Timely payment of forest environmental services to people

People together with the forest rangers of Muong Nhe Nature Reserve and authorities patrol to protect the forest.

Participating in a forest protection patrol with the people of Doan Ket village, Chung Chai commune (Muong Nhe district), we heard many stories about the benefits and use of forest environmental service fees by the villagers. Currently, the Doan Ket village community has contracted to manage and protect thousands of hectares of forest in the Muong Nhe Nature Reserve; of which more than 2,600 hectares are eligible for forest environmental service fees. When paying for forest environmental service fees in 2023, Doan Ket village will receive over 2.8 billion VND.

Mr. Ly Go Ly, Doan Ket village shared: “After a temporary advance payment of more than 1 billion VND, recently, Doan Ket village has received the remaining payment for forest service fees in 2023 from Muong Nhe Nature Reserve with a total amount of nearly 1.8 billion VND, so everyone in the village is excited. Because the forest helps people have more jobs and increase their income, everyone is more aware and responsible for the forest. And the patrolling and protection of the forest is specifically assigned by the village to each household and group of households to carry out regularly every month to promptly detect cases of forest encroachment.”

Since the policy of payment for forest environmental services was implemented, the forest protection and management work of Muong Nhe Nature Reserve has had many clear changes. In addition to regularly coordinating with functional agencies, the Management Board of Muong Nhe Nature Reserve has directed specialized teams to protect special-use forests to coordinate with groups contracted to protect forests to patrol and inspect forests, guard at forest gates to prevent people and vehicles from entering and leaving special-use forests, promptly detect acts of illegal forest exploitation, forest product exploitation, and deforestation... Thanks to that, in the first 6 months of 2024, in the forest area of ​​Muong Nhe Nature Reserve, there were only 07 violations in the forestry sector. These positive changes are partly contributed by the timely, complete and accurate payment of forest environmental services to people.

Muong Nhe Nature Reserve Management Board propagates and disseminates legal documents on forest management, protection and development to people in buffer zone villages.

Mr. Dao Cong Tien, Deputy Director of Muong Nhe Nature Reserve Management Board, said: Implementing the policy of paying for forest environmental services based on Notice No. 221/TB-QBVR dated May 20, 2024 of the Forest Protection and Development Fund on the average payment amount per hectare of forest eligible to provide forest environmental services in the Da and Ma River basins in 2023 in Dien Bien province, the unit issued Notice No. 317/TB-DTMN dated May 23, 2024 on the average payment unit price per hectare and the coefficient (K) applied to calculate the payment for forest environmental services in Muong Nhe Nature Reserve in 2023. On June 4, 2024, Muong Nhe Nature Reserve Management Board paid the second round of forest protection fees for providing forest environmental services in 2023 (remaining amount) with a total amount of over 16 billion VND. Accounts of the management boards of the groups contracted to protect special-use forests at the Social Policy Bank of Muong Nhe district. On June 6, 2024, the unit issued a notice on payment of forest protection wages for providing forest environmental services in 2023 to the contracted groups for information. Along with that, we also stepped up urging the 40 groups contracted to protect forests to perform their tasks according to the signed contracts to manage and protect forests better and better.

Through the policy of payment for forest environmental services, awareness of forest management, protection and development among individuals and communities contracted to protect forests has been gradually raised. To ensure the payment of forest environmental services is objective and accurate, the Forest Protection and Development Fund regularly checks, reviews and determines the area of ​​forest providing forest environmental services that has changed during the year. Coordinate with the Forest Protection Departments of districts, towns and cities to review and determine the area of ​​forest eligible to provide forest environmental services based on the results of monitoring forest developments.

Forest Protection and Development Fund staff pay forest environmental services to people in Thanh Minh commune (Dien Bien Phu city).

Mr. Tran Xuan Tam, Deputy Director in charge of the Forest Protection and Development Fund, said: In order to pay for forest environmental services to people promptly and accurately, the Fund, together with related units, has inspected, reviewed, and verified the forest area providing forest environmental services in 2023 in the whole province with a total inspected forest area of ​​46,308.281 hectares. The forest area eligible for payment for forest environmental services in 2023, applying the component K coefficients (K1, K2, K3, K4) according to the provisions of Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP is 265,766.79 hectares; the remaining 75,906.20 hectares are not eligible for payment. From there, the Forest Protection and Development Fund has the basis to pay for forest environmental services to people quickly and objectively. Recently, the unit has paid the previous years' DVMTR payment to 239 eligible forest owners in the whole province, with an amount of over 6.7 billion VND. Payment of DVMTR payment in 2023 to 3,979 forest owners in districts, towns and cities with an amount of nearly 122.1 billion VND...

The timely payment of forest environmental services to people has significantly contributed to improving the lives, sustainable poverty reduction for people participating in forest protection and more importantly, forest management and protection will be implemented more and more effectively. This has demonstrated the effectiveness of the forest environmental services payment policy in improving people's lives as well as raising awareness of forest protection; contributing to the successful implementation of the goal of forest management, protection and development in the province in recent times.

Source: https://baodienbienphu.com.vn/tin-tuc/moi%20truong%20rung/217073/kip-thien-chi-tra-tien-dich-vu-moi-truong-rung-cho-nguoi-dan