Nguyễn Văn Cộng's family makes a living from aquaculture cultivation in the waters of the coastal protection forests in Hòn Đất District, Kiên Giang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

KIÊN GIANG — Households who are allocated forest lands in Kiên Giang Province’s Hòn Đất District have not only protected them well but also improved their incomes by exploiting their resources.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province has allocated forest lands in coastal areas to households and organisations and adopted policies to help them improve their incomes.

Nguyễn Văn Cộng received 2.7ha in Lình Huỳnh Commune in 2010 but could not earn a steady income by exploiting aquatic species because of their decline caused by the impact of climate change on forests.

In 2017 the province People’s Committee decided to replace the trees with cajuput trees. It also decided that households have to ensure 70 per cent of land is covered in forests and use the rest to farm aquatic creatures, breed animals and grow crops.

After the decision, Cộng began to breed black tiger shrimp, white-legged shrimp and crab in the allocated forest land and now earns nearly VNĐ100 million (US$4,300) a year.  

He is now also breeding chickens, ducks and goats and earns another VNĐ50 million ($2,150).

Nguyễn Văn A in Lình Huỳnh Commune’s Cây Trôm Hamlet has six hectares and now earns more than VNĐ200 million ($8,600) a year from raising goats, shrimp and crab there.

“Initially, most households did not have awareness about forest protection, but forest officials strengthened advocacy to address this, and forests are now carefully protected,” he said.

The district has more than 1,200ha of protection forests along the coast, mostly in Mỹ Lâm, Lình Huỳnh and Thổ Sơn communes.

Lê Hoàng Anh, deputy chairman of the Lình Huỳnh Commune People’s Committee, said the task of protecting forests is done well, and illegal logging is rare.

The commune has set up three co-operative groups for breeding aquatic species in nearly 100ha of protection forests, he said.

The commune would create favourable conditions for households to protect forests and exploit their resources to improve their incomes, he promised.

In 2016 – 20 the province has implemented four forestry projects at a total cost of VNĐ356 billion ($15.4 million).

They include one each to protect and develop protection forests along the Hòn Đất-Kiên Hà coast, recover protection forests along the provincial coast, create mud flats and plant mangrove trees to protect the sea dyke in Hòn Đất, and do the same in An Biên District’s Nam Thái Commune. — VNS