Storm Yagi caused serious damage to the forestry sector in Quang Ninh province. In Ba Che district alone, about 18,613 hectares of planted forests were destroyed, directly affecting 3,400 households and businesses.
The main damaged trees were acacia, cypress and pine, in which many areas of acacia from 2 to 6 years old were completely broken.
According to the report, the damage to people was over 13,700 hectares, the damage to businesses was over 4,700 hectares. The total damage to forestry was estimated at about 550 billion VND.
Currently, the communes and towns of Ba Che district have established working groups to review the damaged forest area as a basis for support according to Decision 1568/2017/QD-UBND of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province. Specifically, for the forest area damaged from 30-70%, the support level is 2 million VND/ha, over 70% is 4 million VND/ha.
The district also met with forest product purchasing enterprises to discuss solutions to support the consumption of forest products harvested after the storm, and at the same time mobilized resources to help people harvest wood from planted forests.
According to the sustainable development plan, the district is encouraging people to switch from acacia and eucalyptus trees - trees with low economic value and easily affected by storms - to trees with higher economic value and better resistance to storms and pests.
Mr. Hoang Van Son - Head of Son Hai village, Nam Son commune - said that the village's 550-hectare acacia forest is mainly 2.5 to 4 years old. If left to harvest for 5 years, each hectare of acacia can bring in 70 million VND, but due to the damage after the storm, people only earn about 30 million VND/hectare for the 4-year-old forest area, and almost all the forest area under 3 years old is lost. "People want to increase the support level, so that they have money for seedlings for the new forest planting season" - Mr. Son said.
The family of Ms. Dinh Thi Quang in Nam Son commune has 8 hectares of acacia forest but cannot harvest it because the trees are too small. Ms. Quang said that her family has lost about 200 million VND. For her family’s nursery, the cost of seed production has doubled from seeds, potting soil, and labor.
Mr. Khieu Anh Tu - Vice Chairman of Ba Che District People's Committee - said: "On average, the district plants 3,500 hectares of new trees every year. Thus, with the current damage of over 18,000 hectares of forest, it will take at least 2 years to replant. Currently, the locality has about 30 seedling production facilities, with an output of over 2 million trees/year, enough to supply about 500 hectares, too little compared to demand. We have reported to the province to develop more seedling production facilities to meet the needs of the people in the coming time".
"There is another difficulty, Decision 1568/2017/QD-UBND issued in 2017, after 6 changes, is no longer suitable for current market prices. The district has proposed to the province to double the forestry support for people because currently, the price of seedlings has doubled. The province is currently evaluating this content," said Mr. Tu.
