Ninh Thuan (VNA) - The south central province of Ninh Thuan hasexpanded a programme to allot forests to local communities to manage and builtrelated livelihood models to help improve people’s lives.

It plans to allocate nearly 66,000ha this year.

Tran Ngoc Hieu, head of the Thuan Nam District Coastal Protective ForestManagement Board, said the board is in the process of allocating 2,147ha offorests to four local communities and another 2,500ha to local troops.

The four communities in Phuoc Nam, Phuoc Dinh and Phuoc Diem communes have 70households, he said.

Handing over responsibility to communities has helped protect forests,especially from fires during the last dry season, he said.

The province has developed a number of livelihood models meant for householdsthat have been allocated forests like animal husbandry and growing fruit treesand other high - value plants in those forests.

It has given them soft loans to buy cows, goats and sheep and seedlings andtaught them farming techniques.

The province has built infrastructure for clean water supply, irrigation worksand roads in disadvantaged areas and provided training in fire prevention forforest management.

The province has handed over 69,120ha of forests to communities since 2016,according to its Forest Protection Sub-department.

Ninh Thuan, which has the least rainfall in the country, has more than204,200ha of forests.   

It plans to afforest more than 3,000ha this year as it targets forest cover of47 percent by the end of this year./.