Towards the 1st Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Congress, term 2025 - 2030: Protecting forests for sustainable development

A corner of the forest on Khanh Le pass - Lam Dong .

Efforts to increase coverage

With the goal of sustainable development, in recent years, Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan provinces (before the merger) have focused on forest management, protection and development to protect the environment and adapt to climate change. Thanks to that, the forest coverage rate of each province is always higher year after year. According to the results of the announcement of the forest status in 2024 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the forest coverage rate of Khanh Hoa province reached nearly 46%, of Ninh Thuan province reached 49%, both higher than the national average (42.03%). The results of reviewing and evaluating the targets of the Party Congress resolutions of Khanh Hoa province and Ninh Thuan province for the 2020-2025 term showed that the implementation of the forest coverage rate target of each province has met and exceeded the targets set at the beginning of the term. According to the latest review by the Department of Agriculture and Environment, after the merger of Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan provinces, the whole province has 400,114.84 hectares meeting the criteria for forest, including 325,131.24 hectares of natural forest and 74,983.6 hectares of planted forest; the province's forest cover rate reached 46.83%, an increase of 0.21% compared to the end of 2024.

According to Mr. Nguyen Danh - Head of the Forest Protection Department, this result shows the great efforts of the province in forest management, protection and development. The functional agencies, forest owners, and local authorities have proactively implemented forest management, protection, and forest fire prevention and fighting, minimizing damage caused by forest fires; forest product inspection and control work has been carried out regularly and continuously, checking and searching deep into the forest, thereby promptly detecting and strictly handling violations in the forestry sector. There have been no hot spots of deforestation or illegal exploitation of forest products in the whole province. The application of technology (GIS, satellite images) in forest monitoring and forest fire warning has also been focused on; functional units, forest owners, and commune-level People's Committees have specific regulations to coordinate forest protection, especially in border areas.

Along with forest protection, the province also focuses on forest development. In the period of 2021 - 2025, the whole province has planted 3,336.5 hectares of new protective and special-use forests; planted 4,264.76 hectares of new production forests; scattered tree planting activities have been widely deployed. The province also focuses on forest regeneration promotion activities with 14,957 hectares, contributing to promoting the process of natural forest recovery, biodiversity regeneration and increasing forest cover. In particular, forest protection contracting has been deployed on a large scale, reaching 320,599.67 hectares, with the participation of local communities, households and individuals, in which the core force is ethnic minorities living along the forest edge...

Strengthening forest management, protection and development

In the context of climate change becoming a global challenge, for sustainable development in the coming time, the province has determined to strictly manage, protect, exploit reasonably, use effectively and economically natural resources, and organize and implement synchronous mechanisms and policies on sustainable resource management and environmental protection, including forest resources. Forest management, protection and development are identified as the top priority tasks for sustainable development and response to climate change. The province aims to have a forest coverage rate of 47% by 2030. To achieve this goal, functional agencies, forest owners and local authorities will regularly disseminate forestry policies and laws; strengthen inspection and handling of violations in the field of forest management and protection to protect existing forest areas and promote forest development...

Forces of the Southern Khanh Hoa Forest Protection Management Board patrol and protect forests during the peak of the 2025 dry season.

For state forest owners, effectively implement the sustainable forest management plan approved by the Provincial People's Committee; proactively coordinate in patrolling and protecting forests, especially in forest areas at high risk of deforestation, illegal logging, encroachment of forests and forest land, forest areas adjacent to people's fields, areas near ongoing projects to promptly detect and prevent violations as soon as they arise. At the same time, strengthen the application of information technology, remote sensing, GIS, use of drones and other specialized support software to improve the effectiveness of forest management and protection, early detection of areas at risk of forest change; effectively implement the approved forest fire prevention and fighting plan to minimize damage caused by forest fires; closely coordinate with relevant units and localities in patrolling, searching, fighting and promptly preventing violations; Review reports on areas that have met the criteria for forestation to update and participate in calculating the forest cover ratio...

For local authorities, resolutely and effectively implement the responsibility and authority of state management of forestry at the local level; direct the commune police force and related functional units to have plans and solutions to proactively coordinate with forest owners, forest rangers and related agencies, organizations and individuals to regularly organize patrols and sweeps deep into the forest, especially key forest areas with high risk of deforestation, illegal forest exploitation, forest areas near ongoing projects and natural forest areas that have not been assigned or leased under the management of the People's Committee at the commune level. In addition, strengthen the propaganda, dissemination and education of laws on forest management, protection and forest fire prevention and fighting to raise awareness and responsibility of Party committees, authorities, cadres, Party members and local people, especially people living in and near forests to participate in forest protection and development...

According to Mr. Nguyen Danh, in the coming time, the forest rangers will proactively coordinate with local authorities and forest owners to inspect and review areas that have met the criteria for becoming forests to update forest developments; regularly monitor and grasp key areas at risk of deforestation and illegal forest exploitation to inspect and immediately prevent violations as soon as they arise; resolutely eliminate "hot spots" of deforestation, forest fires, and illegal forest exploitation; coordinate with relevant agencies to resolutely recover encroached forest areas and forest land, misused for the wrong purpose, and strictly handle organizations and individuals who violate the law in the forestry sector, especially cases with signs of crime. In addition, focus on implementing forest fire prevention and fighting well, ensuring readiness of forces, means, and equipment according to the "4 on-site" motto; Apply technology to promptly detect forest area decline due to illegal logging, fires, and exploitation; focus on disseminating information to people, especially those living near forests, to create change and participate in forest protection and development...

HAI LANG