Vietnam has mobilised fire crews across more than 2,900 hectares of melaleuca forest as the 2026 dry season pushes fire risk into “dangerous” and “extremely dangerous” bands, threatening the country’s US$14 billion wood products export base. That is according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and provincial forest protection officials, who have set up 24/7 watchtower patrols, reinforced firebreaks, and readied water retention dams across the country’s most fire-exposed forest belts.
Nguyen Minh Tri, Director of the An Giang Forest Management Board, Region I, is running the melaleuca estate across the An Minh and Van Khanh communes, a forest type where thick undergrowth and peaty soils can smoulder underground for weeks once fires breach containment. Tri said his unit has plans running for every risk level, with personnel on 24/7 duty at critical points and patrols stepped up across the fire watchtower network.
“The Management Board has deployed personnel to be on duty 24/7 at key locations, maintained fire watchtowers, and increased patrols and inspections to prevent and control forest fires,” Tri said, citing the “four on-the-spot” doctrine that governs Vietnam’s forest fire response.
VRG Kien Giang MDF Wood Joint Stock Company, which holds the forest management contract in Van Khanh commune, has stood up five guard posts and placed crews on round-the-clock rotation ahead of Level 3 fire risk, according to Forest Project Assistant Le Van Khoi. Fire pumps, walkie-talkies, binoculars, and thousands of metres of wire have gone into the kit, with the company also repairing five water retention dams and clearing flammable undergrowth across critical zones.
Up north, Hai Phong’s Forest Protection Department pushed the city’s fire warning to Level IV (dangerous) in April, with 22,200 hectares of forest exposed to rapid spread after weeks of hot weather drained flammable materials to near-critical moisture lows. Pine forests, planted forests, and areas carrying heavy dry undergrowth are the most exposed, with forest rangers on patrol between 3 pm and 7 pm daily and open burning for land clearance is banned outright.
Vietnam has been a rare Southeast Asian success story on deforestation since the 1990s, with net forest cover climbing to roughly 14.74 million hectares, 31 per cent planted and 69 per cent natural, covering close to 40 per cent of the national land. The first quarter of 2025 alone booked close to US$4 billion in wood product shipments.
The country’s production forest estate runs to around 4 million hectares, planted mostly in acacia, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and pine, with acacia alone feeding more than 70 per cent of the woodworking industry’s raw material supply. A long fire season puts both the plantation base and the smallholders who hold 2-3 hectares each under 1980s land tenure reform into the firing line.
Last year already flagged what was coming, with Deputy PM Tran Hong Ha signing an emergency dispatch in April 2025 after back-to-back forest fires in the northern border province of Quang Ninh tore through more than 40 hectares across Ha Long and Binh Lieu. The same late dry season hit production and special-use forests in several mountainous provinces, with more than 10 hectares of special-use forest lost in a single commune.
El Niño weather is doing the heavy lifting on risk across central and southern Vietnam, where autumn rainfall drops 10 to 30 per cent below average in El Niño years and mean annual temperatures peaked in 1987-88, 1997-98, and 2009-10, according to research in MDPI’s Fire journal. Fire ignitions, burned area, and fire-linked forest loss all spiked in the Central Highlands across 2010 and 2011, with heat and low rainfall rolling the regional fire climate into the following year.
Tri has reinforced five water retention dams and positioned 24/7 duty crews across 2,900 hectares of melaleuca, holding the “four on-the-spot” doctrine in force until monsoon rains return in May.
