08:22, May 16, 2023
In recent years, Dak Lak province has leased forest land to enterprises for investment in agricultural and forestry development with the aim of increasing resources for forest management, protection and development. However, these projects have shown low efficiency, revealing many limitations and weaknesses in forest and forestry land protection.
Slow project implementation, poor management
Currently, in the province, there are 64 projects that have leased land to invest in agricultural and forestry development on forestry land, with a leased land area of nearly 43,310 hectares. These projects mainly aim at forest improvement, afforestation, rubber plantation, forest protection and management, fruit tree planting, livestock raising, etc. The projects are mainly concentrated in Ea Sup, Ea H'leo, Krong Nang, Lak, M'Drak districts, etc.
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| The Provincial People's Council's supervision delegation visited an agricultural and forestry project in Ia Jloi commune, Ea Sup district. |
In fact, the progress and current status of projects that have leased forest land have revealed many worrying issues. For example, in Ea Sup district, there are 27 agricultural and forestry projects, with a total area of over 17,492 hectares, including 11 rubber planting and forest management and protection projects; 11 projects on planting, renovating, managing and protecting forests and high-tech pig farming; 1 project on planting fruit trees and managing and protecting forests, and 4 other projects. To date, the total area of planted and renovated forests of the projects is 1,579.4/4,295.3 hectares, equivalent to 31.8% of the project plan. New projects have planted more than 1,628 hectares of rubber trees, equivalent to 24.7% of the project plan. However, some areas of dead rubber trees, unable to exploit latex, account for about 35% of the planted area. Besides, many project owners do not manage forests effectively, leading to illegal logging, encroachment, and transfer of forestry land.
Similarly, Ea H'leo district has 17 enterprises leasing land to implement projects on afforestation, rubber plantation, animal husbandry and forest management and protection. According to local assessments, many projects have been encroached upon by people for a long time. In terms of efficiency, most of the rubber plantation areas have grown and developed at an average and very low level, and some rubber plantation projects have died or the investors have abandoned them and no longer cared for them.
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| The forest planted by enterprises in Ia Jloi commune, Ea Sup district is not very effective. |
Agricultural and forestry projects have an investment capital of about 2,008 billion VND, managing and protecting nearly 13,095 hectares of natural forest, employing about 2,451 workers. According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee, the progress of investment in forest renovation, afforestation, and rubber plantation is slower than the project planning (nearly 836 hectares of forest renovation, reaching 32.5%, and nearly 14,561 hectares of forest and rubber plantation, reaching 61.16%). Regarding the management and protection of natural forests in the project area, out of a total of 46 projects with forest areas to be protected, 16 projects have reduced natural forest areas by 2,306.57/12,571.62 hectares. The situation of illegal deforestation and encroachment on forest land is very complicated. Project owners have not arranged forest protection forces to ensure effective protection of the assigned forest area (some projects only arrange 2-3 people); have not regularly organized patrols and inspections of project forests....
Regarding land management in the project area, the total area of forestry land of 64 leased projects is more than 43,309 hectares. Through inspection and review, it is shown that the area of land encroached, occupied, and disputed is more than 6,705 hectares, accounting for 15.5% of the total land area assigned to enterprises for management.
Many problems and shortcomings
Dak Lak province has a total forest area of 501,206 ha (426,046 ha of natural forest, 75,160 ha of planted forest), the area of land without forest is 232,423 ha, forest cover is 38.35%. According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee, many agricultural and forestry projects have revealed shortcomings and weaknesses, such as: lack of capacity, slow progress, dead plants, poor growth, ineffective implementation of forest management and protection, allowing forests to be cut down, land to be encroached upon, and insignificant job creation for workers. Some projects that violated land laws have had their forest land reclaimed, many projects that are behind schedule have also been considered and processed for reclamation. Regarding the application of science and technology, most enterprises that manage forest areas do not have specialized technical staff. Therefore, the application of new technology is still very limited, both in terms of people and equipment; there is no specialized department in charge of monitoring and supervising forest resources using technology.
In reality, agricultural and forestry projects are almost "stranded" due to the fact that the capacity of project owners has not met the requirements. In addition, this problem also comes from other objective reasons and from difficulties and inadequacies in the mechanisms and policies on forest protection and development and forestry. Specifically, the work of afforestation and the development of forestry models according to the value chain from production, processing and consumption is still limited and not commensurate with the potential and advantages of the province. Some projects on land planned for afforestation and rubber plantation have been illegally encroached upon, occupied and disputed and have not yet been recovered for project implementation. For rubber tree development projects, the right technical solutions have not been invested in due to the long-term low price of rubber latex. Forest renovation projects are stuck due to the many changes in regulations on forest renovation; the renovation of poor dipterocarp forests has not been allowed, so most projects cannot be implemented, leading to slow progress. The area of production forests in some localities has harsh weather and climate, long production investment cycles, slow capital recovery, so it is ineffective.
Meanwhile, the central government's policies on agroforestry development, large timber forest development, multi-purpose trees, and non-timber forest product development are not suitable; local policies on forest protection and development have not been specifically issued, and have not created motivation to attract non-state resources for forest protection and development...
In the coming time, Dak Lak province will strengthen the work of afforestation, tree planting and forest protection and management, creating breakthroughs in planting and processing products from planted forests; prioritizing the development of agroforestry, building pilot models of forest gardens and projects implementing greenhouse gas emission reduction programs. At the same time, continue to handle disputes and encroachment on forestry land at forest management boards, forestry companies, agroforestry projects and develop a master plan for the land area handed over to local management to solve the problem for households without land, lacking production land, unplanned migrants and construction of public works.
Minh Chi
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