Officers from Yen The district’s forest protection agency guide the people of Dong Vuong commune to take care of large tree forests.

Improving economic efficiency

Now, the forest coverage of the whole district hits 40 percent, fulfilling the target set by the Congress. The forest economic value has been continuously increasing, with total revenue of 230 billion VND (10 million USD) per year. Not only heeding afforestation, the district has also paid attention to raising forest product value, with many results recorded. 

At present, the district is home to 109 wood processing facilities, with total processing capacity of tens of thousands of cu.m annually, ensuring the processing of all timber volume in the locality. The establishments have also bought large volumes of material wood from Son Dong, Luc Ngan and Luc Nam districts and some neighboring provinces for processing, thus creating jobs and raising incomes for local people.

In the process of implementation, many organizations and individuals have had good and creative ways of developing the forest, notably the Yen The Forestry One Member Limited Liability Company.

Nguyen Van Chuc, Director of the Company, said: "For planted forests to grow well for high economic efficiency, the unit always determines the transformation of the seedling structure as the most important. In that spirit, the company has cooperated with some forest plant research institutes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in carrying out the research, hybridization and planting of new-generation varieties of eucalyptus and acacia hybrid to replace the old ones, with slow development". 

As a result, more than 2,000 hectares of planted forest of the company has grown well. The turnover in the last two years has always reached over 30 billion VND (1.3 million USD), 10 billion VND (438,000 USD) higher than that of 2015. The company has become one of the first businesses nationwide achieving the international forest certification with the prices of export wood 15 percent higher than those of other firms.

Along with businesses, people in the district have also paid attention to improving the quality of forests. The family of Do Van Tien from Song Son village, Tien Thang commune has just tapped 0.9 hectare of acacia and eucalyptus, collecting nearly 300 million VND (13,100 USD). Currently, his family has about 2 hectares of acacia in good development cycle. Customers paid him more than 500 million VND (21,900 USD) but he has not agreed yet.

Continuing to bring into play potential and advantages

Workers of the Yen The Forestry One Member Limited Company process forest products.

Yen The district’s forest protection agency attributed the results to efforts made by the Party committees and authorities at all levels in disseminating the implementation of the Resolution of the Congress of the district Party Organization on forest development among cadres, Party members and people. They have been interested in making policies and conducting effective seedling support programs and technical training courses. 

Identifying afforestation as the spearhead economy that contributes to improving people's income and living conditions, the People's Committees of all communes have focused on directing and guiding the implementation of related guidelines and policies. 

However, according to Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy director of the district’s forest protection agency, through the review, despite achieving the set target, the district still faces some problems in developing the forest economy. For example, some forests have poor quality with low timber yield. To fix these shortcomings, in the coming time, the unit will continue to advise the Forest Protection Sub-department of the district Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the district People’s Committee to carry out projects to support local people in planting new and effective seedlings. 

At the same time, it will send local forest rangers to regularly guide people in planting forests, while maintaining and replicating big tree forest models, contributing to improving the quality, yield and value of planted forest timber.

Van Thuong