Forests are planted on mountains in Đắk Lắk Province’s M’Đrắk District. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Dũng

ĐẮK LẮK — Đắk Lắk Province has planted 1,824ha of new forests so far this year, exceeding the target for the full year, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Special-use and protective forests account for 24.8ha while the rest are for commercial exploitation and called “production forests.”

M’Đrắk District, which has among the most commercial forests in the province, has achieved its target of 850ha.

The rainy season lasts between October and April in the district, making conditions conducive for growing forests, according to the local Forest Protection Bureau.

M’Đrắk has more than 23,400ha of hybrid acacia forests, the largest in the province, and farmers who grow them can get a record VNĐ1.4-1.5 million (US$56-60) a tonne for the wood now.

With encouragement from local authorities, more and more farmers in the district have been switching from low-value crops to hybrid acacia in recent years.

Y Tun Byă in the district’s Ea Trang Commune said farmers used to grow mostly corn and cassava and their incomes were low.

His family has 10ha of hybrid acacia planted under a contract with the M’Đrắk Forestry One Member Limited Company.

The price of acacia wood had been increasing since early this year, he said.

“My family is harvesting 3ha and expects a yield of 120 tonnes per hectare and a profit of 50-60 per cent.”

Ea Trang Commune has 7,000ha of hybrid acacia trees.

Y’ Ngoanh Mlo, deputy chairman of the commune People’s Committee, said of the 7,000ha, 5,000ha were grown with contracts with forestry companies, while some 90 per cent of the commune’s population were ethnic people most of whom grow the trees.

The tree had become one of the commune’s key crops and was helping stabilise the lives of locals, he added.

The policy of paying households and firms for tending forests by the hectare had helped nurture them.

The province has more than 215,000ha of such forests.

In the first nine months of the year the province’s Forest Protection and Development Fund collected VNĐ58.4 billion ($2.4 million) from firms that use forest resources such as hydropower plants and water for industrial production.

It paid more than VNĐ14.9 billion ($600,000) to households and others for tending forests.

The department and localities have stepped up advocacy activities for protecting forests, including from forest fires, this year.

In 2021-25 the province plans to plant 10,085ha of new forests, including 8,720ha for exploitation, to achieve a forest cover rate of 40-42 per cent.

It had a rate of 38.5 per cent last year. — VNS