To make the forest truly "gold"

12:14, 04/04/2024

BHG - Tan Thanh is a particularly disadvantaged commune in Bac Quang district. The entire commune has nearly 5,000 hectares of forest provided with forest environmental services (FES). With many creative and effective ways of managing and using FES money associated with forest protection and development in the commune, it has been bringing a prosperous life to forest rangers.

Nam An and Phin Ho are two mountainous villages with many difficulties. However, both of these villages are possessing "golden forests" that are paid for forest environmental services. According to the assessment of the Deputy Head of Bac Quang Forest Protection Department, Pham Thi Thom: "Thanks to the policy of paying for forest environmental services, ethnic minorities here have more income, so forest management and protection work has been improved. People have a better awareness and responsibility for forest protection. The results of the investigation and assessment of the reserve of community forest allocation in Nam An and Phin Ho villages over the past years show that: Most of the forest area has increased from poor forest to medium forest, from medium forest to rich forest with standing tree reserves reaching over 200 m3/ha". Currently, in addition to 43 households and individuals in Nam An and Phin Ho villages enjoying the forest service payment policy, the communities of the two villages directly managing and protecting more than 3,100 hectares of forest receive a forest service payment of up to more than 1 billion VND/village/year. Nam An village chief Trieu Chan Sinh shared: In addition to paying for forest patrol, control and protection, the forest service payment also contributes significantly to helping people improve and enhance their quality of life. Many households proactively buy seedlings to plant forests, plant cardamom trees under the forest canopy to increase income from forestry or invest in building ancillary works to ensure convenience and aesthetics. The whole village has 43 households, now there are only 6 poor households and 1 near-poor household. 4/6 poor households and 1 near-poor household strive to escape poverty in 2024.

Leaders of Tan Thanh commune (Bac Quang) inspected the forest area in Nam Mu village.

Vice Chairman of Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee, Thieu Van Hoan, said: The whole commune has nearly 5,000 hectares of forest provided with forest environmental services with a total amount of more than 3 billion VND/year. Of which, 243 households are paid for forest environmental services with a total forest area of nearly 630 hectares; the remaining area is managed by the Commune People's Committee. The biggest change since the introduction of the forest environmental services policy is the increased awareness and responsibility of people in forest management and protection. Because this policy not only contributes to increasing resources for the task of protecting and developing forests but also brings a stable source of income to people. Every month, the community of the villages has a certain amount of additional income to serve the development of rural infrastructure and techniques. Thereby, creating motivation to encourage them to actively and proactively participate in forest management, protection and development activities.

To operate the focal point for payment of forest environmental services, Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee has established a commune-level forest protection and development management board; forest protection teams are established in villages. Every year, the commune's forest protection and development management board coordinates with local forest rangers to accept the forest area contracted for protection, pay for forest environmental services and supervise forest protection activities of contracted households as well as local households. At the same time, develop a plan to propagate and guide people in villages with forest areas in the forest environmental service supply basin to effectively manage, protect forests and prevent and fight forest fires. In particular, the commune People's Committee regularly coordinates with forces to organize patrols and control the exploitation, transportation, trading and processing of forest products in the area. Therefore, in the past 5 years, Tan Thanh commune has not had any forest fires; violations of forestry laws have been prevented, handled promptly and have tended to decrease.

Currently, Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee manages 10/12 villages with forest areas providing forest environmental services to 6 hydropower plants including: Nam Mu, Nam An and Song Lo 4, 6, 8A, 8B Hydropower Plants. In order to have a basis for allocating funds to pay for forest environmental services to forest owners and forest protection contractors; in 2021, Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee developed a plan and was approved by Bac Quang District People's Committee as a basis for managing and using forest environmental services associated with forest protection, bringing practical results. Through this plan, the benefits, rights and obligations of the subjects who are paid and must pay for forest environmental services are clearly defined. Thereby, contributing to raising people's awareness of forest protection; minimizing negative impacts on forests, promoting the function of protecting, regulating water resources, water flow to supply water to hydropower production units and people's production; conserving and maintaining the biodiversity values of forests. Furthermore, forest quality is increased through indicators of protected areas that have been accepted and qualified for transfer to forests; restored forests without reserves that are eligible for transfer to reserves; the commune's forest cover increased from 65% (in 2021) to 76.3% at present.

With the drastic participation of the Party Committee and the government of Tan Thanh commune, the consensus among the people on the implementation of the policy of paying for forest environmental services has contributed to protecting forest resources; promoting local socio-economic development, as shared by the Head of Nam An village, Trieu Chan Sinh: "Only with forests can we preserve land, water, regulate the atmosphere and forest workers have more worthy income".

Article and photos: THU PHUONG

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