‘Contribute a tree for a forest’: Effective socialization of forest restoration

Vietnam Afforestation and Reforestation Social Company (VARS) and the People's Committee of Tuyen Hoa district, Quang Binh province, have just coordinated to organize a seminar "Socialization of resources for Watershed Forest Restoration" in Tuyen Hoa district.

This is also the starting event for activities of the "Contribute a tree for a forest" program in 2024 and response to the International Day of Forests.

According to a report from the Forestry Department, in 3 years (2021-2023), the total capital mobilized to protect, plant new trees and improve forest quality is VND 9,449 billion, of which up to VND 4,111 billion is from socialization capital (accounting for 43.5%). A typical example is VARS with the Project "Planting and restoring forests in the headwaters of Gianh and Thach Han rivers." This project operates for non-profit purposes, mobilizing social and community resources to plant and restore natural forests with the message "Contribute a tree for a forest".

Forest restoration is integral to creating livelihoods for people

Mr. Trieu Van Luc highly appreciated VARS's efforts to restore forests by planting native tree varieties in the upstream areas of large rivers such as the Gianh River and Thach Han River.

On this occasion, experts contribute their opinions to help forest planting and restoration achieve increasingly better results.

From practical experience, Mr. Cao Van Nam, community forest management officer in Dakrong district, Quang Tri, shared: "Large native timber trees add value and are meaningful for ecological protection, but people are afraid of it." Because I choose to grow acacia (wood chips), I can calculate the income for several years.

Mr. Tran Tan Phuong, Dong Hoa commune, Tuyen Hoa district, a forest planter with VARS capital, stated, "Because we are restoring forests on degraded land, we must invest higher. Mobilizing poor households to plant forests is ineffective because, without food, they cannot maintain forests. I have set up a cooperative of stable-income people to plant forests together. We invest the surplus in forests."

Another possible source of revenue from forests

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2023, Vietnam successfully sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits through the World Bank (WB) for the first time.

With a credit selling price of US$ 5/ton of absorbed carbon, the contract's total value is US$ 51.5 million (about VND 1,250 billion). It is estimated that the total carbon stock in the global forest ecosystem decreased in the 1990-2020 period, while Vietnam is among the few countries with carbon stock in the forest ecosystem increasing in the same period. Vietnam has negative net emissions (absorbing more than it emits), so the potential to trade forest carbon credits is huge.

On February 29, 2024, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh approved the Project "Promoting the diverse value of forest ecosystems".

The program "Contribute a tree for a forest" initiated by VARS is a specific and compelling action that will help realize the Prime Minister's direction.