Vietnam earned 58 million USD from the collection of payments for
eco system service (PES) schemes in 2012, the equivalent to the State
budget allocation for the forestry sector.
Vice Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan praised the news of the
income. “This is an encouraging figure given that this scheme was put in
place on a wide scale just a year ago. It has been proved that PES is a
good scheme to raise funds for forest protection,” he said in a
briefing to foreign partners reviewing the sector’s performance at the
annual meeting of the Forest Sector Support Partnership held in Hanoi
on January 31.
In 2012, PES was collected from hydro-electric
plants and water supply plants. The agriculture ministry is working on
other potential sources including eco-tourism.
Some other key
figures for the forestry sector have also been revealed. The export
revenue of the timber processing industry last year was 4.6 billion USD,
a 17 percent increase from 2011’s figure.
Forest coverage
increased from 33.2 percent in 2009 to 39.7 percent last year, which was
close to the 40 percent target.
Last year also saw a
remarkable increase in official development assistance (ODA) funding
channeled into the sector. There were eight projects whose total
financing was worth 117 million USD compared to about 29 million USD in
2011.
Deputy Director General of the ministry’s Forestry
Department Vo Dai Hai said the sector will have to adjust itself to
changes in the international market that may affect Vietnam ‘s
export-based timber processing industry.
In the meantime, the
focus is to ensure Vietnamese timber products meet the requirements of
import markets, such as the European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement and
Governance regulations and the United States ‘ Lacey Act, which ban
the import of any wood products made from illegally harvested timber.
Hai said Vietnam would need international assistance to ensure this is achieved.
The meeting was held by the ministry in co-operation with Japan
International Cooperation Agency and German Agency for International
Cooperation.-VNA