Vietnam should pay more attention to forest plantations and protection as it will help the country in mitigating the climate change as well as reducing the number of poor households in key forestry areas.

Citing Deputy Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Hua Duc Nhi, the Vietnam news agency reported that the forestry sector's biggest difficulty is to balance the relationship between hunger elimination and poverty reduction.

Currently, 85 percent of preserved forest area were located in regions which had high and average poverty rates, a Forest Sector Support Partnership seminar said.

Meanwhile Director of the ministry's Forestry Department Nguyen Ngoc Binh said that provision of foodstuff in localities especially in areas with high population density, directly affected forestry resources.

In contrast, natural forest area and quality were decreasing, which led to a reduction in forestry product supplies, while demand for the products continuously increased, he said.

"To solve the problem, the ministry is seeking measures to mobilise financial sources and encourage economic sectors to invest in forest usage, development and management," Nhi said.

The ministry was also creating a favourable legal framework and improved investment environment to attract more foreign investment in planting industrial material forests, processing forestry products and technology transfers.

"Forests should become a commodity to be provided to local people but also a capital source for development," Nhi said.

To ensure benefits for forestry protectors, the Government decided to implement the Payment for Forest Environment Services project in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong and the northern mountainous province of Son La since the beginning of 2009.

Vietnam was the first ASEAN country to trial the project.

The policy helped boost forest protection, create a firm economic foundation to improve people's lives and raise people's awareness of forestry protection and development.

Last year, the project brought the two provinces VND77 billion (US$4.1 million). The money was allocated to forest planters and protectors and local people.

This year, Vietnam would strive for a growth rate of 1 to 1.5 per cent in forestry value, export turnover of $3 billion and forest coverage of 40 per cent, Nhi said.

Last year, only two Official Development Assistance project in the forestry sector were signed with a total capital of US$10 million.

In the Copenhagen Summit on climate change, six countries including Australia, French, Japan, Norway, the UK and the US committed to support the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) project with US$3.5 billion, Nhi said.

It proved that the role of forests as a response to climate change was increasingly growing in importance, he stressed.

Vietnam is one of nine countries implementing REDD, thus the support would make a significant contribution to the country in encouraging the community to protect forests, he added.