A local resident plants a tree in a large timber afforestration project in Hòa Vang District of Đà Nẵng City. Upstream forests in mountainous communes in the district will be restored in 2023-24. Photo courtesy of GreenViet

ĐÀ NẴNG — The centre for biodiversity conservation, GreenViet, has been raising funds for an afforestration project on 50ha in the upstream forest of mountainous Hòa Bắc Commune in an effort to reduce erosion and landslide in the lower river area and strengthen climate change resilience for the city’s suburban zone.

The fund raising campaign, Bring the forest back to life, which was launched in co-operation with the Gustav-Stresemann Institute (GSI, Germany) and the EU, was initiated with 60,000 large timber trees, at a cost of VNĐ49,000 (US$1.68) for planting and supervising a tree in the commune in 2023-24.

At the fund-raising night music event in early August, donors contributed funds to start a plantation of 220 trees in November and 40 tonnes of bio-fertiliser from Đặng Gia Trang Company, GreenViet said.

It said the campaign aims to collect VNĐ3 billion ($120,000) for the upstream forest restoration with the participation of the ethnic Cơ Tu community living in the commune 40km away from the city’s downtown.

Earlier this year, GreenViet, a non-profit NGO, began an indigenous timber forest restoration on 18.1 hectares in Hòa Liên Commune as a sustainable agro-forest production with funding from Ecoculture of the US.

GreenViet said it has been implementing the ‘One Million Trees Plantation’ project in Đà Nẵng, Hà Nội and HCM City to provide a ‘green’ shadow for the community and reduce air pollution from 2021-2025.

More than 1,000 big trees have been grown by volunteers and GreenViet in Sơn Trà Nature Reserve in the city.

An upstream section of the Cu Đê River in Hòa Bắc Commune of Hòa Vang District in Đà Nẵng. Forest restoration in the area aims to reduce the impact of climate change in the lower river area. Photo courtesy of Hòa Bắc Portal

The European Union (EU) has been funding a biodiversity protection and environmental sustainability project in central Đà Nẵng City for 42 months from July 2020 to the end of December 2023, with total funding of 650,000 euros.

Đà Nẵng has raised total funds of $4.4 million for conservation, forest protection and afforestation, and will establish new reserves on 43,722 hectares by 2030.

GreenViet alone has received VNĐ45 billion ($1.8 million) from the community in funding for biodiversity protection and environmental sustainability in Đà Nẵng over the past decades. VNS