Vietnam targets increasing the total area of large-sized timber forests to 1 million ha by 2030 under a plan for 2024-2030, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Of this, 500,000 ha of existing large-sized timber forests will be maintained and another 450,000-550,000 ha planted in the 2024-2030 period.

The forests are expected to absorb up to 300 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equal to the volume of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

Vietnam sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits to the World Bank in 2023, earning $51.5 million, figures from MARD show.

The plan is aimed at developing concentrated large-sized timber forests to ensure sufficient timber supply for processing to serve the domestic market and export, increase forest growers’ incomes, and help with environmental protection, climate change response, and disaster mitigation.