The northern mountainous province of Lao Cai
is exerting every effort to minimise the impacts of climate change. In addition
to raise public awareness of the role of nature, the province has taken
concrete actions to protect the environment and develop the economy
sustainably. The whole area of forest
and forestry land has been managed systematically while protective forests have
been protected and developed with a total area of over 156,000 hectares,
including 101,000 hectares of natural forest. Lao Cai has formed and put into
use special-use forests such as the Hoang Lien National Park, Hoang Lien – Van
Ban Natural Park and Bat Xat Natural Park with a combined area of 64,000
hectares and more than 2,000 kinds of flora, including valuable species like
Van Sam, Bach Xanh, Thong Tre, Dinh Tung and Po Mu. 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.
Viet
Nam Plus – September 27 – http://en.vietnamplus.vn/lao-cai-strives-to-mitigate-climate-change-impact/99614.vnp
Lao Cai strives to mitigate climate change impact
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