Da Nang City People's Committee has just decided to implement the Project "Protecting and developing coastal forests to respond to climate change and promote green growth" with many new orientations, fundamentally changing the care, protection, and development of forests associated with economic development.
This project has many parts. Notably, in the period 2026 - 2030, the city will organize afforestation with suitable plants to replace acacia forests with an area of 100 hectares.
Orientation to 2040, 90% of the existing acacia planting area will be replaced by crops that are both economically efficient and have high protection capacity, limiting the risk of forest fires.
Reality for many years has shown that acacia forest was once a reasonable solution in the economic development of hilly areas for people because it was quick to harvest, easy to plant, and suitable for immediate economic needs.
But it is the recent major storms and prolonged heat waves that have clearly revealed the limitations of this plant, which are fragile, flammable, and low protection.
Therefore, proactively replacing them with large trees, wind-breaking forests, and mangrove forests can be seen as a necessary and correct adjustment step to create "green shields" for the city.
One hectare of mangrove forest can absorb waves, retain soil, and reduce erosion more effectively than many engineering solutions. Coastal protection forests, if restored properly, will become a natural buffer to help reduce damage caused by natural disasters.
However, there are still some concerns about the implementation method. Because in reality, there are many failed afforestation programs because of choosing the wrong trees, planting in the wrong ecological conditions, or lack of care after planting. Trees live for a few years and then die, or develop poorly, causing investment efficiency to decrease.
Da Nang setting out the pilot planting step to select suitable plant species is correct. But piloting is only meaningful when done seriously, based on scientific evaluation, not just formality.
Another issue that cannot be ignored is people's livelihoods. The acacia forest, despite its environmental limitations, is associated with the income of many households.
When converting to protection forests or large timber trees, prolonged exploitation cycles, even areas not being exploited, people will find it difficult to have motivation to participate if there is no accompanying support mechanism.
If afforestation can be linked to payment for forest environmental services, ecotourism, or other sustainable livelihood models, then the project can go long-term.
Conversely, if only relying on the State budget, the maintenance and protection of forests will face many challenges.
