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| Volunteers participate in planting Ben En's Xuan Lien forest (Photo: Gaia) |
This activity helps green 25 hectares of special-use forests, increases the ability to respond to climate change, and creates a safe habitat for rare wild animals.
After 3 years of implementing the Project to plant one billion trees in the period 2021 - 2025, the whole country has planted nearly 770 million trees, reaching 121% of the plan; including 335,000 scattered trees and over 212,000 hectares of concentrated afforestation with 435,000 trees. In the early days of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued a Directive on organizing the "Tree Planting Festival forever in gratitude to Uncle Ho" and strengthening the management, protection, and development of forest development. That is a meaningful message to help promote planting activities in 2024, aiming to complete the goal of one billion trees.
Responding to the Government's directive, Gaia Nature Conservation Center has actively called on the community to participate in contributing trees to reforestation through programs such as transforming old stuff to forest, planting trees to grow luck, and donating trees to revive the iron wood forest and so on. The program has received a strong response from the community and 11 businesses, especially with the participation of Miss H'Hen Nie. The total number of trees contributed is up to 25,000 for Xuan Lien forest, Ben En forest and Cuc Phuong forest in Thanh Hoa and Ninh Binh provinces.
In particular, the Transforming old stuff to forests program, which calls for donations of old items to raise funds for afforestation, has contributed to promoting a green lifestyle for the community in the Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. In summary, the program had more than 6.5 tons of donations. After sorting the items, Gaia started selling used items and raised 1,000 trees for Ben En forest. The program also contributes to recycling hundreds of thousands of items, reducing 6 tons of waste into the environment, saving natural resources to produce new appliances, creating cheap shopping opportunities for hundreds of families.
Ms. Do Thi Thanh Huyen, Founder & Director of Gaia Nature Conservation Center shared: "Our country's forest coverage rate reaches 42.02%, but most of it is production forest. The area of natural forests and rich forests is increasingly shrinking. Therefore, Gaia actively plants restoration in national parks and reserves where there is high biodiversity such as Ben En National Park, Xuan Lien Nature Reserve and Cuc Phuong National Park. Plant species there will be protected for a long time and create a positive impact on the ecosystem such as helping to cope with climate change, minimizing damage from natural disasters, creating a habitat for wildlife and protect water security for people in the area.”
“In particular, on the occasion of forest planting in March 2024, Gaia completed the goal of planting 40 hectares of forest around the thousand-year Lim tree in Ben En National Park. The program contributes to the conservation of the rare native Green Lim species, which is currently listed as endangered in the Vietnam Red Book,” she added.
To ensure the quality and survival rate of trees is at least 70-85% after 4 years, Gaia and the National Parks and Conservation Areas Management Board will coordinate to monitor and take care of the forest for 4 years. Forest monitoring reports will be posted on the Gaia website as well as social media platforms. Thereby, the community can update information about the forest such as: tree survival rate, tree size, forest development status, tree monitoring photos, forest monitoring photos, current status of forests, flora and fauna in the forest.
Gaia will continue to make efforts to plant more watershed special-use forests throughout Vietnam. Gaia hopes to receive the support of all businesses, individuals, and units for the program, working together to restore forests and respond to climate change for a greener, healthier Vietnam./.