President Võ Văn Thưởng and Tuyên Quang's authorities water a tree at the Tree Planting Festival on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI — "Each tree we plant today will become a priceless gift to future generations," said the President of Việt Nam Võ Văn Thưởng.

Thưởng made the remark at the annual "Forever Grateful to Uncle Hồ" Tree Planting Festival in Tuyên Quang Province on Thursday.

He said environmental protection, tree planting and forest conservation have become increasingly important in Việt Nam as the country is determined to tackle climate change by building a green economy and promoting eco-friendly practices.

He also said the programme "Planting One Billion Trees by 2025" made great progress in 2023. Across the country, 260,000 ha of forest and 127 million trees were planted.

The afforestation efforts have created a stable source of timber for industries and helped maintain a forest coverage rate of 42 per cent nationally. In 2023, the country sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits to the World Bank for the first time, earning US$51.5 million.

He also praised Tuyên Quang for its efforts in forest management and development. With over 11,000 ha of forest being planted annually, the province takes the lead in Việt Nam in terms of forest coverage (65 per cent) and secures second position in terms of sustainable forest management.

He urged Tuyên Quang to take measures to fully unlock its forestry potential and link biodiversity preservation with cultural preservation.

He underlined the importance of building new-style rural areas in the province, which would improve people's living standards and contribute to rapid economic growth.

He also urged ministries and local authorities to launch communication and education campaigns to help people understand the benefits of tree planting and forest protection.

Nguyễn Quốc Trị, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the ministry and local authorities had made great efforts to achieve the target of one billion trees by 2025.

Between 2021 and 2023, over 770 million trees were planted and nearly VNĐ9.5 trillion ($390 million) was raised for the programme, of which 23.8 per cent came from the State budget.

Lào Cai, Phú Thọ, Long An and Gia Lai were among the provinces with good results in implementing the programme. Many businesses and individuals also played a part in raising funds to set it in motion.

After the President kicked off the festival with a drumbeat, over 3,000 chò chỉ (shorea wangtianshuea) and keo (acacia) trees were planted in the province.

Similar tree-planting activities could be observed in many other provinces such as Nam Định, Phú Thọ and Khánh Hòa on the same day.

From north to south, people rolled up their sleeves and got to work to "offer gifts to future generations". — VNS