Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sinh, the President of the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment announces 2011 as a golden chance to protect forests in Vietnam
On January 24, at the United Nations Forum which took place in New York, USA, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed 2011 the “International Year of Forests.”
Referring to this event, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sinh, President of VACNE, said to a reporter from Vietnam+, “since 1992, all the nations in the world have had a common commitment about forest protection, but up to this moment, forest problem has been ignored in the globe over the last 20 years. I think that the UN’s official decision of choosing 2011 as the global year of forests is quite late but necessary.
For Vietnam, forest protection and development are one of the most important prerequisites on environmental protection and sustainable development. Thanks to the efforts on forest protection over the last time, Vietnam has gained significant achievements, but they are still in need of improvement due to the threat of gradual exhaustion of forest resources.”
Dr. Sinh also affirmed “International Year of Forest, 2011 will be a golden chance for Vietnam to work out urgent plans and decisive actions to protect forests and eco-systems such as increasing reforestation budget, elaborating new regulations on forest cover, renewing the forest hand-over and forestation policy, and upgrading punishment sanctions for actions of deforestation, wild animal hunting, etc. Environmentalists and authorized agencies will closely work together and review Vietnam’s achievements about forest protection activities and sanctions over the last 20 years. Then, they are likely to draw experiences and make appropriate solutions.”