Loose management of forest exploitation

(Baonghean) -According to Circular No. 35/2011/TT-BNNPTNT of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, households or groups wishing to exploit planted forests must file a request with local authorities, levels and sectors, and then be allowed to exploit. However, most localities do not pay attention to this regulation, the exploitation of planted forests is based on the agreement between forest owners and timber traders. That leads to a situation of competition in buying and selling, forest growers being forced to lower prices, and many other consequences.

Exploiting planted forests in Nghia Binh commune, Tan Ky district.

Every year, in the localities of the province, people and forestry companies exploit a lot of wood from planted forests under the support projects of the State and people's own investment. It is difficult to count how many hectares of forest and the wood output each year, so the economic value of the forest is also difficult to determine. Because people exploit forests mostly contact timber traders themselves, do not complete procedures to register for logging of planted forests. Therefore, there is a situation of logging of planted forests without following any process of plots, compartments, and sub-areas. The consequence is that the land is eroded, causing an imbalance in the ecological environment, creating loopholes for traders to force down forest purchase prices, causing social disorder and insecurity... In some places, forest growers have to accept selling forests at a very low price, calculating that 1 hectare after 6 years of planting only makes a profit of 15 - 20 million VND.

During our days in the mountainous communes of Yen Thanh and Tan Ky districts, we saw many large hills being blatantly exploited. That means people exploit forests unscientifically, leading to the ground being easily eroded when there is heavy rain. In addition, we also encountered many families exploiting planted forests. When asked about the procedures for exploitation, everyone was surprised and shook their heads: The forest we planted has the right to harvest, what procedures are there? Mr. Tran Danh Than, in Dong Tro hamlet, Dong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) is harvesting 1.5 hectares of acacia forest next to Khua road, confided: Previously, he contracted for 50 years on a land area of ​​more than 10 hectares, then transferred 5 hectares to some households in the hamlet, leaving his family with 5 hectares. 5 years ago, he invested in planting acacia, since then he has harvested for the second time, the first time was more than 2 hectares and this time 1.5 hectares. His form of selling the forest was to sell "crows" to the broker, for 50 million VND, the family collected all the branches and tops. Asked before exploiting the forest, did his family file a request with the local authorities? Mr. Than replied: I have exploited planted forests twice, but I have never filed a request with the commune, and the authorities have never come to remind or guide me. Not only my family, but dozens of households in the hamlet and commune have not seen anyone file a request to exploit planted forests.

Mr. Nhuong - a timber trader in Ong market area, Minh Thanh commune, said: During the harvest season of cajuput wood, I often go to buy it to exploit and import for wood processing factories in the province. Depending on the density and size of the trees to bargain, usually areas that are difficult to exploit and have difficult traffic are cheaper to buy. Since I have been in this profession, I have never seen a forest owner apply for forest exploitation, and the transportation of wood to the area has not been checked or handled by the authorities.

Dong Thanh commune has nearly 1,200 hectares of production forest, which was previously planted by local people under the support programs of projects: 4304, 327, Viet Duc, 661 and currently WB3. Mr. Thai Van Thanh - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: Although Circular 35 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been implemented in the locality for many years, in reality, forest owners who are households have not reported or submitted documents to the local authorities to exploit planted forests. This means that the local authorities have not resolutely implemented the regulations of Circular 35. Similarly, Kim Thanh commune has 500 hectares of acacia forest planted since 2005 until now.

Mr. Nguyen Van Quan - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: All the local planted forests have been contacted by the people themselves to sell, to whom, where, how to sell, the local government cannot manage. Because up to now, no individual has filed a dossier to exploit the forest and sent it to the Commune People's Committee. The local government has also not handled any cases of undeclared exploitation of planted forests. Only trees in the home garden, when the family exploits and sells them to a unit to grow ornamental plants, are declared for transportation. It is known that currently, Kim Thanh people sell planted forest wood at 930 thousand VND/ton (at the wood processing factory in the province), but if any forest owner hires the whole process from exploitation, to loading, loading wood onto trucks and transporting to the factory, then after deducting 400 thousand VND/ton, the forest owner only receives 530 thousand VND/ton.

Yen Thanh district currently has more than 21,901 hectares of forestry land, of which the forested area is 20,715 hectares, of which planted forests including acacia and eucalyptus are more than 13,500 hectares. According to statistics, Yen Thanh plants about 1,000 hectares of new forests each year. People in the mountainous areas of Yen Thanh know the benefits of planting forests, so they invest in opening roads, and after exploiting, they return to plant new forests. Therefore, each year Yen Thanh exploits about 800 - 1,000 hectares of planted forests.

While households exploit plantation forests without a plan, forest management boards exploit them quite systematically. Yen Thanh Protective Forest Management Board has 3.4 thousand hectares of forest land, of which 1.6 thousand hectares are in the process of transferring to the Vietnam - Laos Economic Cooperation Corporation. Thus, the unit has about 1.7 thousand hectares of plantation forests, all of which have been contracted to people and employees. According to regulations, when employees or households exploit forests, the Management Board collects 23% of the value, so the unit has a plan to organize the exploitation of plantation forests in a systematic and systematic manner. In 2013, the unit exploited nearly 40 hectares of plantation forests, since the beginning of the year, 2 households have applied for permission to exploit plantation forests. All individuals exploiting forests have their records confirmed by the unit according to specific lots and compartments, without any competition for purchase or sale. According to Mr. Phan Van Sy - Director of Yen Thanh Protective Forest Management Board, local authorities and sectors need to apply Circular No. 35 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to exploit planted forests scientifically.

According to Circular 35 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People's Committees at the commune and district levels handle the exploitation procedures, the Forest Protection Department is responsible for inspecting, supervising, and promptly detecting violations of exploitation, collection of timber and non-timber forest products by forest owners and exploitation units to promptly propose or handle according to regulations. However, in reality, the authorities at the commune and district levels and the Forest Protection Department have almost "laxed" their responsibilities, causing the exploitation and sale of planted forests to take place indiscriminately. Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Trong Thuc - Head of the Forest Protection Department of Yen Thanh district admitted that up to now, local forest rangers have not done a good job in this work, so the Department has not been able to specifically control how forests are exploited in the localities.

The transportation and circulation of planted timber for consumption is therefore also difficult to handle. A few years ago, the Department handled a case in Quang Thanh commune, due to illegal logging of planted forests. Mr. Nguyen Trong Le - Head of the Tan Ky District Forest Protection Department, said: In reality, very few forest owners who are households in the localities report to the local authorities about logging of planted forests. There has been no detection or handling of violations of logging of planted forests in the area. As for the local authorities at the commune level, according to our research, the localities we visited did not comply with the State's regulations on logging of planted forests.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Thuc - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Ky district, for a long time, local authorities and functional agencies have been "lax" in managing the exploitation of planted forests. Therefore, the district level cannot make a specific assessment, but more importantly, it causes an imbalance in the ecological environment, loss of social security and order, and competition for purchase and sale, and price pressure between buyers and forest owners; localities cannot assess the real value of planted forests and cannot manage the reasonable use of forestry land. Through this, local authorities and functional agencies need to apply Circular 35 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to ensure the benefits of forests for families and society.

This shows that the current situation of “lax” management of forest exploitation is due to the lack of responsibility of local authorities from commune to district and the competent agency is the Forest Protection Department. This situation can be affirmed, not only occurs in a few places, but is a common situation in mountainous localities in the province. It is thought that the competent agencies need to coordinate with local authorities to actively propagate, guide people, and gradually and effectively implement Circular No. 35 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Xuan Hoang