Regime for forest rangers in Nghe An: Major problem, must have solution!

Forget the specialized force to protect the forest?

From the bitter confessions of individuals in charge of forest protection who have submitted resignation letters, such as Mr. Nguyen Duy Thanh (Thanh Chuong Forest Protection Management Board), recently, we have approached many managers who use this force. We realized that most of them are in a state of confusion and anxiety.

Pu Mat National Park guards on patrol. Photo: Contributor

Confusion and anxiety are expressed not only through exchanges, but also through many reports over several years, as people assigned by the State to manage and use specialized forest protection labor. In particular, in 2022, there were reports such as those from the Thanh Chuong, Tan Ky, Con Cuong Protective Forest Management Boards; Tuong Duong Forestry Enterprise..., which specifically described the hard work and difficult life of the specialized forest protection force, with sadness and longing for the competent authority to soon have solutions to help them retain and stabilize the specialized forest protection force.

There have been leaders of the Special-use and Protective Forest Management Boards who have crossed the "line" and frankly criticized the signs of "abandoning" the specialized forest protection force. For example, the Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board, in Document No. 179/BQLRPH-KH.BVR dated November 17, 2022, acknowledged that Decision No. 809/QD-TTg dated July 12, 2022 of the Prime Minister on the Sustainable Forestry Development Program for the 2021-2022 period and Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT dated September 20, 2022 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development "are two important legal documents on investment policy mechanisms to support forest protection and development in the 2021-2030 period; addressing the gap when the Forestry Development Target Program for the 2016-2020 period ends"; However, Circular 12/TT-BNNPTNT has shortcomings in regulations on subjects receiving forest contracts, causing difficulties for protective forest management boards and forestry units assigned by the State to protect forests.

This committee analyzed that Circular 12/TT-BNNPTNT only stipulates that the subjects receiving forest contracts include households, individuals; residential communities; armed forces and socio-political organizations in localities with contracted forests. Meanwhile, the whole province has more than 131,000 hectares of natural forest managed and protected by specialized forest protection forces of the Protective Forest Management Boards, Forestry Companies and the Youth Volunteer Corps, but this is not mentioned.

“Circular 12/TT-BNNPTNT has completely removed the specialized contract workers of the Forest Protection Management Boards from the beneficiaries of the mechanisms and policies according to Decision 809/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister.” - Thanh Chuong Forest Protection Management Board pointed out the inadequacies.

Mr. Le Phung Thieu (sitting in the middle) and officers of Thanh Chuong Forest Protection Management Board discussed and encouraged the specialized force protecting Khe Veu Station forest to stabilize their mentality and focus on completing their tasks. Photo: Contributor

The reason for such an assessment, according to Mr. Le Phung Thieu - Director of Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board, is that the specialized forest protection force has been stipulated in Article 41 of the 2017 Forestry Law and Decree 01/2019/ND-CP of the Government. The name is correct, the words are favorable. But with the provisions of Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT, this force is neglected and does not enjoy the regimes and policies for forest protection and development. Therefore, forestry units of the province, such as Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board, will not be allocated funds under the Sustainable Forestry Development Target Program for the period 2021 - 2025. That means, there will be no source to pay salaries for contract workers specializing in forest protection, they will not be able to participate in social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance contributions. And life will be extremely miserable, while units will encounter many difficulties in forest management and protection!

The analysis of Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board is well-founded. Because for many years, the source of salary payments for specialized forest protection contracts has come from the forest protection budget of the Forestry Development Target Program. And on November 22, 2022, Nghe An received an additional 54 billion VND from the budget of the Sustainable Forestry Development Program in 2022. However, because Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT stipulates that the subjects of forest protection contracts do not mention specialized forest protection contract forces, the province has not been able to allocate funds to pay their salaries from this budget, but is having to send a document requesting the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the General Department of Forestry to clarify!

Risk of breaking the law?

Looking through the 2017 Forestry Law and Decree No. 01/ND-CP of the Government, we see very clear regulations on the organization of specialized forest protection forces, as well as ensuring salary regimes and other support for this force. Regarding the Forestry Law (effective in January 2019), Clause 1, Article 41 stipulates: "Special-use forest management boards, protective forest management boards where no forest rangers are established; state-owned enterprises, organizations not belonging to the armed forces to which the State allocates forests, leases forests and forest land are allowed to organize specialized forest protection forces". And Clause 3, Article 41 stipulates: "Forest owners are responsible for directly managing and directing the activities of specialized forest protection forces; ensuring the regime for specialized forest protection forces according to the provisions of law".

The lives of forest rangers are in places lacking in every aspect, from electricity, clean water for daily use, phone signal... Photo: Contributor

Decree No. 01/ND-CP on Forest Rangers and specialized forest protection forces issued by the Government on January 1, 2019 (effective from February 15, 2019) has Article 16 regulating "Ensuring the operations of specialized forest protection forces". According to Article 16, specialized forest protection forces (including civil servants and labor contracts) are also entitled to "enjoy salary regimes and other regimes according to the provisions of law". At the same time, Clause 4, Article 16 also stipulates in detail the funding to ensure the operations of specialized forest protection forces of forest owners, with the content "For forest owners that are public service units, operating costs shall comply with the provisions of law on the operations of public service units".

Regarding the salary regime, the Labor Law has 1 Chapter and 14 Articles (Chapter V, Articles 90 to 104). In particular, there are very detailed regulations on salary; minimum wage; construction of salary scale, salary table and labor norms; salary payment principles; salary payment form; salary payment period...

Discussing the above regulations with a number of managers, they recognized that the way salaries were paid to specialized forest protection forces in the past was “a salary, but not a salary”; and saw that they were at risk of violating the law.

As Mr. Le Phung Thieu - Director of Thanh Chuong Forest Protection Management Board also pointed out, while the Labor Law stipulates that overtime cannot exceed 200 hours/year. But for forest protection units, in just 3 months of summer to prevent and fight forest fires, the number of overtime hours of workers has exceeded the prescribed level; besides, the nature of the forest protection profession is that they do not have days off on Saturdays and Sundays, but the time for compensatory leave is very limited... Then, it is recognized that "the mechanism and policies are having many shortcomings, so employers are at a very high risk of violating the Labor Law".

Head of Forest Use and Development Department, Forest Protection Sub-Department Nguyen Khac Hai talks with reporters. Photo: Nhat Lan

At the Forest Protection Department, Head of the Forest Use and Development Department Nguyen Khac Hai is one of the officials who has a deep understanding of the regime and policies currently applied to the specialized forest protection force. According to Mr. Hai, the industry highly appreciates the role of the specialized forest protection force, affirming that this is an indispensable force of the Forestry industry. And due to objective reasons, the application of salary policy for the specialized forest protection force is currently contrary to the provisions of the law. "Their salaries have not really lived up to their name for a long time," said Mr. Hai.

Therefore, according to Mr. Nguyen Khac Hai, the Forest Protection Department has reported the current situation and advised the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop policies for this force. At the same time, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has sent a document requesting the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the General Department of Forestry to clarify the regulations on subjects contracted to protect forests in Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT. The Department's document also clearly stated that in Nghe An, there are more than 850 people in the specialized contract force for protecting forests, to ask the Ministry and the General Department whether this force is contracted to protect forests; and whether funds from the Sustainable Forestry Development Program can be used to pay them?

A meal on patrol by the forest rangers. Photo: Contributor

"We also anticipate that in case of delay in clarifying this content, we will request the Department to consult with competent authorities to temporarily advance funds to provide Forestry units with 2022 salary payments for specialized forest protection forces." - Head of the Forest Use and Development Department, Mr. Nguyen Khac Hai affirmed.

Existence must be dealt with!

Following the 11th session of the Provincial People's Council taking place from December 7 to 9, 2022, issues related to specialized forest protection forces were of interest to the Provincial People's Council delegates. There were many thoughtful and dedicated opinions.

Delegate Nguyen Van Hai - Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee, when chairing the Group Discussion session, raised the issue: “Recently, Nghe An Newspaper published articles about the forest protection force. The article stated that 158 ​​forest protection forces have quit due to too much work and pressure; and another important thing is that the salary is unstable, the monthly salary is not enough. Even in 2022, there is no salary. Regarding this issue, we need to ask the question: The forest is gold, why do the gold protection guards have to run away? What must we do to keep this force? Directive No. 13 of the Central Party Secretariat has been implemented by all levels and sectors. But if we do not ensure the regime and policies for forest protection workers, we will certainly encounter many difficulties.”

Delegate Nguyen Van Hai - Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee talked about the situation of forest protection forces quitting their jobs at the group discussion session, 11th Session, Provincial People's Council on December 7, 2022. Photo: Pham Bang

Participating in the discussion, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu assessed that the fact that hundreds of specialized forest protection workers had to quit their jobs was a major problem. He identified the cause as policy inadequacies, specifically Circular No. 12/TT-BNNPTNT, but also identified the province's responsibility for not being proactive in taking the lead to have timely solutions.

Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu said: "We must recognize this as a problem that needs to be solved." And he proposed a solution: "Certainly, workers must be paid. If the 2 Ministries do not pay, the province must pay. And for the province to pay, there must be a policy. Therefore, it is necessary to assign the Provincial People's Committee to develop a policy on forestry development and submit it to the Provincial People's Council for consideration and approval to pay workers...".

On December 8, 2022, at the discussion session in the hall, the delegates of the Provincial People's Council continued to express their opinions on the issue of the specialized forest protection force resigning from work, and proposed solutions to handle it. Discussing this content, according to Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van De, in order to ensure the regime for the specialized forest protection force, thereby improving the effectiveness of forest management and protection, the Provincial People's Committee is preparing a dossier to request the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council to allow the development of a Resolution to support funding for forest management and protection for the specialized forest protection force. "I hope the Provincial People's Council will consider..." - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van De suggested.

Comrade Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee discussed the regime and policies for specialized forest protection forces at the discussion session in the hall, 11th Session, Provincial People's Council, December 8, 2022. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Nghe An is the province with the largest forest and forestry land area in the country, with 1,237,556.6 hectares, of which the forested area is 962,899 hectares, the natural forest area is more than 790,000 hectares. Public forestry units alone are responsible for managing more than 318,000 hectares of natural forest; of which, their specialized forest protection force is directly managing and protecting more than 131,000 hectares, in addition, they have to do many other tasks. Therefore, the work pressure is very large.

It is necessary to recognize that the Forestry Law and other relevant legal regulations have clearly stipulated the guarantee of salaries and other regimes for them, as the Director of Thanh Chuong Forest Protection Management Board, Le Phung Thieu, said, "the name is right, the words are right". Therefore, the salary regime and other support for the specialized forest protection force must be guaranteed to be stable, adequate, regular, and on time. Because forests are gold, national assets, they need to be preserved and protected. And because that is the legitimate and legal interest of this force!