On December 30, 2022, the General Department of Forestry (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) held a conference to summarize the forest sector in 2022 and set tasks in 2023.

EXCELLENT PLAN ALL 5 criteria

Mr. Bui Chinh Nghia, deputy director of the General Department of Forestry, said that by the end of 2022, all 5/5 targets of the forest sector have met and surpassed the set target.

one isthe whole country planted 259,615 ha of forest, reaching 106.4% of the plan (protective forest 8,636 ha, special use forest 1,611 ha, production forest 249,369 ha. In addition, the whole country planted 122 million fertilizer trees. Spread, achieving 103% of the plan .

two isTimber production from production forests (including scattered trees) in 2022 is estimated at 19,698.8 thousand m3, exceeding 6.57% of plan and increasing by 7.2% in 2021.

three is, the revenue from forest environmental services reached VND3,686.96 billion, reaching 122.9% of the revenue plan in 2022; increased by 20.6% compared to 2021. Of this, the central fund collected VND 2,285 billion, the rest came from the provincial fund. In 2022, the provincial fund has spent VND2,804 billion in 2021 (reaching more than 108% of the plan) and advanced VND961.24 billion in 2022 for forest owners.

This has helped stimulate forest owners to actively protect forests and increase forests. So far, 334 forest owners have developed forest management and protection plans, which have been approved by the relevant authorities, covering a total area of ​​about 4 million hectares, accounting for 48.53% of the total forest area allocated. The remaining 195 forest owners are developing plans, 212 forest owners have no plans, totaling about 4.2 million hectares.

four is, The forest cover rate reached 42.02%.

year is, The export value of timber and forest products is estimated at US$16.928 billion, exceeding 3.8% of the plan, up 6.1% from 2021.

The main export markets of Vietnam’s wooden furniture and forest products have shown positive signs of recovery and have continued to grow: the US, Japan, China, the EU and South Korea with a total export value of USD 15.48 billion, which is 91% of the total export value of this product group.

In 2022, our country imported about USD 2.82 billion of raw wood, up 4.1%. As a result, forestry posted a trade surplus of $14.1 billion, up 6.5% from 2021, contributing positively to overall agribusiness growth and revenue.

“This result is a great effort of the entire forestry industry, thanks to the government and Prime Minister’s focus on solving difficulties, removing obstacles and recovering the economy, as well as the active initiative of the forest sector. Businesses have been quick to adapt to the difficulties and challenges,” confirmed Mr. Bui Chinh Nghia.

In addition to the results achieved, Mr Nghia said that the forestry industry still had shortcomings and limitations over the past year. In the central highland provinces in particular, there are still hot spots for logging, illegal transportation and storage of forest products, and against law enforcement officials.

“This is the hottest area in terms of deforestation and illegal exploitation of forest products, which have not been detected early to take measures to guide, prevent and solve in time. Infrastructure for forestry development has not yet been invested. Insufficient infrastructure, especially in forest administrations and forest enterprises, lack of equipment for forest protection, fire prevention and firefighting. Layoffs and redundancies are happening in many places in the forest, and it is difficult to recruit new workers in many areas,” Nghia said.

IN 2023: TIMBER AND FOREST PRODUCTS EXPORTS TO AUM US$17.5 BILLION

According to the head of the General Directorate of Forestry, insufficient investment has been made in infrastructure for forest development, especially in forest management and forest companies, forest protection, fire prevention and fighting. The dismissal and dismissal situation of foresters and forest protection workers occurs in many places and areas where it is difficult to recruit new workers.

Policies related to forest investments are still not attractive to attract people and companies to invest in intensive afforestation. Statistics show that the income per hectare of planted forest is very low, only 10 million VND/ha/year on average, resulting in low income of forest farmers who account for only 25% of the total income.

Investment funds for forest management and protection are still very low, annual state subsidies are sometimes not reduced and not in time according to plan, which means that many forest owners conclude a forest protection contract. For the locals, the average level of contractually agreed forest protection is around 300,000 – 400,000 VND/ha, while the minimum requirement must be over 1,000,000 VND/ha.

Pham Minh Toai – Vice-Rector of Forestry University also pointed out the issue of human resources for the forest sector: Recruitment of foresters and forestry majors is very difficult, today’s majors have not yet created an attraction for students. Even in some years only 8-10 students study silviculture.

In order to achieve the target set for 2023 and promote forestry development in the years to come, the General Department of Forestry suggested that the heads of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development examine it and report to the Prime Minister. The government approved this decree on a number of investment policies in forestry; National forest planning for the period 2021 – 2030 with a vision to 2050; Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 118/2014-ND-CP of December 17, 2014 of the Government on Regulation, Renewal and Development, Improving the Operational Efficiency of Agricultural Enterprises, Forestry.

Proposal to approve the pilot program for leasing forest environments for the cultivation and development of medicinal plants; Vietnamese ginseng development program by 2030 and targeting by 2045; Decree amending and supplementing some articles of Government Decree 156/2018/ND-CP of November 16, 2021, which describes the implementation of some articles of the Forest Code.

Chairing the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri called on the industry to continue implementing the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 08/CT-TTg of March 28, 2019 on a number of tasks, develop solutions and to sustainably develop the wood-processing industry and non-wood forestry products for export and implement the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 327/QD-TTg of March 10, 2022 on approving the project for the development of a sustainable and effective wood-processing industry in the period 2021-2030.

“The forest sector needs to focus on preventing trade fraud by some exporters and controlling logging imported from countries where there is a high risk of illegal timber origin. In addition, the management and protection of forests and the prevention and control of forest fires must be strengthened,” Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri said.