Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on December 27 urged the agriculture sector to accelerate and make breakthroughs for a more prosperous and happier life for farmers, more modern rural areas, and more advanced agriculture.
Vietnam has increased forest coverage from 23% in 1994 to more than 45% today, demonstrating a remarkable commitment to forestation, according to Alexis Corblin, Regional Technical Advisor of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Hanoi is home to nearly 27,100ha of forest and forestry land, including 18,577ha under forest, which is considered a "green belt" protecting the local ecological environment.
Last year, Vietnam reported more than 14.8 million hectares of forest area, of which over 10 million hectares were natural forests and 4.7 million hectares planted ones.
2023 marked a significant milestone for the forestry sector as Vietnam successfully sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits (equivalent to 10.3 million tonnes of CO2) for the first time through the World Bank for 51.5 million USD.
In 2022, Vietnam had 14,790,075 ha of forest area, of which 10,134,082 ha were natural forests and 4,655,933 ha were planted ones, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced in a decision on June 20.
The forest coverage in the southern province of Tra Vinh increased from about 9,160 ha in 2020 to 9,538 ha by the end of 2022, according to the provincial People’s Commitee.
Vietnam’s export of agro-forestry-aquatic products hit a record revenue of over 53.22 billion USD last year, up 9.3%, including nearly 11 billion USD from aquatic products.
The Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh is encouraging farmers to breed shrimp in mangrove forests as the practice offers sustainable incomes and helps to maintain the province's forest coverage.
The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tra Vinh plans to grow new forests from now to 2025, increasing the province’s total forest area to 10,000ha and reaching a forest coverage rate of 4.2 percent.
The southernmost province of Ca Mau in recent years has developed its protection and commercial forests, which provide much-needed household, export and tourism revenue.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has lauded Tuyen Quang’s achievements in recording highest forest coverage ratio among localities nationwide at 65 percent, suggesting the province to consider forestry as a major economic development orientation to escape from poverty.
The forestry sector should take swift action to build a project on zoning off and protecting natural forests in the time to come, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong.
The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang is taking measures to retain its forest coverage rate at 11 percent, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Forested areas in Vietnam’s central region increased by 373,887 ha in the 2015-2019 period, according to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
