ABSTRACT
Two thirds of the Vietnamese territory is mountainous, with this area characterised by a large portion of steep slopes and soils subject to erosion, some of which was previously covered by rich tropical forests. Nineteen million hectares, or 58 per cent of the territorial area, is still classified by central planning authorities as forest. This is, however, an administrative classification: only 8.3 million ha, or 25 per cent of the land area, is covered by forests (Table 6.1) while the remainder (10.7 million ha) is, in fact, bare land (Nguyen Van Dang 1997). A large part of the Vietnamese population, estimated to be 9.4 million inhabitants or 13 per cent of the entire population, still depends directly on the use of forest resources and the management of sloping land in mountainous areas (Rambo et al. 1995). The future of these mountain dwellers is threatened by the continuous degradation of forest land. Annual deforestation has been evaluated equal to 137 000 ha. The poor and marginal people, mainly members of the 54 ethnic minorities living in Vietnam, are particularly exposed to the negative impacts of this process (Smith 1998). Socio-economic and physical indicators for the forestry sector in Vietnam
|
Land classified as forest |
19 000 000 ha (57.6% of the land area) |
|
Forest cover |
8 312000 ha (25.2% of the land area) |
|
· Tropical rain forest |
2 894 000 ha (34.8%) |
|
Annual deforestation: 47 700 ha |
|
|
· Most deciduous forest |
3 382 000 ha (40.7%) |
|
Annual deforestation: 55 700 ha |
|
|
· Dry deciduous forest |
952 000 ha (11.5%) |
|
Annual deforestation: 15 700 ha |
|
|
· Hill and mountain forest |
1 084 000 ha (13%) |
|
Annual deforestation: 17 900 ha |
|
|
Total annual deforestation |
1 37 000 ha (1.6% reduction of total area) |
|
Closed broad-leaved forest |
4 946 000 (59.5%) |
|
Forest stock |
1 523 560,000 t (183 t/ha) |
|
Forest area/population |
0.11 ha per capita |
|
· Average logging intensity |
30 cm/ha |
|
· Logged area 81–90 |
26 000 ha (new)+73 000 ha (previously logged) |
|
Plantations |
2 100 000 ha (6.5% of land area) |
|
Annual plantations |
70 000 ha |
Note
There is no accordance among different sources of data on the forest resources (see, for example, data from the Cadastral Department and the Forest Protection Department presented in the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Food and Agriculture Organization (MARD–FAO), 1998).
