Jan 12, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Vietnam targets to increase its forest coverage up to 43% in 2010 under the 5 million hectare reforestation programme with the aim of mitigating the consequences of natural disasters, thus protecting the country's socio-economic achievements. The country recorded 37.3% forest coverage in 2004 thanks to the implementation of national forestry development programmes under prime ministerial decisions 327, 556 and 661, which aimed to rehabilitate degraded forest lands, scale up afforestation activities and improve forest management. However, according to biologists, increasing deforestation and forest separation in recent years have resulted in the decline of forests' bio-diversity, soil depletion and the desertification process in many provinces, especially in lowland areas.