Realizing the "dream" of income from forests for Nghe An people

Purchasing wood from planted forests in Thanh Chuong district

Nghe An currently has a total area of ​​over 1.018 million hectares of forestry land, accounting for nearly 75% of the province's natural area. Currently, forested land is over 1 million hectares (including 790,352.86 hectares of natural forest and 171,421.51 hectares of planted forest); non-forested land is over 271 thousand hectares (of which 70,004.23 hectares have been planted but have not met the criteria for becoming a forest).

For a long time, the forestry sector has played an important role in the economic , social and national security development of Nghe An province. From an economic perspective, the forestry sector has contributed to increasing the export turnover of wood and non-timber forest products of the province in the period of 2021-2023, always reaching over 5.5%. Specifically, the growth rate of forestry production value in 2021 reached 7.85%, in 2022 reached 9.07%, in 2023 reached 6.67%. The export turnover of wood and non-timber forest products from 2021 to 2023 reached 821.25 million USD, of which 2021 reached 207 million USD, 2022 reached 344 million USD, 2023 reached 270.25 million USD and the first 6 months of 2024 reached 161 million USD.

Forestry is gradually becoming an important economic sector of the province. This is further confirmed by the annual increase in planted forest area. Since 2010, the planted forest area has reached more than 15,000 hectares/year and the total planted forest area is currently more than 220,000 hectares; of which, the production forest area is more than 178,000 hectares. Thanks to that, Nghe An's forest cover has increased and is currently 58.33%. This is a lever to increase forest biodiversity, while opening up more opportunities for carbon credit export.

Planted forests in Bong Khe commune, Con Cuong district

Looking from Con Cuong district, the locality with the largest forest coverage in the province, with more than 84%, on average, each year, 1,500 - 1,800 hectares of concentrated forest are newly planted. And the forest is providing food and warm clothes for forest growers. Mr. Ha Van Quyet, Thai ethnic in Thanh Dao village, Bong Khe commune (Con Cuong) shared: My family has more than 1 hectare of meter trees, 18 hectares of hybrid acacia. It turns out that each 1 hectare of meter trees and hybrid acacia has a stable income of over 100 million VND/year. I also intercrop cassava, each year cassava also yields a harvest of over 70 million VND.

Developing the forest economy has been creating sustainable livelihoods for people in many areas with difficult economic conditions. In Quy Chau district, the locality has a fairly large forestry land area, with more than 95,000 hectares, distributed in 12/12 communes and towns. Forests are creating jobs and income for people, contributing to sustainable hunger eradication and poverty reduction in the locality. Quy Chau district leaders said: In fact, each year Quy Chau has a planted forest area of ​​3,000 hectares and currently the planted forest area is more than 23,000 hectares, with an annual revenue of more than 350 billion VND.

The dream from the forest is growing with the amount of money from selling carbon credits. Through the North Central Region Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA) program, Nghe An has collected more than 282 billion VND since October 3, 2023. The above amount is converted from 789,462 hectares of natural forest area in the whole province.

In the context of limited resources allocated by the Central and local governments to the forestry sector, Nghe An province in general and forest owners in particular have high expectations from the sale of forest carbon credits. The revenue generated is very large, which in theory will contribute significantly to reducing the heavy pressure on forest management and protection.

From the sustainable agricultural and forestry economic development project, many jobs and livelihoods are created for the people (In photo: Wood processing at May Forestry Company - Nghia Dan district)

Another important driving force to realize the dream of living and getting rich from the forest of Nghe An people is the goal of developing sustainable agricultural and forestry economy associated with forest protection and increasing people's income according to Sub-project 1, Project 3, National Target Program 1719 in Nghe An.

Currently, the districts have prepared and approved technical design documents for forest protection estimates with the following contents: Support for forest protection contracts for special-use forests and protective forests of 101,630.44 hectares; Support for protection of planned forests, protective forests and production forests which are natural forests assigned to communities and households of 151,982.15 hectares; Support for planting production forests, exploiting the forest canopy economically and developing non-timber forest products of 3,580 hectares; The amount of subsidized rice for afforestation for poor households participating in planting production forests, developing non-timber forest products and protective forests is 84.83 hectares. In total, the above support contents mean that 25,613 households are benefiting from the forest.

Mr. Phung Thanh Vinh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An province, emphasized: Nghe An province is taking drastic measures to improve the quality of forest capital and develop sustainably from forests. In reality, this is becoming a reality. Sustainable development from forests will limit deforestation, forest fires, etc., creating a clean and green ecological environment.

Having a stable life and getting rich from the forest is real. The legal corridor for forest development and forestry development is even more certain when on August 24, 2024, the Prime Minister approved Decision No. 895/QD-TTg on the National Forestry Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050 and a number of mechanisms, policies and orientations for forestry development in the period 2026-2030.

The new forestry planning will create a legal corridor for the province to build programs, projects, plans, mechanisms and development policies. From there, it will create a vibrant emulation movement, contributing practically to the successful implementation of the forestry development goals in the right direction until 2030, with a vision to 2050.

Nghia Dan (Nghe An): Ensuring social security and supporting livelihoods helps many ethnic minority households escape poverty

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/hien-thuc-giac-mo-thu-nhap-tu-rung-cua-nguoi-dan-xu-nghe-1733200053765.htm