Inadequacies and violations in land and forest allocation in Nghe An

(Baonghean)- According to statistics, in Nghe An there are tOver 10,038 hectares of forestry land were converted for the wrong purpose, spread across many localities with complex nature.

Widespread violations

The public opinion of the whole country has not forgotten the painful incident that occurred in the two communes of Nam Son and Bac Son of Quy Hop district. In these two communes, from February to March 2017, there was a phenomenon of people illegally burning and clearing forests on the area assigned by the State according to Decree 163/1999/ND-CP of the Government. Through investigation and verification by local authorities and functional agencies, there were 55 families who arbitrarily changed the purpose of using forest land illegally with a total area of ​​forest burned and illegally cleared to plant acacia trees of 142.46 hectares (of which, there were 96.97 hectares of forested land and 45.49 hectares of non-forested land). The area of ​​natural forest illegally burned and cleared was mainly in the state of natural recovery forest, belonging to groups IIA, IIB; the total volume of forest products burned and illegally exploited was: 3,952.32m3.

Nam Son forest land was burned in early 2017. Photo: Lan - Tuan

The above behavior of households was clarified when households arbitrarily changed the purpose of use from natural production forest to raw material forest; meanwhile, this is the area of ​​natural forest land allocated by the State under Decree 163 for long-term stable use for forestry purposes. But what is particularly noteworthy is that these illegal acts were not only carried out by households allocated forest land by the State under Decree 163 but also had the direct participation of local leaders, key officials and a member of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee.

\The situation of illegal transfer and conversion of forest land and then destruction of natural forests to plant raw material forests occurs in districts implementing the policy of allocating land and forests to households according to Decree 163. In particular, it is especially "hot" in localities such as Tan Ky, Quy Chau, Que Phong, Con Cuong districts...

Land use right certificate according to Decree 163 of Mr. Lo Van Huong's household in Khiet village, Nam Son commune (Quy Hop). Mr. Huong said that the original certificate is currently mortgaged to the bank.

Typically in Quy Chau district, the situation of illegal buying, selling, transferring, and converting the purpose of forest land use was discovered in the villages of Pa Co, Ke Ninh, Dinh Tien, and Ta Co of Chau Hanh commune. In these villages, dozens of households sold and transferred forest land that the State allocated to them under Decree 163 to a business at a cheap price. In Ke Ninh and Pa Co villages alone, the authorities determined that about 70 households transferred their forest land use right certificates to Nghe An Xanh Joint Stock Company. After collecting the forest land use right certificates, the business brought in human resources, machinery, and equipment to open roads in the forest areas to clear forests and plant acacia trees on a large scale.

Quy Chau district has directed the functional forces to investigate and verify, thereby discovering that 11/12 communes in the area have illegally bought, sold, transferred and converted forest land with nearly 500 households participating; the area of ​​illegally transferred forestry land is up to 3,433 hectares. Up to now, Quy Chau district has handled hundreds of cases of forest encroachment; in which, there is a case of cutting down nearly 2 hectares of forest status 1c in lot 1, compartment 5, Sub-area 197 (Khe Doong, Nam Bong, Chau Hanh commune) related to the incumbent cadre of the district People's Committee.

A natural forest area in Nam Son commune (Quy Hop) that was burned down has been turned into a raw acacia forest. Photo: Lan - Tuan

Along National Highway 7, the situation of illegal conversion of land use purposes and transfer of forest land in Con Cuong district is assessed to be extremely complicated. For example, in Don Phuc commune, there are 8,786.2 hectares of forestry land and forest land, of which 3,969.9 hectares have been allocated to people and granted Land Use Rights Certificates according to Decree 163, but up to 36 households have illegally transferred forest land to subjects inside and outside the district with an area of ​​up to over 300 hectares.

As for Binh Chuan commune, the authorities counted 85 households illegally transferring 1,100.5 hectares of forest land; Thach Ngan commune had 59 households illegally transferring 629.9 hectares of forest; Mon Son commune had 133.5 hectares/25 households; Luc Da commune had 148.9 hectares/32 households... In these communes, after receiving the transfer, the subjects organized to hire local people to burn the forest, cut down, and illegally exploit forest products, causing the forest to become impoverished, and then carry out the act of planting acacia trees for raw materials.

In Tan Ky district, from late 2010 to early 2017, encroachment on protective forest land occurred on the border between this district and Yen Thanh district. Many households in Tay Thanh and Quang Thanh communes (Yen Thanh) secretly went to Ky Tan commune (Tan Ky) to encroach on forest land. The encroached areas were identified by authorities at plots 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 of Sub-zone 867. The total area of ​​forest that was cut down and encroached was over 100 hectares; of which 1.96 hectares occurred in 2017; the type of forest destroyed was regenerating and recovering forest. Violating households planted acacia on the encroached area, even built roads from Yen Thanh to Tan Ky to serve the violation.

Mr. Lo Van Huong - a resident in Khiet village, Nam Son commune confided to reporters about his participation in burning acacia plantation forests. Photo: Lan - Tuan

According to Decision No. 1731/QD-UBND dated April 21, 2016 of the Provincial People's Committee on approving the results of forest inventory in Nghe An province in 2015, the whole province has 1,236,259.31 hectares of forest and forestry land. Of which, over 240,000 hectares have been assigned to households and individuals for management according to Decree No. 02/CP and Decree 163/1999/ND-CP; the issuance of Forestry Land Use Right Certificates reached over 50.8%.

"Gap" between policy and reality?

Although the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has provided quite specific figures, it has affirmed that the violations in the illegal purchase, sale, transfer and conversion of forestry land are alarming. There are many causes for this situation, besides the poor awareness in management and use of households, there is "enticement" from the ringleaders... Along with that, we must take into account the shortcomings from the overlapping regulations of the law. Many forestry officials expressed concern about this issue.

Through discussion, Mr. Nguyen Viet Khanh - Deputy Head of the Forest Protection Department of Quy Chau district said that, based on the provisions of Decree 163 as well as the Law on Forest Protection and Development, when people receive protection and forest protection, they are allowed to exploit secondary forest products such as bamboo shoots, bamboo, and rattan; they can exploit to serve local needs and can exploit dead trees and trees at the end of their cycle. However, to have a lim wood tree ready to be exploited, it takes 50-70 years, chestnut wood also 30 years.

For secondary forest products such as bamboo, rattan, shrimp... if people want to exploit them, they must prepare documents, make plans, designs, and then carry out sequential procedures, which must show the area, location, exploited reserves, and implementation time... Next, they must go through the confirmation and approval of the commune, district, and relevant functional agencies. This procedure cannot be carried out by people. In addition, there is a reason that most of the forests allocated under Decree 163 are poor forests, recovering forests, so people cannot live on secondary forest products.

Trees remaining after the forest was burned to grow acacia raw materials. Photo: Dao Tuan.

The most unreasonable and contradictory thing in the policy for people receiving land allocation is that households are allocated land without forest allocation. And ironically, land under Decree 163 is all confirmed as forest land. Whether it is depleted forest or regenerating forest, it is still essentially forestry land, forest land. Meanwhile, the issuance of Land Use Right Certificates under Decree 163 to households is to recognize the land, not the assets on the land (forest).

And here comes another contradiction, while the Law on Forest Protection and Development strictly prohibits all illegal acts of cutting, destroying, exploiting, burning, changing the purpose of use, transferring forests... the Land Law allows the transfer and renaming of land use rights. Both are Land Use Rights Certificates, but households assigned land 163 are not allowed to sell, rename, or transfer.

In the long run, if the authorities do not thoroughly resolve the existing problems, it will cause unpredictable consequences from the illegal transfer and conversion of forest land. Therefore, in addition to preventing and strictly handling cases of illegal purchase, transfer and conversion of forest land, it is necessary to study and adjust the provisions of the law and policies to suit the reality of life.

Nhat Lan - Dao Tuan