1. Public concerned Lao forests will be left with no big trees
People are seeing scores of wood trucks on the roads every day in some parts of the country, prompting concerns that Lao's forests may soon be stripped of all big trees.
Most of the trucks look overloaded and some do not display number plates, leading to suspicions of illegal timber trading.
“Logging is not taking place in all the woodlands of the country as the public think,” Deputy Director of the Forestry Department Mr Thong-eth Phayvanh told Vientiane Times on Wednesday.
The wood trucks people are seeing may be carrying timber harvested between 2011 and 2013, not wood cut this year.
He said the wood may also have been cleared from areas being developed into hydropower dams or crop plantations.
The government has this year ordered the closure of production forests in a bid to let wooded areas recover.
Mr Thong-eth said the government may reopen production forests later, possibly in 2016, to allow development to continue.
Forests are now badly damaged in many areas, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The main reasons for deforestation are the conversion of forests into agricultural land for food production, the construction of hydropower plants, mining, road building, and illegal logging.
There are five categories of forest in Laos as designated by the government: conservation forest, protected forest, production forest, degraded forest and reforestation zones.
To support the sustainability of forests, officials, soldiers, police officers and members of the public in provinces around Laos plant hundreds of tree saplings along roads, in villages and inside forests on Arbour Day (tree-planting day) on June 1 to replace the damage done to woodlands.
The ministry has reported that the government plans to increase national forest coverage to 65 percent by 2015 and 70 percent by 2020.
The ministry said widespread deforestation in Laos had reduced coverage to 64 percent in 1960, 47.2 percent in 1992 and 41.5 percent in 2002.
Authorities sometimes organise Arbour Day planting activities in the same places, but this is because about 15 percent of the saplings planted die each year.
Arbour Day tree-planting areas have been increasing year by year, since the day was first observed in 1995, but there are no statistics on how many of the saplings survive and how old the trees grow to be.
While people support planting new saplings on Arbour Day, some maintain there should be more protections against the logging of big trees from the country's forests.
Native forests are one of the most important natural resources in Laos. They are used for a variety of development-related activities such as protected watersheds for hydropower development and for ecotourism ventures.
By Times Reporters (Latest Update May 22, 2014)
2. Arbour day planting campaign bearing little fruit
The national tree planting campaign has proved almost fruitless for the purpose of forest restoration as a very small number of the saplings planted continue to grow, especially those planted by the public sector.
The issue has raised concerns among members of the public and officials as they have seen little or no expansion of forest areas as a result of the annual tree planting campaign conducted in Laos for many years.
“Only a very small number of saplings continue to grow after they have been planted because of a lack of care afterwards,” an official from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's Department of Forestry Mr Bounlieng Somvichit said recently.
Last year, a variety of species of native trees were planted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry along with numerous other government departments and private companies on a combined area of 10,000 hectares of land.
In his talks with Vientiane Times yesterday, Mr Bounlieng, who is deputy head of the tree planting extension and investment division, said despite the fact no assessment has been made he believes most of the saplings planted die soon after, except those maintained by business interests.
He admitted that there is a deficiency in regards to management and there are no accompanying regulations that stipulate that the trees planted must be looked after once they are planted.
This year the ministry, in conjunction with various government departments and companies, is planning to introduce different species of native trees on about 30,000 hectares of land throughout the country this year.
District authorities will host the campaign for the public sector on Arbour Day but it is not known what area of land shall see trees planted out or how much budget funding will be expended on the effort.
Despite the fact the budget for the plantation programme has not been revealed in the past, Mr Bounlieng admitted that some government bodies and local authorities have overstated the amount of spent on the national tree planting campaign.
“ There are loopholes and some authorities seize the opportunity to make a profit from the campaign activities,” he sa id. According to Mr Bounlieng, a government decree in this regard is being drafted by the Department of Forestry.
It is believed that if the regulations are better there will be more participation in the government programme by members of the public and the business sector, while it will also help to prevent fraud and graft.
Even though tree plantation efforts have been seen as unsuccessful in the bigger picture, they have proved highly effective in some small communities where people participate and there is more accountability .
An official from Agriculture and Forestry Department in Savannakhet province told Vientiane Times that around 80 percent of trees planted on10 hectares of land in the province's Vilabouly district are still alive today.
He said the secret was that the department offered sportswear and sporting equipment to the local community schools if they took care of the planted trees.
