Forestry production value targeted to grow 5.5% annually in next five years

Vietnam aims for annual growth of 5-5.5% in forestry production value under the sustainable forestry development programme for 2021-2025 freshly approved by the Government.

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Under the programme, forestry will be developed into a modern, effective and highly competitive economic-technical sector with strong production chains.

In 2025, the export value of wood and forestry products is hoped to reach 20 billion USD, including 1.5 billion USD from non-timber products.

Income from planted production forests is expected to rise about 1.5 times compared to 2020.

The programme will focus on maintaining the national forest coverage of 42 percent in a sustainable manner and developing new forest areas. Alongside, the productivity and quality of forests will be improved to meet the demand for materials for production and environmental protection.

It targets the sustainable management, protection, development and exploitation of forests, thus contributing to creating jobs, protecting the ecosystem, eco-diversity and strengthening the capacity to adapt to climate change. The programme also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to the implementation of Vietnam's commitments at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26).

To realise these goals, the programme set a series of tasks including forestry protection, conservation of biodiversity of forest ecosystems, development of forests, improvement of forest productivity and quality, sustainable forest management, and enforcement of forest certifications for planted production forests.

It also gives priority to preventing wildfires and expanding special-use, preventive and coastal forests, as well as developing the forest product processing industry.

The total budget for the programme is estimated at 78.85 trillion VND (3.36 billion USD)./

VNA