On September 7-8, 2010, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in association with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), organized a regional conference in Hanoi to discuss measures to ensure sustainable forest development in the current context of climate change.
This was part of the activities to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Germany (September 23, 1975 - September 23, 2010). At the conference, BMZ Deputy Minister Gudrun Kopp said that forest development is a major area in cooperation between the two countries.
Since 1994, BMZ has provided the Vietnamese Government with active assistance in the field of forestry. Thus far, Germany has pledged total financial support of US$145 million, including US$90 million in finances and US$55 million in technical support, to Vietnam. Most of the funds have been used for sustainable forest exploration and management, biodiversity preservation and coastal forest protection to cope with climate change. Currently, the two countries are implementing 13 forestry cooperation projects in Vietnam.
MARD Deputy Minister Hua Duc Nhi said that Vietnam began to receive German assistance for forest development projects about 20 years ago. German financial and technical assistance has contributed considerably to the achievements that the Vietnamese forestry sector has gained in fields such as administrative reform, policy renovation, organizational restructuring, employment generation, forestation and forest development management.
Since 1997, Germany has actively helped Vietnam implement the National Afforestation Program, which aims to plant forest trees on five million ha each year, compile and promulgate the Forestry Law in 2004, implement the community-based forest management policy, develop the National Forestry Strategy for 2006-2020 based on improved approaches to forest management with participation of farmers, strengthen the role of farmers in managing natural resources and offer them more preferences in the development process of localities.
German development cooperation activities in the field of forestry cover two aspects: 1) ensuring a sustainable environment, and 2) eradicating hunger and reducing poverty to realize millennium development goals. Through BMZ, the German Government has helped both public and private concerned Vietnamese organizations manage forest development in a sustainable manner so that they can benefit from intact natural forest ecosystems. All types of human intervention related to forests must be compliant with a common strategy for the forestry sector with international standard-oriented priorities and principles so as to ensure the interests of poor people who are dependant on forests for their livelihoods.
At the aforementioned conference, Gudrun Kopp affirmed, "Forests sustain the environment, protect the climate and generate jobs and incomes. Forests are the foundation of life. Millions of people are dependant on forests. Germany is deeply aware of the benefits from cooperation in sustainable forest development and management - a key area in the cooperation between Germany and Vietnam. The German Government highly appreciates the efforts that Vietnam has made in the field of forest regeneration and will provide Vietnam with further assistance in this field."
Jurgen Hess from the German Organization for Development Cooperation (GTZ) said, "In the future, Germany will continue to help Vietnam in fields such as sustainable forest development and management, biodiversity preservation and climate change prevention."
The Vietnamese forestry sector has made remarkable progress but in the opinion of Deputy Minister Hua Duc Nhi, the sector is facing considerable challenges such as the encroachment of forest land, limited State investment capital, ineffective forest management, low competitiveness and limited processing capacity. One of the solutions that will help Vietnam overcome these challenges is to increase international cooperation in the field of forestry./.
Source:
By Lan Ngoc, VEN
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