest Protection Department to mobilize forces to participate in supporting and helping forest owners, households, and individuals, to clean up and harvest fallen trees caused by storm No. 3. The implementation period will start from October 7, 2024 with a minimum number of 150 people mobilized to support.

Thus, in the context of households lacking human resources and means, the province's launching of the campaign will help people who plant forests have an additional source of very practical support. Mr. Ly Van Ba (Truong Tung village, Hai Lang commune, Tien Yen district) shared: These days, the cost of forest clearing labor is very high, an average of 350,000 VND/day, to clear 1 hectare of forest, it is usually necessary to hire about 10 workers to work continuously for 2 days, the amount is up to 7 million VND/ha, the price is so high but it is also very difficult to hire people. Meanwhile, the selling price of wood before the storm was 1,000-1,100 VND/kg, now the collection is only 750-800 VND/kg. The farther the forest is, the more difficult the road is, the higher the transportation cost, so we are focusing on collecting in areas near the road. In particular, with acacia trees, when the sun is hot, the tree will break and dry out quickly, making it impossible to peel the bark, while the purchasing time is prolonged, reducing the value of the wood... In the coming days, when the district and commune mobilize more forces to help people, it will be a very meaningful action for forest planters at this time.

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