A conference to review the project Sustainable Forest Management in the
Northwest Watershed Area (Susform-Now), funded by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was held in Hanoi on July 30.
The
Susform-Now project, implemented in northern Dien Bien province during
the 2010-2015 period, focused on policy support, sustainable forest
management, the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation (REDD+), biodiversity conservation and knowledge sharing.
It
helped raise public awareness on forest management while providing
technical support for local livelihoods and forest management
activities.
JICA plans to expand the provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP) to three other northwest provinces.
Vietnam is among the countries most severely affected by climate
change, which is partly caused by greenhouse gas emissions from land
use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF).
Due to unsustainable
forest management, Vietnam’s forest coverage rate fell from 43 percent
in 1943 to 28 percent in 1995. Although forest land has increased to 40
percent in recent years, forest degradation is still strife in the
northwest region, triggered by overexploitation of forest resources and
land conversion for various purposes.
Vietnam carried out the
National RED+ Action Plan (NRAP), which regulates the implementation of
the PRAP by 2015, to improve forest management and climate change
resilience.-VNA