Meeting biomass energy needs of the poor with re-afforestation

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends formulation of national action programmes to promote and support reafforestation and national forest regeneration with a view to achieving sustained provision of the biomass energy needs of low-income groups in urban areas and the rural poor, in particular women and children.

Between 1943 and 1982, Vietnam lost nearly half its forests (6.5 million hectares) as a results of wars, commercial felling and demand for fuelwood. The World Food Programme has supported a massive Vietnamese government initiative in reafforestation. By 1988, 1.3 million hectares of new forest, comprising 3,000 million trees, had been planted in 14 years. Volunteers received 2.5 kilogrammes of rice per day for their work. This WFP food-for-work project was inolving over 1.5 million people in 383 cooperatives.