Giving cooperatives the opportunity to plant sustainable forests

Over many years of cooperation with the Finnish Agricultural Agency on food and forestry development, forest cooperatives and members of production forest cooperatives in the province have been transferred techniques and raised awareness of sustainable forestry development.

Cooperative members are trained in large timber plantation techniques. Photo: MINH DUYEN

Cooperative change

From 2017 to present, the Provincial Cooperative Union has cooperated with the Finnish Agency for Food and Forestry Development (FFD) to implement two projects: Project VIE6566 - supporting small-scale forest growers towards forest certification in Vietnam (2017-2020) and Project VIE8701 - Towards the restoration of small-scale forestry in Vietnam (from January 2023). The three cooperatives of the province participating in the project have had fundamental changes in their awareness of sustainable forest planting, namely Hoa My Tay Agricultural Service Cooperative, Hoa Phu Agricultural Service Cooperative (Tay Hoa district) and Hoa Dinh Tay Agricultural Service Cooperative (Phu Hoa district).

From planting forests with “3 no’s”: no machines, no procedures, no certificates, now these cooperatives have begun to form a forestry chain with modern techniques and machinery. Mr. Phung Minh Tuan, Director of Hoa My Tay Agricultural Service Cooperative, said: Previously, people planted forests without replacing new tree varieties but waiting for young trees to grow up to replace them, exploitation depended on family finances , not waiting for trees to be old enough… so most of the wood was sold young, at low prices.

By participating in the FFD project, cooperative members know how to build nurseries to create new healthy tree varieties, know how to thin trees to grow well, build fire warning observatories, know how to use labor protection, saws and trucks for exploitation... In particular, from having no need for forest certification, members now voluntarily register for an area of more than 325 hectares.

After many years of managing nearly 200 hectares of uncertified production forest, Hoa Phu Agricultural Service Cooperative now has more than 103 hectares with 29 registered households. This change in perception comes from members seeing the effectiveness of perennial forest planting when participating in FFD's project. According to Mr. Vo Van Di, Director of this Cooperative, following the instructions of experts, forest planting households strictly follow the technical requirements for planting, care and labor safety when harvesting. In particular, people have changed their habit of harvesting wood from 3-4 years to 5-7 years. "Planting for longer than 2 years but the economic efficiency has doubled. Specifically, acacia wood has increased from 60 million VND/ha to 120-140 million VND/ha. To help people have money to cover living expenses while waiting for the wood to be old enough, the Cooperative supports preferential capital," said Mr. Di.

According to the Provincial Cooperative Union, with Project VIE6566, these cooperatives are supported with about 3.8 billion VND to purchase machinery, equipment and learn forest planting procedures. With Project VIE8701, cooperatives are trained in silvicultural techniques, labor safety, labor use and commitment to use pesticides, protect the ecological environment of planted forests...; and complete the dossier for forest certification in the coming time. Currently, 134 forest planting households of 3 cooperatives have registered for FSC forest certification on a total area of over 678 hectares.

Many benefits are obvious

Mr. Dao Ngoc Dung, Director of the Tay Hoa District Forest Protection Management Board, said: Spontaneous forest planting in households poses a risk of forest fires and ecological imbalance in the entire planted forest due to the lack of consensus on tree varieties, timber harvesting time, and vegetation clearing plans. FFD's guidance from seedling nursery to thinning, fertilization, and forest fire prevention... for individual, small-scale forest planting households is very practical. This contributes to improving forest planting techniques for people and improving awareness of forest protection.

By complying with the principles and regulations of the granted forest certificate, the habit of planting forests using old and unsuitable methods will be changed to sustainable forest planting. That is, managing and controlling forest planting activities according to the roadmap; caring for and exploiting forests in accordance with the environment, bringing benefits to the community; achieving the highest economic efficiency by enhancing the value of wood brands from forest certificates.

Mr. Le Thanh Lam, Chairman of the Provincial Cooperative Union

Mr. Vo Van Thien, Vice Chairman of Hoa Dinh Tay Commune People's Committee, shared: Up to now, only companies with large forest plantation areas have been certified for forests, while households with small scattered forest plantation areas have never thought about this. Therefore, small forest plantation households are disadvantaged in terms of price when selling wood and have no opportunity to invest. For the first time, these households have the opportunity to be granted forest certificates through FFD projects. This creates conditions for increasing income and improving the lives of forest plantation households.

Mr. Le Thanh Lam, Chairman of the Provincial Cooperative Union, said: According to the plan, the issuance of forest certificates to cooperatives is expected to be completed by mid-2024, which is also the time when Project VIE8701 ends. Cooperating with FFD, the Provincial Cooperative Union hopes to form a forestry chain linked to cooperatives. Over the past 6 years, cooperatives have learned how to master the planting and exploitation stages. To continue to meet the requirements of processing and consumption, cooperatives need to complete forest certification according to FSC standards.

MINH DUYEN

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