Da Nang (VNA)☂ – The central city of Da Nang is making every effort to raise the ratio of forest coverage to over 45 percent, with nearly 41,000 hectares of natural and 16,000 hectares of planted forest.

Along side the target, the city also aims to employ up to 100,000 forestry farmers, contributing to reducing poverty, building new-style rural areas and ensuring security and defence. To that end, the city will strive to increase protective and special-use forest areas, while improving the productivity and quality of commercial forests to meet the wood processing industry’s demands and raising the forestry production value by 3 percent annually. A special-use forest system with an area of 31,000 hectares covering Ba Na-Nui Chua and Son Tra natural reserves and southern Hai Van forest, will also be developed. Meanwhile, Da Nang plans to plant 9,000 hectares of forest, including 8,000 hectares of protective and special-use forest, and 1,000 hectares of production areas. A nursery garden in Hoa Bac commune in Hoa Vang district will also be upgraded to provide 100,000 high-quality plant varieties for protected and special-use forest per year, and 1 million others for commercial forests. In the 2011-2015 period, Da Nang enjoyed a forest production value of 102.8 percent annually, with a coverage ratio of 43.2 percent. The city planted over 8,000 hectares of forest as well as 2,300 trees along rural roads. However, 63 forest fires were recorded in the locality, destroying 446 hectares.-VNA