The second phase of the United Nations’ “Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (UN-REDD) projects has been
officially launched in Vietnam.
Vietnamese
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat and
representatives from UN agencies on July 29 signed a document starting
the project’s second phase, making Vietnam the first among 47 UN-REDD
partners implementing the second phase with a non-refundable aid worth
about 30 million USD.
Funded by the Norwegian
Government, UN-REDD is an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
improving forest management and land use.
In
Vietnam, the project is one a pillar of the plan to reduce 20 percent of
agricultural and rural development emissions by 2020. It also aims to
increase forest coverage to 45 percent by 2020 through making and
implementing policies on controlling deforestation and forest
degradation.
Speaking at the signing ceremony,
Minister Phat said that as one of the nations seriously affected by
climate change, Vietnam has actively and positively joined the
international community’s efforts to protect the earth, as well as
issued a lot of policies and strategies to cope with climate change.
He also suggested the collaboration between the
UN-REDD project phase II and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
projects and other climate change response programmes to help Vietnam
promptly develop capabilities to implement REDD plus, which goes beyond
deforestation and forest degradation and includes the role of
conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of
forest carbon stocks.
UN Resident Coordinator in
Vietnam Pratibha Mehta said that the country should reach all goals of
the second phase on time to benefit most from the project.
UN agencies will help optimise the effects of efforts to minimise
negative impacts of climate change in Vietnam, she affirmed.
The REDD project phase II focuses on six provinces of Bac Kan, Lao Cai, Ha Tinh, Binh Thuan, Lam Dong and Ca Mau.-VNA