Large timber plantation - View from Quang Ninh: Obstacles in support policies (Part 2)

There are still many difficulties in implementing policies to expand large timber forests.

Many problems in the implementation process

The family of Mr. Chiu Sang Henh, Khe Man village, Don Dac commune (Ba Che) is currently planting 0.5ha of doi and 0.4ha of lim. He shared that when the commune officials propagandized and encouraged the planting of large timber forests, the family actively registered and planted. However, he shared his concerns: “The family also really wants to plant short-term trees because they bring quick income, and planting doi trees takes a long time to harvest. In the family's doi planting area, there are many trees that have been planted for 7 years, but have not yet seen fruit to harvest; lim trees take even longer.”

Mr. Chiu Sang Henh took reporters of the Ethnic and Development Newspaper to visit his family's large timber plantation.

Reflecting on the difficulties and obstacles in planting large timber forests, Mr. Ban Van Vy, Head of Khe Phuong village, Ky Thuong commune (Ha Long city) also said: The policy is correct, but when implementing, households have encountered many difficulties, especially in providing information on seed purchase contracts, quotes, and origins of seedlings to prepare documents to request support.

“At first, many households were excited to register to plant because they were supported with seedlings, but when completing the application, there were many problems, so many households withdrew. Normally, people still get seedlings from familiar places in the locality, the plants still grow well, but because there is no purchase contract, price, origin, they are not eligible to submit the application. We really want to create flexible conditions in the requirements of the seed supplier so that people can more easily access seed support,” said Mr. Vy.

Mr. Ban Van Vy shared with reporters the difficulties in accessing the policy of planting large timber forests.

In addition to the above reasons, in reality, mobilizing people to participate in planting large timber forests is not really favorable, due to limited awareness and education level. For generations, households in these areas have been familiar with planting traditional trees such as acacia trees, and have not really been interested in changing the crop structure and planting large timber forests. In order to implement the Resolutions on planting large timber forests, local officials have had a hard time in propagating and mobilizing, supporting people in completing administrative procedures.

Need to adjust policy mechanism

Dong Lam is a mountainous commune of Ha Long city, with 98% of Dao people living, the economy mainly depends on agriculture and forestry. From 2021-2023, implementing Resolution 337/NQ-HDND, 34 households were supported with an area of ​​88 hectares, the support amount is 1,126 million VND.

Mr. Vu Thanh Tuan, Chairman of Dong Lam Commune People's Committee, said: Commune officials must be the ones to accept the stages from the confirmation of land area, seedlings, and planted forest area. While accepting large areas, there are not many officials, people's qualifications are still low, their thinking is still conservative, and they still rely on commune officials to support the preparation of payment records, so the commune still faces many difficulties.

According to Resolution 337/2021/NQ-HDND dated March 24, 2021 on the regulation of a number of specific policies for sustainable forestry development in Quang Ninh province (Resolution 337), pilot support for seeds and loans is only applied in 3 localities (Ba Che district, Ha Long city and part of Cam Pha city); beneficiaries of support policies are only households and individuals, not supporting business organizations; seed support level is 15 million VND/ha (must have a seed supply contract); the level of entrusted capital loan through the social policy bank is 20 million/ha, not exceeding 200 million VND/household.

“There are some types of seedlings according to the list of large timber species and native trees issued with Resolution 337, it is very difficult to find a supplier of seedlings that meet the regulations, such as ginger re and sandalwood. We hope that there will be adjustments to the regulations on supported documents, such as reducing the acceptance steps, and regulations on seed suppliers in a simple and practical way that local people are implementing,” said Mr. Vu Thanh Tuan, Chairman of Dong Lam Commune People's Committee.

Large timber forest planting campaign in Cai village, Dong Lam commune

In Don Dac commune, Ba Che district, large timber forest planting has been implemented since 2021. Accordingly, in 2021 and 2022, the locality mainly planted cinnamon, reaching about 600 hectares so far; In 2023, the whole commune planted 13 hectares of lim, 18 hectares of doi... According to the leader of the commune People's Committee, Don Dac currently has 2 cadastral officers in charge of large timber forest planting. With such a large area, even though it is necessary to send cadres from the farmers' association, women's association, part-time cadres... to support in appraisal and field inspection, it still takes 2 months.

“We also have to bring in local forest rangers to coordinate with all teams and guide them in demarcating the plots. In reality, it is still difficult to arrange staff to handle the appraisal process, there are many documents,” said Mr. Trieu Quy Lau, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Don Dac commune.

It is known that Ba Che district is the locality with the largest timber forests in Quang Ninh province. The total area of ​​large timber forests and native trees is nearly 2,687 hectares. According to Mr. Khieu Anh Tu, Vice Chairman of Ba Che District People's Committee, the planting of large timber forests in Ba Che is not commensurate with the potential of land and soil. However, the difficulty is that the cycle of planting forests with large timber trees is long-term, at least over 10 years, even 70 years, so it is very difficult to mobilize people to participate, while the unit price of planting forests is low, so people are not really interested.

Mr. Tu said that Resolution 337 mainly supports households in implementation, but there are no support policies or costs for subjects related to the implementation of large timber forest planting; there are no policies to attract cooperatives, cooperative groups, and units to participate in large timber forest planting; the implementation of support is only carried out in pilot models, so the implementation of large timber forest planting by people in the district as well as the whole Quang Ninh province has not been much; in the current planting area, there are some pests and diseases... These are difficulties and problems that need to be resolved in the coming time.

In fact, after more than 3 years of implementing Resolution 337, both the people and the government have encountered many difficulties in implementing large-scale timber plantation. Notably, these difficulties have been listened to and accepted by the leaders of Quang Ninh province as well as relevant agencies...; Accordingly, relevant agencies are also making proposals to adjust mechanisms and policies to be more suitable to reality...

Removing difficulties in implementing large timber plantation

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/trong-rung-go-lon-nhin-tu-quang-ninh-vuong-mac-trong-chinh-sach-ho-tro-bai-2-1720004604729.htm