Project Inception Workshop “Promoting Sustainable Forest Products Management of Forest Companies in Vietnam”
Sustainable forest management and forest certification is one of the top priorities in the forestry sector in Vietnam. The Forestry Development Strategy 2006-2020 sets the target to achieve at least 30% of production forest areas will have certification of sustainable forest management by 2020. However, the implementation of sustainable forest management and forest certification in Vietnam is far behind the expected targets. As of 2016, about 205,000 ha of forest are certified for sustainable forest management, accounting for about 3% of the total production forest area.
To promote sustainable forest management and forest certification in Vietnam, one of the current priorities is to build the capacity of forest owners and stakeholders for sustainable forest management. Considering this urgent context, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) jointly implement the project “Promotion of Sustainable Management of Production Forests by Forest Companies in Vietnam”. The project will be carried out in the period of 2017-2019 with a total funding of EUR 692,185 and a counterpart fund of EUR 55,000. The project was assigned to the Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS) as the project owner and DFS and HessenForest (Germany) as Consultants to provide technical support. The project has three main objectives:
- Strengthening sustainable forest management in the selected State Forest Companies;
- Establish a Training Center for Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification;
- Replication of capacity building for Forest Companies and related agencies through training courses.
On June 14, 2017, a project launch workshop was held in Dong Ha, Quang Tri province with the participation of representatives from Vietnam Administration of Forestry, International Cooperation Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Agriculture and Rural Development Departments of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces and project partners.
With the support of the project, the Training Center for Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification will be established to deliver the training courses to forest owners across the country from 2018. This is a first model of training center in Vietnam on sustainable forest management and certification that will be built on a joint cooperation between forestry research institute and Forest companies (for demonstration activities). It is expected to make significant contribution to capacity building for the stakeholder in the field of sustainable forest management in Vietnam, contributing to the implementation of forest sector Restructuring project.
Training and International Cooperation Departmen
Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS)