Sustainable forest management and forest certification (FSC) will open up great opportunities, promoting the forestry sector to develop in a sustainable and synchronous manner from management, protection, regeneration to exploitation and processing of forest products. Therefore, in recent years, the province has encouraged households, groups of households planting forests, and forestry companies to participate, not only bringing economic benefits to forest growers and purchasing enterprises but also contributing to environmental protection.

Checking the eucalyptus forest lot produced according to FSC process of Yen Lap Forestry Company, Yen Lap district.

Forest development according to FSC standards

FSC certification is a voluntary standard developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to promote responsible forest management globally. This certification ensures that wood products are produced from controlled sources that comply with environmental, social and economic standards.

As one of the enterprises in the province implementing the FSC standard sustainable forest management plan, Yen Lap Forestry Company, Yen Lap district has proven the great effectiveness of this management plan. Currently, the Company is assigned to manage more than 2,000 hectares of forest, of which nearly 1,800 hectares are FSC certified.

Before implementing the sustainable forest management plan, like other forest owners, the Company still managed forests using traditional methods. The limitation of this plan is that it only focuses on ensuring the economic goals of the forest while other goals such as the environment, society, quality, and biodiversity of the forest have not been given attention.

In 2011, the Company decided to switch to a sustainable forest management plan. After more than 10 years of implementation, the Company has achieved the goal of using forests to nurture forests, responsibly trading forest products, ensuring harmony between forest goals.

Mr. Phung Manh Thang - Director of the Company shared: Thanks to sustainable forest management, the Company has developed production and business, stabilizing the lives of nearly 50 officers and employees of the Company with an average income of 6 million VND/person/month. The Company also creates jobs for more than 200 households participating in contracting to plant, care for and clean forests.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Son - Head of Yen Lap District Forest Protection Department, with the goal of raising the level of planted forest wood, the district has coordinated with Phu Tho Province Sustainable Forestry Cooperative to approve the granting of FSC sustainable forest management certificates to all communes and towns in the area with an area of ​​10,000 hectares. The granting of FSC certificates will help people's planted forest wood to be signed to purchase at a higher price than the market price, and processed wood products will be allowed to be exported abroad.

Along with Yen Lap district, forest growers in Tan Son district have also paid attention to investing in building sustainable forest certification. Up to now, Tan Son district has nearly 13,000 hectares of forest certified by FSC. If calculated from the planting stage to processing for export, economic efficiency increases from 2.5 to 3 times, in which the planting stage (forest growers) increases 1.2 to 1.5 times compared to traditional forest planting. Enterprises that purchase products will bear the cost of appraisal and granting FSC certification to forest growers, which is the reason why recently the area of ​​FSC forest in Tan Son district has continuously increased.

Planting FSC forests in Tan Son mountainous district helps producers increase economic efficiency by 1.2-1.5 times, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction.

Increase the value of forestry production

With an area of ​​nearly 188,000 hectares of forest and forestry land, in recent years, the province has issued many mechanisms and policies to promote forest coverage, promote propaganda on the conversion of small-scale timber plantation models to large-scale timber plantations with sustainable certification combined with the support of international projects. Special-use forests are basically managed sustainably, forest owners are organizations and forestry companies in the area that have implemented FSC sustainable forest management since 2011.

To increase the value of forestry production, the province has issued policies to support the issuance of sustainable forest management certificates through Resolution 05/2019/NQ-HDND (Resolution 05), dated July 19, 2019; Resolution 22/2021/NQ-HDND, dated December 9, 2021 of the Provincial People's Council replacing Resolution 05 on policies to support and encourage agricultural and rural development in Phu Tho province.

Thanks to that, member forestry companies of Vietnam Paper Corporation, 3 companies, 1 cooperative including: Gem my Tan Son Company, Ong But Forestry Company, Luong Son Joint Stock Company, An Viet Phat Cooperative have built a sustainable forest management plan with an area of ​​nearly 32,000 hectares of production forest.

Implementing sustainable forest management is determined to be consistent with the province's forestry development strategy. Therefore, the province has mechanisms and policies to promote support and encourage businesses to cooperate with forest owners to form large-scale raw material areas, invest in planting large timber forests, and cultivate sustainably to achieve FSC certification. At the same time, all levels, sectors, and localities strengthen propaganda about the benefits of sustainable forest management and production according to FSC certification; communicate the province's support policy on granting FSC sustainable forest management certification to organizations, individuals, and forest-owning people.

Comrade Tran Quang Dong - Deputy Head of the Provincial Forest Protection Department said: Forests certified with FSC certification will bring long-term benefits, ensuring the ecosystem of planted forests, forest growers will be consulted by enterprises on techniques, care processes, monitoring the development of forests, contributing to improving the economic efficiency of forests, creating opportunities to affirm the brand value of the province's forest products in domestic and foreign markets. With the benefits that the FSC sustainable forest management certificate brings, the majority of forest owners in the province have responded to participate in the implementation of FSC certification assessment. Currently, the province has 9 forest owners with more than 28,000 hectares of forest certified with FSC.

Sustainable forest management is a good development direction for the province's forestry sector, promoting economic development for farmers. With the potential and strengths of forests, being granted FSC certification is an important factor, contributing to sustainable management of forest resources, improving the economic efficiency of forests for local communities and the whole society, and at the same time is an opportunity to affirm the brand value of local forest products.

Hoang Huong