The survey by the National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment on the project to plant five million hectares of forest shows that some foreign investors are leased forest land in places which are important in terms of security and defence. In some cases, the land had been previously allocated to local residents.
This report was sent to NA deputies last week, along with other reports on national projects like the Son La hydro-power plant and the Ho Chi Minh highway.
According to the National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, 14 provinces had granted afforestation licences and five other provinces had granted the forest-related project licences to foreign investors by August 2010. Earlier, the government report said only eight provinces licenced forest-related projects to foreign investors.
The report says that the total area of forest land leased to foreign investors to plant forest is 288,974 hectares. Around 18,600 hectares have been allocated to investors.
Nearly 21,700 hectares of forest are also leased for joint venture projects, with over 6,000 hectares currently being used.
Hong-Kong firm InnovGreen was licenced to plant 274,848 hectares of forest, accounting for 87 percent of the total area granted to foreign investors to plant forest in Vietnam. InnovGreen has been allocated 8,123 hectares and it paid $77,946.
The leasing price, in the case of InnovGreen is only $9.58/hectares, which is very low. In the meantime, local people are in great need of forest land.
The National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment suggested reconsidering the use of forest land to guarantee the protection of local people’s interest and the nation’s security.
The survey also says that the number of forest fires increased this year. By July 2010, over 5,300 hectares including 1,948 hectares of natural forest had burnt down, a four-fold increase over last year.
“In Cao Bang and Son La provinces, there were fewer instances of forest fires in areas allocated to local people,” the report says.
