VietNamNet Bridge – Data on forests will be collected by an electronic information system for decision making to design a strategy for forest development.

Forest rangers patrol in the cajuput forest in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Kien Giang’s U Minh Thuong National Park. — VNA/VNS Photo Trang Duong

This was heard at a workshop on forest resource monitoring in Viet Nam held by the Viet Nam Administration of Forestry (Vnforest) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in the central province of Thanh Hoa on Friday, Aug 12.

The system would provide up-to-date information on forest resources by generating reports on changes in forests, for example a reduction in forest area due to fire, deforestation or land-use change, said Vnforest deputy head Nguyen Ba Ngai.

Data on forest issues would no longer be gathered slowly, normally the national forest report for a specific year was only available six months later, after the MARD received all provincial reports, Ngai noted.

He added that, thanks to the system, all forest-related information from the previous year would be immediately released early the next year.

According to Vnforest, the current state of forests across 40 out of 60 provinces has been uploaded to the system to date, and the other 20 provinces will have their data uploaded this year.

The forest resource monitoring system has been developed through the “Development of Information Management Systems for the Forestry Sector – Phase II project, which aims to assist Vnforest in storing national forest inventory statistics and forest monitoring data as well as providing up-to-date reports on forest changes.

Funded by the Government of Finland, the five-year project will be implemented until 2018.

VNS