How the people of Hoc village protect the forest

(Baonghean) - To preserve the primeval forest in the village, for hundreds of years, the people of Hoc village in Dien Lam (Quy Chau) have established a village covenant to protect the forest together. The covenant stipulates that households regularly patrol and monitor the forest, and households wishing to build houses must have permission from the village management board before they can enter and cut down trees.

A few months ago, when he needed to build a house after moving out, Quang Van Son (33 years old, Hoc village, Dien Lam commune, Quy Chau) had to write a petition to the village management board.

Only after the village approved, Mr. Son’s family was allowed to go into the forest to cut wood. That was because this was a community forest, which had been assigned to Hoc village by the forest rangers to manage.

During the time of felling and bringing wood to build houses, members of the Hoc Village Management Board regularly monitor closely. “We must monitor to prevent people from taking advantage of the house building to exploit wood for sale.

"Although this has never happened in the village, we still have to take strict measures," said Mr. Quang Van Dong, Secretary of the Hoc village Party Cell, adding that in the remote communes of Quy Chau district, only Hoc village still preserves the rare primeval forest for use when necessary.

The neighboring communes, although living right at the edge of the forest, have no more wood. Every time they build a house, they often go into the conservation area to steal wood and are fined by the authorities. Therefore, many households now have to build concrete houses because they do not have wood to build stilt houses. Only in Hoc village, 100% of the households live in large stilt houses.

Mr. Quang Van Dong - Secretary of Hoc village Party cell (Dien Lam commune, Quy Chau) next to the forbidden forest. Photo: Tien Hung.

Mr. Dong said that more than 300 years ago, two men named Luong and Quang brought their families to reclaim this land to settle. Ban Hoc is a small valley, surrounded on all sides by the Pu Hoc mountain range. The elders in the village said that, no one knows when, their ancestors had a village covenant to limit the exploitation of wood from the forest.

The village covenant was not recorded in any written form, but was passed down orally from generation to generation. “Since childhood, we only heard our ancestors tell us not to cut wood in the forest for exchange or trade, only to exploit when needed to build houses. We must protect it strictly together,” said Mr. Quang Van Hanh (60 years old).

It is a forest of about 500 hectares, spread over the Pu Hoc mountain range. The edge of the forest is only a few minutes' walk from the village, stretching to the border with Chau Phong and Chau Hoan communes. As soon as we entered the forest that the people of Hoc village still call the forbidden forest, the scene that caught our eyes was the towering trees, nearly 1 meter in diameter standing tall...

After many generations of oral regulations, the people of Hoc village realized that the village covenant had not been strictly enforced for a long time. The situation of taking advantage of building houses to exploit wood for giving and selling to relatives in other villages still occurred. Therefore, in 2005, the people of Hoc village decided to establish a written village covenant, which specifically stipulated each prohibition as well as the form of punishment. The village covenant was kept by the village chief, with the signature of each household in the village.

The village covenant clearly states that only the people of Hoc village are allowed to enter this forest to cut wood and only cut it to build houses, not to use the wood to exchange or sell. Before building a house, the homeowner must submit an application to the village management board for consideration, depending on the area of ​​the house to allow cutting down a certain number of trees. Hunting of all animals in the forest is prohibited. People are only allowed to exploit secondary forest products such as picking bamboo shoots, collecting firewood, medicinal plants under the forest canopy...

“In the surrounding communes like Chau Hoan and Chau Phong, the forests have been completely cut down, leaving only bare hills, so many animals have come to live in these forests. Mostly weasels, mange, wild boars... As for honey exploitation, people are allowed to light fires but must commit to not letting forest fires happen” - said the Secretary of the Hoc village Party Cell.

This village covenant also stipulates that the 56 households in the village are divided into 6 groups. One group is responsible for patrolling and monitoring the forest for a month. If this group does not patrol and loses timber, they will be fined.

Mr. Quang Van Dong said that one day in mid-2015, Mr. Lo Van Phong (residing in Chau Hoan commune) led two young men to secretly enter the forbidden forest of Hoc village to exploit wood. Mr. Phong is the owner of a large wood workshop in Chau Hoan commune. Hearing the sound of chainsaws, people patrolling the forest immediately ran back to the village to report.

The Hoc village management board, including the village chief, the party cell secretary and a few other villagers, immediately dropped all their work and rushed into the forest. “At that time, Mr. Phong had managed to saw three trees with a diameter of about 30cm. When he saw us, he asked for forgiveness and promised not to repeat the offense, so the village only fined him 200,000 VND,” said Mr. Dong.

The 500-hectare forest right behind Hoc village. Photo: Tien Hung

The second violation occurred a year later. At that time, a family also in Chau Hoan commune brought buffalo and chainsaws to exploit 6 trees. Hoc villagers discovered and fined them 600,000 VND, and asked them to pledge not to repeat the offense. These were the two violations since the village covenant was established in 2005. "There were only two cases and the violators were from other communes. In Hoc village, no one violated," Mr. Dong added.

Coming to Hoc village, we were attracted by the "forest protection culture" here, we were also lucky to know that, in addition to the regulations on forest exploitation, the village covenant of Hoc village also has some regulations related to weddings and funerals. According to Mr. Quang Van Dong, in the past, like many other Thai villages, people in Hoc village often held funerals with many superstitious customs.

Homeowners often slaughter buffaloes and cows to eat and drink for five days. After the funeral, many families fall into debt. The village covenant then clearly stipulates that when someone in the village dies, each household is responsible for contributing 4 kilos of rice and sending one person, the main laborer, to help the family of the deceased and attend the funeral. Any family that is busy must pay to hire someone else.

When attending a funeral, you are not allowed to eat or drink at the host's house, but must go home to eat to save money for their family. Families with deceased relatives are only allowed to wait a maximum of 2 days before the burial. If the children are far away and cannot return in time, the village will consider it, but not more than 3 days. When attending a wedding, you are not allowed to eat or drink at night, as this may disrupt public order and security. It is not allowed to be held for many days...

(To be continued)

Tien Hung