Cam Lo District has 20,099 hectares of forest and land designated for forestry, of which 18,954 hectares are forested land. In recent times, the Cam Lo District People's Committee has directed relevant agencies, local authorities, and forest owners to strengthen measures to protect forests, strictly manage forest and forestry land areas, and promote forest development; preventing hotspots of deforestation and encroachment on forests, and promptly and strictly handling violations of forestry and land laws in the district.
Timber from planted forests is being prepared for processing in Cam Lo - Photo: D.T.
To enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of state management in forest protection and development, Cam Lo district annually focuses on strengthening the steering committees for the sustainable forestry development program at all levels, clearly assigning tasks, and reviewing and supplementing forest management and protection plans, as well as forest fire prevention and control plans, to ensure they are practical. It also strengthens propaganda efforts to raise awareness and responsibility among officials, Party members, and all segments of the population regarding forest management and protection, land management, and addressing illegal deforestation and encroachment on forest land.
Emphasis has been placed on coordinating efforts among military forces, police, forest rangers, and local authorities in forest protection and fire prevention and control, as well as strengthening coordination among agencies within the district-level internal affairs sector, yielding many positive results. The entire existing natural forest area is basically well managed and protected, with no hotspots of deforestation or encroachment on natural forests for reforestation; forest fires are detected early, and forces are mobilized to extinguish them promptly, thus minimizing the impact on forest resources.
Forest development has been given attention and implemented by all levels, sectors, and forest owners. People have focused on selecting forestry tree species of traceable origin and investing in intensive cultivation to improve the productivity and quality of planted forests, contributing to the forest cover rate reaching 51.1% in 2023.
Currently, Cam Lo district is directing relevant agencies to coordinate and integrate information on forests and forest land into the provincial planning; and to strictly control the conversion of forest land to other uses. In 2023, there were two new project groups in the district related to the conversion of forest land use: the resettlement area project serving the Van Ninh - Cam Lo section of the North-South East Expressway construction project (2021-2025); and the investment project to build technical infrastructure for the Cam Hieu Industrial Cluster. There have been no cases of illegal deforestation in the district due to the misuse of forest land conversion.
Along with effectively implementing state management in forest protection and development, Cam Lo district focuses on directing efforts to improve the efficiency of forest land use and decentralizing state management responsibilities at the commune level in accordance with the Forestry Law.
For natural forests, in 2023, the province's Sustainable Forestry Development Program provided support of 100,000 VND/ha, and the North Central Region Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Payment Program provided support of 126,000 VND/ha, with a total budget of 264 million VND. For production forests, the entire district harvested approximately 2,200 hectares in 2023, with an estimated income of 220 billion VND.
After logging, people were encouraged to replant forests intensively, using high-quality seedlings suitable for the soil, such as hybrid acacia varieties BV10, BV33, etc., to increase the productivity and quality of planted forests. Joint ventures and partnerships were implemented to invest in forest planting and timber processing between financially and technically capable enterprises and forestry production cooperatives and households, aiming to promote forestry production development and effectively exploit and utilize the potential of forest land.
Regarding the prevention of encroachment on forest land, Cam Lo district is currently actively coordinating with relevant departments and agencies and directing the People's Committees of the communes to focus on resolving the land disputes between households in Cam Tuyen and Cam Chinh communes and Duong 9 Forestry Company Limited; and the areas of forest land that organizations handed over to the local authorities for management, but in reality, a large portion of this land had been illegally encroached upon before the handover.
The District People's Committee has actively directed relevant departments and localities to strictly manage the land fund received from Duong 9 Forestry One-Member Limited Liability Company, while also widely publicizing the declaration and registration of land use through mass media, determining the ownership of local forest land, and developing land allocation plans for submission to competent authorities for approval, ensuring fairness and reasonableness.
It can be affirmed that the effective implementation of policies, programs, and projects for forest protection and development, ensuring livelihoods in Cam Lo district, has limited the encroachment and illegal activities of people within forest boundaries, especially in protection forests and special-use forests. Forest and forest land areas have been managed in accordance with the approved plans. The efficiency of forest land management and utilization has been continuously improved, and the lives of people engaged in forestry have been increasingly enhanced.
To date, there have been no hotspots of deforestation or illegal logging. This provides a basis for Cam Lo district to continue directing efforts to strengthen the role and responsibility of forest owners in managing and protecting the assigned forest and forest land areas; mobilizing various resources to support local communities, households, and people living near forests to improve their income, enhance their living standards, and limit encroachment and damage to forests in the future.
Khanh Ngoc
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