AFoCO supports Vietnam’s forestry industry to strengthen its forest management capacity

On the morning of July 3 (local time), during the official visit to Korea by the Vietnamese senior leadership delegation, Minister Le Minh Hoan met and worked with Mr. Park Chongho, Excutive Director of the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO).

Vietnam is one of the first 5 countries participating in the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization - AFoCO. Since officially joining AFoCO in 2017, Vietnam has actively contributed and received support mostly from the Korean Government to implement 4 main activities: forest restoration and regeneration; adapt to climate change; sustainable forest management; capacity enhancement and technology transfer.

AFoCO has financed Vietnam for 4 national - level projects with a total budget of about 4.5 million USD. The project "Restoring and developing mangrove ecosystems in Thai Binh province" has the largest budget with total funding from the Korean Government of 1.5 million USD.

AfoCO-funded projects in Vietnam has contributed to strengthening the capacity of local officials and people in forest conservation and development, sustainable forest management and reducing forest degradation in Vietnam.

On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister Le Minh Hoan expressed his thanks to General Director Park Chongho for actively promoting bilateral cooperation activities in the forestry industry in recent times. 

“I appreciate AFoCO’s connection role, effective development of investment for projects in the region. I believe that these projects have important significance for Vietnam in improving the capacity to prevent forest fires and develop livelihoods for communities near forests.” the Minister said.

To fund the ASEAN area, AFoCO is working with Campuchia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam to deploy the project “Improving the capacity to prevent forest fires”. Using funding of 6,5 million USA from AFoCO and 2 million USD from the Korea - ASEAN Fund, Southeast Asian countries will build pilot forest fire prevention stations. The station is applied with high technology and equipped with modern machinery (such as satellite images) to detect sign of early forest fires.

According to AFoCO leaders, digital transformation is an inevitable trend of the forestry industry. He appreciates the effort of industries, fields, and locals in Vietnam to deploy solutions to improve digital transformation, thereby improving effectiveness and efficiency of management as well as production and business. 

The Excutive Director, Mr. Park Chongho said: “Forestry industry is no exception, we identify digital transformation and technology transfer as the driving force in development, a task that is both urgent and long - term”.

AFoCO has actively promoted digital transformation and technology transformation in management activities of the forestry industry. Specifically, the application predicts the risk of forest fires to minimize damage when forest fires occur; application of geographic information systems and remote sensing in sustainable resource management. 

Besides, building databases on forest resources, plants, non-timber forest products; type of tree to provide techniques, varieties, markets and help make industry information transparent; human resources, science and technology; build software to digitize timber management and traceability; build a database on forest resources and wood resources to serve appraisal. 

Based on the above facts, leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development want and propose that AFoCO continuously support Vietnam forestry industry in order to enhance capacity building through effective and practical technology transfer and digital transformation in forestry. 

Responding to the Minister, Director Park Chongho pledged to direct projects to support capacity building for Vietnam Forestry University and the establishment of a branch office of Korea - Mekong Forestry Cooperation Center (KMFCC) in Vietnam. These projects will contribute to strengthening the capacity to protect and develop forests and adapt to climate change in Vietnam.

The Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) aims to strengthen forestry cooperation in the region for a “greener Asia”. Vietnam is one of the founding and active members of AFoCO and has successfully held the position of Chairman of the AFoCO Council for the 2018 - 2019 term.