Investigate and clarify the case of cutting down 150m3 of precious wood in Tam Hop (Tuong Duong)

(Baonghean) - Recently, in Tam Quang commune (Tuong Duong), the forest area in the area bordering Vietnam - Laos border was seriously cut down by bad guys. The report of the authorities shows that the amount of wood cut down is about 150 m3 of rare po mu wood, currently the investigation agency is still keeping the current status of the cut down forest area.

At the end of July 2014, the local forest rangers coordinated with the Tam Hop Commune Border Guard and the protective forest protection force to patrol and inspect the forest in the border area and discovered a case of illegal logging. After listening to the Forest Protection Department's report on the situation, the Tuong Duong District People's Committee issued Decision No. 998/QD-UBND dated July 31, 2014 on the establishment of an interdisciplinary inspection team. The team members included leaders of the Tuong Duong Forest Protection Department, leaders of the Tuong Duong Protective Forest Management Board, the Tam Hop Local Forest Ranger Team, officers of the Tuong Duong Protective Forest Protection Station, officers of the Tam Hop Commune People's Committee, and officers of the Tam Hop Border Guard Station. The team was tasked with coordinating to conduct an inspection to clarify the situation of the above-mentioned illegal logging case.

During the inspection, the team discovered the location of the exploited forest area, concentrated in 5 adjacent mountain peaks belonging to the following forest blocks: Block 3, Khoanh 6 and Block 3, Khoanh 10, Sub-zone 704, Block 1, Khoanh 10, Sub-zone 700; the area of ​​illegal forest exploitation is about 1,300 to 1,500 m above sea level, the distance from Tam Hop Border Guard Station to the beginning of the deforested area is about 3.6 km. The majority of the cut down forest products are group IIA po mu wood and 1 group III do tree, most of which are round wood, only a few have been sawn into boards, including 50 stumps that were cut and sawn into 60 round po mu and doi logs and 46 po mu sawn wood panels. Observation shows that the cutting marks are still new, the withered leaves have not completely dried. Total volume of forest products is: 156,768 m3 of round and sawn timber. Of which: Round po mu timber group IIA: 59 pieces = 150,534 m3. Round doi timber: 1 piece = 0,800 m3. Sawn po mu timber: 46 panels = 5,434 m3. The exploited forest area is a protective forest in the Vietnam - Laos border area in Tam Hop commune managed and protected by the Tuong Duong Protective Forest Management Board. According to local public opinion, there are 4 groups of people involved in the above illegal forest exploitation, belonging to 2 villages Pha Lom and Vang Mon, Tam Hop commune. The commune People's Committee summoned the suspicious subjects to the Tam Hop Commune People's Committee Office for questioning, however, only 3 subjects complied and wrote their own reports. According to the content of the report, 2 people admitted to being in the same group and cutting down 27 po mu trees.

Tuong Duong District People's Committee determined that this is a serious incident that needs to be verified, clarified and strictly handled according to the provisions of law. The incident occurred in the border area adjacent to Laos, the violators were mainly Mong people, located close to the border and possibly assisted by some other subjects. Therefore, to facilitate the investigation and handling of the incident, the District People's Committee continues to assign Tuong Duong District Police to preside over and coordinate with relevant agencies in the district and Tam Hop Commune People's Committee to resolutely investigate and clarify the individuals and organizations involved for handling according to the provisions of law. Assign the Tuong Duong Protective Forest Management Board to coordinate with Tam Hop Border Guard Station to regularly arrange forces to increase patrols to protect forest resources in the border area, protect the original state of the scene and the illegally exploited forest products, and absolutely not allow the evidence of the above incident to be dispersed. After the police organized an investigation of the scene, they assigned the Forest Protection Department to take the lead in advising on a plan to remove the above-mentioned forest products from the forest and manage them to serve the investigation and handling.

Van Truong