Plant one billion green trees by 2025

According to the report of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, after being assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the unit has researched and developed a draft project to plant one billion trees in the next 5 years, based on the direction of the Prime Minister. During the working session, Standing Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan said that the name of the project should be "Plant one billion trees in the period of 2021-2025".

Regarding the drafting progress, Vietnam Administration of Forestry has completed the draft and sent to five ministries and 63 localities across the country for comments. Up to now, three ministries and 39 localities have sent feedback and suggestions, most of them agreed with the draft.

The goal of the project outlined in the draft is that by 2025, the whole country can plant at least one billion trees, of which 690 are scattered in urban and rural areas, the remaining 310 million are planted concentratedly.

In order to facilitate the project development process, Vietnam Administration of Forestry has consulted the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to send documents to the People's Committees of provinces and cities to request information on the potential and plan of tree planting period 2021- 2025.

Up to now, there have been responses from 49/63 localities, but the number of registrations is only about 240 million, while the target is 690 million trees. Therefore, Vietnam Administration of Forestry proposed that the quotas assigned to localities should increase 2-3 times compared with the registered number to ensure the set goals.

Contributing ideas to the draft of the project, Mr. Nguyen Van Viet, Director of the Planning Department, MARD said that it is necessary to determine that one billion of these trees must be planted from seedlings, not including mature trees and after planting, attention to the development process should be paid.

In addition, Mr. Nguyen Van Viet also agreed with the draft on building the criteria for green trees in the criteria set for a new countryside in the period of 2021-2025.

After listening to the report and comments, Standing Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan highly appreciated the working progress of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry in developing the draft. "Most comments and feedback of ministries and localities agree that the quality of the draft is good", said Deputy Minister.

Regarding the content, Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan said that the Project should highlight the role of planting trees, making tree planting an emulation movement of all levels, all branches and all residential areas. In addition, it is necessary to organize a yearly assessment and draw experiences to overcome the shortcomings in the following year.

In addition, the Deputy Minister also emphasized that the funding for planting one billion new trees from 2021-2025 must primarily be from socialization, integrated with other programs so as not to incur costs. Planting trees should be focused in urban areas, industrial zones, roads ...

Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan further noted: "One billion newly planted trees must survive, be regularly monitored and assessed for quality. 1.2 billion trees must be planted if it is to maintain one billion trees".