Reader Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh said: Currently, climate change is a hot issue for countries around the world. The forestry sector plays a particularly important role, but policies and incentives for forest workers and those who depend on forests for their livelihood have not received due attention.
"The specialized forest protection force at the Forest Management Boards has not received preferential allowances for their jobs or hazardous allowances when fighting forest fires; there is no regime for war invalids and martyrs when they have accidents while performing their duties, although this force has to directly deal with illegal loggers; their salary is not commensurate with the effort and time spent 24/7 patrolling and checking forests in the management area. I request that the competent authority pay attention to amending and supplementing Decree No. 01/2019/ND-CP, raising the wage level for forest work and fighting forest fires" - a reader suggested.
Responding to this issue, the Forestry Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said:
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Decision No. 5367/QD-BNN-PC dated December 18, 2023 on the Plan for drafting legal documents in 2024, including a plan to amend and supplement a number of articles of Decree No. 01/2019/ND-CP dated January 1, 2019 of the Government on Forest Rangers and Specialized Forest Protection Forces.
Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has compiled, evaluated, researched and proposed policies and regimes for the specialized forest protection force to remove difficulties, motivate, encourage and attract human resources in forest protection work according to Conclusion No. 61-KL/TW dated August 17, 2023 of the Secretariat on continuing to implement Directive No. 13-CT/TW dated January 12, 2017 on strengthening the Party's leadership in forest management, protection and development; drafted a Decree and widely consulted agencies, organizations and individuals.
Accordingly, the draft Decree has stipulated policies and regimes for specialized forest protection forces in the direction of enjoying the same benefits as forest rangers.
