The total area nationwide covered by forests has risen to 12.3mil ha, or 37.8% of total land area, from 36.7% in 2004.
Forests classified as rich and fully rehabilitated rose to 4.6% in 2004 from 3.4% in 2000, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Vietnam has set a target of 43% forest cover by 2010.
However, the MARD said that the quality of the forests has been deteriorating and natural-growth pockets have become isolated. More than two thirds of the country's forests were poor or still in the process of rehabilitation.
The MARD said the Law on Forest Protection and Development, which came into effect last April, has helped slow deforestation.
Last year, the government gave VND12bil (US$750,000) to mountainous provinces for the planting of forests, trees for timber, and trees for paper materials. As a result some 1.7mil cubic metres of timber was produced last year, a slight increase compared with 2004.
However, large areas of land that could be used for lucrative crops such as cassava, cashew nuts and rubber were still being denuded of trees in the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc, Binh Thuan, Ca Mau and Ben Tre, the ministry's Forest Department said.
Illegal timber logging is also continuing, with several hundred hectares of trees having been chopped down in the Central Highlands.
Last year a total of 36,376 violations of forest-protection regulations were reported, mostly involving illegal logging and the trafficking of timber and wild animals.
To protect forests, the National Steering Committee for Fighting Forest Fires and local provincial authorities have upgraded their equipment in fire-prone areas and beefed up the fire-fighting forces.
The prolonged drought last year resulted in 1,148 forest fires that destroyed 5,765ha of forests and 1,500ha of natural forest, representing an 80% rise over 2004.
Most of the fires, which occurred in the provinces of Kon Tum, Dien Bien, Long An, Kien Giang and Lam Dong, were caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and bush-burning to collect honey bees.
Forestry Department head Nguyen Ngoc Binh has proposed that the Government issue more policies offering incentives to encourage reforestation and investment in infrastructure. The State should also speed up forest-land allocation to local people, especially poor ethnic minority people.
Director of the MARD's Forestry Project Management Board, Luong Van Tien, said a $ 35.1mil forest development project will be launched in five Central Highlands and southern provinces.
The project aims at protecting and developing forests with a rich biodiversity and help reduce poverty for ethnic people living in the Central Highlands provinces of Kon Tum, Dac Nong and Lam Dong, and the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai.
Vietnam has 1.92mil ha of special-use forests, 5.92mil ha of protected forests and 4.47mil ha of production forests.Vietnam Bridge
