QUẢNG TRỊ — A project on sustainable forests, jointly implemented by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), has officially launched.

The project, entitled ’Promotion of Sustainable Management of Production Forests by Forest Companies in Việt Nam’, will be carried out in the period between 2017 and 2019, with a total funding of 692,185 euros (US$772,000) and a counterpart fund of 55,000 euros ($61,000).

The project was assigned to the Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS), as the project owner, and DFS and HessenForest (Germany), as consultants to provide technical support.

The three main objectives of the project are strengthening sustainable forest management in the selected State forest companies; establishing a training centre for sustainable forest management and forest certification, and replication of capacity building for forest companies and related agencies through training courses.

Currently, sustainable forest management and forest certification is one of the top priorities in the forestry sector in Việt Nam, according to forestry experts on Wednesday.

The Forestry Development Strategy 2006-20 has set a target of having at least 3 per cent of production forest areas certified as managed in a sustainable fashion by 2020, the experts said.

However, the implementation of sustainable forest management and forest certification in Việt Nam was far behind the expected targets.

To promote sustainable forest management and forest certification in Việt Nam, one of the current priorities was to build the capacity of forest owners and stakeholders for sustainable forest management.

With the support of the project, the training centre for sustainable forest management and forest certification will be established to deliver the training courses to forest owners across the country from 2018.

This is a first model of training centre in Việt Nam on sustainable forest management and certification that will be built on a joint co-operation between forestry research institute and forest companies (for demonstration activities).

It is expected to make significant contribution to capacity building for the stakeholders in the field of sustainable forest management in Việt Nam, contributing to the implementation of forest sector restructuring project.

As of 2016, about 205,000ha of forest are certified for sustainable forest management.

Yesterday, the project launch workshop was held in Đông Hà City of Quảng Trị Province with the participation of representatives from Vietnam Administration of Forestry, International Cooperation Department, and Agriculture and Rural Development departments of Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên-Huế provinces and project partners. — VNS