Forest plan uprooted?

One of the six big forest plantation projects backed by Vietnam’s biggest forestry foreign investor has been forced to take a breather.

Quang Nam’s authorities have  required the Hong Kong-backed InnovGreen Group to temporarily stop its $40 million, 50-year long forest plantation project in the central province because of its delays.

The requirement is in line with the conclusions from a meeting early this month between the provincial authorities, the Ministry of Planning and Investment inspectorate and InnovGreen.

The project’s fate has been reported to the prime minister, who will issue a final verdict on whether the project will go ahead.

InnovGreen’s project was licenced on July 10, 2008 to plant 30,000 hectares of forests, exploit the forests, process wood, pulp and paper-related materials, and produce tables, chairs and fine art items. The project covers Dong Giang, Nam Giang, Tay Giang, Phuoc Son, Que Son, Hiep Duc, South Tra My, North Tra My and Tien Phuoc districts. Only 39ha of forest has been planted so far.

An InnovGreen source, who declined to be named, said the firm had been bogged down by difficulties, despite having enough capital for the project. This source blamed the project’s delays in Quang Nam province on “too many causes”.

“There are too many types of soil in Quang Nam. Our calculations show that only several hundreds of hectares of soil in the province can be used for the project. Locals are mostly lazy and not ready to engage in the project. Moreover, where we were given land is not where forests can be planted, because it often takes four months to prepare for planting forests,” the source said.

“I think that InnovGreen has made no violations and always abided by Vietnamese law. Thus, the project cannot have its licence revoked,” the source added.

Since July 2005, InnovGreen has been trying to cultivate its six big forest plantation projects worth $284.2 million and covering 349,000ha in Thanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Lang Son, Kon Tum and Quang Nam provinces.

However, InnovGreen has been provided with only 5,000ha due to a range of reasons,  mostly related to complicated procedures about giving land to foreign investors. 

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on March 10 ordered local governments to pause leasing forestland to foreign investors until the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Planning and Investment complete a review of the projects.

Dung’s iron hand followed the public concerns over the fact that forests leased to foreign investors were located in tracts of old-growth forests, watersheds and in strategic defence locations.