The meeting saw the attendance of representatives from many provinces and cities in the country and a large number of students and teachers of Thai Nguyen University's Lao Cai branch.
Participants planted trees against desertification. Photo: VNA
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Dien noted that the Convention to Combat Desertification, with the engagement of 186 countries, has set a target of combating desertification and restoring degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030.
The implementation of the anti-desertification goal is expected to contribute to completing other Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including those related to climate change mitigation, poverty reduction and natural disaster prevention, the restoration of ecosystem, and food and water security.
Land degradation threatens the livelihood and security of the community, especially ethnic minority groups. The forest plays a significant role in restoring land affected by drought and preventing land degradation.
Statistics showed that in 2017, Vietnam planted 235,028 hectares of forest, equivalent to 102.4 percent of the yearly target, and nearly 61 million scattered trees.
However, the protection and development of forest have seen many shortcomings, including the degradation of forest quality and natural forest ecosystem in many areas, forest fire, and low contribution of forestry to poverty reduction.
Thus, experts held that Vietnam should continue planting trees and boost the sustainable development of forest, contributing to preventing land degradation and meeting the demands of socio-economic development and defense-security.
