Celebrating 50 years of the Vietnam Forest Ranger Force

On the afternoon of May 19, in Ha Long City, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam Forest Ranger Force (May 21, 1973 - May 21, 2023) was celebrated. Attending the ceremony were comrades: Vi Ngoc Bich, member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Vu Van Dien, member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Quang Ninh province has nearly 423,000 hectares of land planned for forestry, accounting for more than 68% of the province's natural land area, of which more than 370,000 hectares are forested. Over the past 50 years, the Quang Ninh Forest Rangers have been working together to manage, protect and develop this entire forest area.

The Vietnam Forest Ranger Force was established under Decree No. 101/1973/ND-CP dated May 21, 1973 of the Government to implement the "Ordinance on Forest Protection Regulations" passed by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on September 6, 1972 and promulgated by the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Order No. 147/LCT on September 11, 1972.

On June 28, 1976, the General Department of Forestry issued Decision No. 795/QD-TCLN to establish the Quang Ninh Forest Ranger force according to Decree 101 of the Government and at the request of the Provincial People's Committee. Exactly 40 years later, in 2016, in response to practical requirements, the Quang Ninh Forestry Sub-Department was merged into the Quang Ninh Forest Ranger Sub-Department.

Leaders of Quang Ninh province presented a flower basket to congratulate the Quang Ninh Forest Rangers on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its establishment and development.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, comrade Mac Van Xuyen, Head of the Provincial Forest Protection Department (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) affirmed: Quang Ninh province closed its forests in 1997, along with that, the whole province strongly implemented forest planting programs, forest protection and regeneration activities. In this roadmap, the Forest Protection force joined hands to promptly restore natural forests, develop production forests, and preserve rich forests for Quang Ninh.

Land and forest allocation, making forests have owners; monitoring the area of ​​allocated forest land is one of the activities for Quang Ninh to protect forests, ensure the results of forest planting, forest preservation, forest development, and create more value for forests. Many forest owners have been supported by Forest Protection units in forestry extension, guidance on building sustainable forest management plans and techniques for planting, caring for, and protecting forests.

Since the reform of the organizational structure, the Forest Ranger force has strengthened the implementation of the target program for sustainable forestry development. The work of forest inventory and monitoring of forest changes annually in the whole province has been well organized and implemented. Forest Ranger units are arranged in a vertical system from the provincial to district levels to perform the tasks of forest protection management and forest fire prevention, in which 60% of the forest ranger staff has been assigned to manage the commune level. Every year, the Forest Ranger force organizes and disseminates forest fire prevention work to 963 forest fire prevention teams and groups with 9,683 participants.

Comrade Vi Ngoc Bich, Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, commended collectives and individuals of the Quang Ninh Forestry sector with outstanding achievements.

Quang Ninh Forest Rangers have well implemented the tasks of patrolling, inspecting, controlling, and promptly preventing organizations and individuals from encroaching and destroying forests. In the past 10 years alone, Quang Ninh Forest Rangers have caught and handled nearly 3,000 violations; the total value recovered and paid to the budget is more than 20 billion VND, of which 45 cases were criminally prosecuted, with the highest sentence being 36 months in prison.

In the current period, Directive 13 of the Central Party Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in forest management, protection and development is of great significance. The Forestry Force has advised the province on strategic forestry policies, notably Resolution No. 19 dated November 21, 2019 on sustainable forestry development in Quang Ninh province for the period 2020-2025, with a vision to 2030. This is one of the first few forestry-specific resolutions in the country. From Resolution 19, Quang Ninh has planned a comprehensive forestry development plan.

The efforts of Quang Ninh Forest Rangers have contributed to the continuous enrichment, preservation, expansion, and improvement of forest reserves and quality in the province. Currently, Quang Ninh has rich and valuable forests with a rich ecosystem of flora and fauna, multi-storey canopy trees, and multi-purpose trees, which are the premise for Quang Ninh to move towards a forest economy. The forest coverage rate in the area has reached a stable 55%, far exceeding the national forest coverage rate (over 42%), ranking 14th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

Comrade Vu Van Dien, Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, commended collectives and individuals of the Quang Ninh Forest Ranger force for their outstanding achievements.

Speaking at the celebration, Comrade Vu Van Dien, Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, affirmed that over the past 50 years, the Forest Ranger force has played a good role in the task of managing, protecting and developing forests. Quang Ninh's forests have a large area, many types of forests with their own characteristics, bringing value to socio-economic development. The Forest Ranger force's promotion of the combined strength to protect and develop forests means contributing to the overall development of the whole province. In the development strategy, Quang Ninh aims to be a locality with sustainable development, so the task of protecting and developing forests becomes even more important.

He suggested that in the coming time, in order to continue achieving high results in the task of protecting and developing forests, the Quang Ninh Forest Rangers need to constantly train, improve their qualities, political qualities, skills and love for the profession, to meet the requirements of the tasks in the new situation. The Forest Rangers also need to well implement the province's forestry resolutions, strengthen the inspection and supervision of forest protection, fight against violations of forest laws, apply science and technology as well as inherit the experience of previous generations in implementing tasks, promote forest allocation and leasing, etc.

On this occasion, many collectives and individuals of Quang Ninh Forest Rangers with outstanding achievements were awarded by the Central Government, the province and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/ky-niem-50-nam-thanh-lap-luc-luong-kiem-lam-viet-nam-3240967.html