10 people 'voluntarily' admitted their mistakes in the case of the Vice Chairman of the commune destroying 2.4 hectares of forest

The incident of 10 people from Chau Phong commune "voluntarily" submitting a petition to confess to deforestation at the end of March 2019. The place where these people submitted their petition was at the Chau Phong Commune Forest Protection Management Station (under the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board).

A petition of self-confessed deforestation by some households in May village, Chau Phong commune, Quy Chau district. Photo: Nhat Lan

Surprised by this incident, the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board ordered the return of the petitions, but the people refused to accept them. Therefore, the petitions "voluntarily" admitting to deforestation were forwarded to the Investigation Police Agency of the Quy Chau District Police.

The content of the petitions is basically the same. The people all presented their difficult circumstances, little land for production, limited legal awareness... so they had committed acts of cutting down forests. Then, because they were afraid of being fined, they asked Mr. Vi Van Thanh - Vice Chairman of Chau Phong Commune People's Committee to accept it for them. Now, seeing that "doing so has caused a big problem", they wrote a petition to take back the land that had been granted.

Discussing this “voluntary” confession, according to the opinion of a responsible official, it may be aimed at reducing the sentence for the Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Chau Phong Commune, Mr. Vi Van Thanh. Because according to the provisions of the law, with the act of destroying a protective forest with an area of ​​2.4 hectares, Mr. Thanh may be subject to very severe penalties under the law.

Reporter of Nghe An Newspaper at the forest area where the Vice Chairman of Chau Phong Commune People's Committee cut down the forest. Photo: Nhat Lan

However, this officer also affirmed: “Mr. Thanh’s act of destroying protective forests was discovered more than once. He also had to sign the records made at the scene with the presence of representatives of the authorities. However, we need to wait for the conclusion of the investigation agency…”.

On March 21, 2019, Nghe An Newspaper published an article: “Nghe An: Commune Vice Chairman discovered destroying 2.4 hectares of forest”. In the information, the commune official who destroyed the forest was Mr. Vi Van Thanh - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Chau Phong commune, Quy Chau district. The 2.4 hectares of forest destroyed by him was a production forest, under the management of the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board.

The incident was discovered on March 3, 2019, after the Chau Phong Commune Forest Rangers patrolled the forest protection work in Sub-area 196, belonging to the production forest land of the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board.

At that time, it was discovered that Mr. Vi Van Thanh (born in 1983) and Mr. Le Van Nhi (born in 1969), both residing in May village, Chau Phong commune, were illegally cutting down forest in lot 25, area 6, Sub-area 196.

Signs of on-site inspections by authorities in the deforested area. Photo: Nhat Lan

On March 4, 2019, the authorities of Quy Chau district established a team to inspect the scene to determine the area of ​​forest that had been deforested. Thereby, it was determined that Mr. Vi Van Thanh had destroyed 24,985m2; for Mr. Le Van Nhi, it was 12,500m2.

The type of forest that Mr. Vi Van Thanh and Mr. Le Van Nhi destroyed was determined to be a production forest; mixed forest status HG2 (mixed forest of bamboo, reed, natural wood of the mountain soil). The volume of the area that Mr. Vi Van Thanh destroyed was 11,280 bamboo trees and more than 31m³wood; the reserve on the area that Mr. Le Van Nhi cut down was 4,650 bamboo trees, 17,725m³wood.

On March 7, 2019, through a meeting to mobilize people to denounce, the authorities of Quy Chau district discovered 6 more cases of households encroaching on forest land in Sub-area 196 with the purpose of clearing and planting acacia trees.

Among the felled trees, there are trees with quite large trunk diameters. Photo: Nhat Lan

Through inspection, the area encroached by 6 households is nearly 6 hectares, which is a type of production forest land, mostly vacant land. These forest land areas are all under the management of the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board.

On March 15, 2019, considering the nature and extent of the violation, Quy Chau Forest Protection Department requested Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board to transfer the case to the Investigation Police Agency of Quy Chau District Police for investigation and handling in accordance with the provisions of law.