Coastal forests crucial to fighting climate change: DPM Hai

Deputy Hoang Trung Hai underlined the role of forests in coastal areas in coping with climate change and sea level rise during a meeting with a Government committee on forest development and protection on October 6.

Hai said the forestry sector should work out coastal forest protection and development plans that are more effective and feasible.

Coastal forests play an important role in mitigating the impact of climate change. Photo: Huu Chi

The Deputy PM noted that such plans should be integrated with national target programmes and foreign-funded projects, especially in resource allocation.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that it has formulated a plan for coastal forest protection and development covering more than 387 hectares in 29 provinces in the 2014-2020 period.

Hai also called on the forestry sector to pay attention to growing protection forests and special use forests as well as strengthening the forest ranger force and carrying out more patrols to prevent illegal logging and forest fires.

So far this year, more than 151,000 hectares of forest have been planted, equivalent to 73% of the 2014 target, according to the forest development and protection committee.

The committee said forestry output has increased at an annual rate of 6% over the past two years, making a considerable contribution to overall growth of the agriculture, forestry and seafood sectors.

However, the committee acknowledged that there were still some weaknesses in forest protection when the area of forest destroyed by fires in 2014 increased by 711.2 hectares compared with the previous year.

Vietnam plans to raise the forest coverage ratio to 42% in 2015, up 0.5 percentage points from 2014.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)