Furthermore, the province has constructed wood processing plants along with material areas while enhancing the win-win cooperation between enterprises and local people.
It has piloted a project to allow State-owned businesses to manage protective forests and encouraged the growing of trees in families, residential clusters and urban areas.
Thanks to these efforts, Lao Cai’s forest coverage rate increased to 53 percent in 2015.
Climate change has caused heavy losses for Lao Cai province over the past years. According to Luu Minh Hai, Director of the province’s Hydro-meteorology Centre, the average temperature in the province has been increasing, even hitting 40 degrees Celsius in summer, while hails, whirlwinds and flash floods have been more frequent.
Between 2003 and 2015, there were 20 flash floods and landslides in Lao Cai, killing 261 people and injuring 218 others. Nearly 2,000 houses and 12,000 ha of rice and crops were damaged while more than 1,300 irrigational works and other facilities were destroyed, resulting in an estimated economic loss of thousands of billions of VND.
Only two storms in August this year cost the province 680 billion VND. Since July 2016, about 20 locals have been killed by whirlwinds, lighting, flash floods and landslides.
The prolonged frosty winter has resulted in the death of around 15,000 cattle each year while severe droughts have occurred in many areas.-VNA
Source: Vietnam+ | 27 September 2016