State President Vo Van Thuong on February 15 launched the national tree planting festival 2024 in Kim Phu commune of Tuyen Quang province, northern Vietnam.
State President Vo Van Thuong speaks at the launch of the 2024 tree planting festival in Tuyen Quang province on February 15. (Photo: baotuyenquang.com.vn)
Addressing the ceremony, Thuong recalled late President Ho Chi Minh’s teachings during the first tree planting festival in spring 1960, saying the campaign has since become a fine tradition and a widespread mass movement that brings great benefits to the country.
Tree planting helps to protect the ecological environment, improve the landscape, prevent and combat natural disasters, respond to climate change, and make an important contribution to socio-economic development and the improvement of people’s quality of life, he stressed.
He said he was happy to hear that in implementing a national project to plant 1 billion trees till 2025 the whole country has so far developed 260,000 hectares of afforestration and planted 127 million trees in the buffer zones, contributing to a stable supply of raw materials for processing and export industries. The national forest coverage rate is maintained above 42%. Notably, for the first time, Vietnam successfully sold 10.3 million forestry carbon credits (10.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide CO₂) last year, bringing in US$51.5 million.
In the context of increasingly severe global climate change and declining biodiversity, the president said Vietnam’s consistent policy is to achieve sustainable development, cope with climate change, and build a green, circular and environmentally friendly economy.
Vietnam is gradually implementing strong commitments with the technological and financial support from developed countries and partners to meet net zero emissions commitments by 2050. Therefore, the task of protecting the ecological environment, planting trees, and protecting forests is becoming increasingly important, he said.
The President requested that localities and sectors promote communication campaigns to raise public awareness about the great significance and practical benefits of tree planting and protection, in order to keep the environment forever green for future generations.
