Encroachment on forest land is a violation of the law.

(Baonghean) -Recently, in Yen Hop commune, Quy Hop district, hundreds of people from the hamlets: Bo, Trong Canh, Cong, Na Phe arbitrarily entered the forest land areas of Sub-zone 262 managed by Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise to cut down trees and encroach on the land. Although the forestry enterprise has coordinated with authorities at all levels to use many preventive measures, the situation is still very complicated...

The incident of people from Bo, Trong Canh, Cong, and Na Phe villages cutting down trees and encroaching on Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise's forest land began to heat up in April 2013. According to Quy Hop District Police, up to now, the area of ​​forest land encroached by people is over 40 hectares. And the encroachment of forest land has caused conflicts and loss of security and order between Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise and some local people. Specifically, on the evening of May 23 and May 26, taking advantage of the absence of the forest guards, some subjects destroyed the property of the Forest Protection Station in Sub-areas 262 and 270 and wrote threatening messages to the guards; at 12 noon on May 28, some subjects secretly entered Sub-area 262 and burned down the forest on the forest land of people from Bo, Trong Canh, and Cong villages in areas 3, 4, and 7, causing a large fire on an area (about 45 hectares). The Forestry Department had to mobilize all its staff to control and prevent the fire from spreading; from May 31 to June 3, about 60 people organized into 4 groups in areas 4 and 7, Sub-area 262, dug holes to plant trees illegally. When the security forces came to mobilize, the leaders insulted, cursed and threatened...

On June 18, when we arrived at Sub-zone 262, we witnessed many large areas of forest near Bo hamlet and the Ban Mong dam area being burned. The officers of the Sub-zone 262 Forest Protection Station said that the situation was still tense. Therefore, the forestry station had to add 12 people from other stations to make it 15 people and the Quy Hop District Police stationed 3 more soldiers to coordinate with the forestry station's protection, but it was still very difficult to prevent people from encroaching and illegally planting trees. Currently, people no longer clear-cut or burn the forest, but at around 3am they go out to dig holes and illegally plant trees.

According to Mr. Tran Van Ngoc - Secretary of the Party Committee of Yen Hop commune, in mid-2012, when the State allowed Dong Hop Forestry to convert to planting raw material forests in Sub-zone 262, there was encroachment on forest land but it was prevented. In April 2013, when the forestry contracted with some households to cut and clear forests, people came up to cut trees and encroach on land. The main reason was that people heard that the forestry contracted with some households to plant forests under the 49/51 mechanism; Some households lacked production land so they wanted to be contracted by the forestry to plant forests but were not satisfied; During the process of organizing forest planting, the forestry did not coordinate well with local authorities to publicly propagate the forest planting plan. Mr. Ngoc added that the encroachment on forest land started from Bo hamlet, and the hottest issue at present is in Trong Canh hamlet.

The hilly forest area near Ban Mong dam was illegally cleared and burned.

Bo Hamlet has 66 households, 1/3 of whom are Thai ethnic people and 2/3 of whom are Kinh people. According to Hamlet Chief Dinh Van Duong, about 40 households participated in the land encroachment. After the working group of the District People's Committee came to work and the forestry farm agreed to sign a joint venture contract with those who wanted to plant forests, about 37 households registered. However, people hope that the government and the forestry farm will coordinate to resolve the issue of fairness in receiving land for joint venture forest planting, not allowing the situation of some households receiving more than others. Mr. Duong added that there are still some households who, because they are worried about unfairness, secretly dig holes and plant trees illegally. They think that when the matter is over, no one can do anything. Mr. Nguyen Van Hung - Secretary of the Bo Hamlet Party Cell, when asked, also confirmed what Mr. Duong said.

In Trong Canh hamlet, the situation is much more complicated. According to Hamlet Chief Dinh Viet To, currently, the local people are petitioning the competent authority to completely hand over the forest land of the forest farm in Trong Canh to the people for production, so the encroachment on the forest land continues. The reason cited by Mr. To is that many households here do not have land for production because the State has reclaimed it to build Mong village lake. When asked about his personal opinion, Mr. To acknowledged that the people doing so is a violation of the law. However, he said that if the forest farm had organized contracts for the people from the beginning, things would not be as complicated as they are now. Because he saw that some people in other hamlets were contracted by the forest farm, while they were not, so he was upset...

Working with Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise, it was learned that on March 8, 2012, the forest enterprise was approved by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to design a forest plantation for raw materials in Sub-area 262 with an area of ​​over 144.2 hectares. In 2012, the forest enterprise only planted 14.3 hectares. In 2013, when starting to plant the remaining area, some households came out to prevent and encroach on the land. On January 28, 2013, the forest enterprise reported this situation to Yen Hop commune, the Department of Agriculture and the Quy Hop Forest Protection Department.

When the matter heated up, the district's working delegation led by Mr. Vi Thanh Tuong - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, came to work in Yen Hop, the forestry farm agreed to transfer the entire area permitted by the competent authority to convert to raw material forest plantation to joint venture contracts with households in need. On May 31, the forestry farm announced that policy to the Party Committee, government and people of Yen Hop commune in the form that households were allowed to contribute capital by labor to clear the ground, dig holes, spread fertilizer, plant, care and protect according to the rate approved by the competent authority but not exceeding 49%; the forestry farm contributed capital in materials, fertilizers, seedlings and pesticides, the minimum capital contribution was 51%; both parties benefited according to the capital contribution ratio.

Exchanging all the information gathered in Yen Hop commune with the leaders of Quy Hop district, Mr. Cao Thanh Long - Secretary of the District Party Committee said that recently, the district has been thoroughly directing the resolution of this issue. On June 10, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee worked with relevant departments, Yen Hop commune and Dong Hop Forestry Farm.

For Yen Hop commune, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee has assigned the responsibility to strengthen the propaganda work among the people to implement the State's policies, laws on land, forest protection and development; promptly mobilize forces to prevent and strictly punish violations; coordinate well with the forestry farm to carry out forest planting in accordance with the approved planning and design; conduct reviews to clarify the responsibilities of each organization and individual and strictly handle violating cadres and party members. It is required that by the end of June, the case related to land encroachment must be resolved to ensure security and order in the area.

With Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise, it is necessary to coordinate with the commune government, relevant departments and offices to reach an agreement with households to sign a joint venture contract with a term of 8 years (households contribute 49% capital, the forestry enterprise 51%); contract with functional forces to protect and manage the forest, not to let people encroach, plant forests, or illegally exploit forests...

Through the developments that have occurred and are occurring in Yen Hop commune, it can be seen that people encroaching on forest land of the forestry farm is a violation of the law and this situation needs to be stopped soon. However, there are many lessons that the relevant parties need to learn from this incident. With Dong Hop Forestry Farm, an organization assigned by the State to manage and effectively use forest land, but to effectively manage and use forest land, there needs to be more smooth coordination with the local government and people.

The Yen Hop Commune Government must see the forestry farm's agreement to a joint venture contract with the people as a goodwill gesture to actively propagate and mobilize the people to cooperate well; when discovering that people are deliberately encroaching on the forest illegally, the Commune Government must proactively report to superiors and at the same time intervene to prevent and strictly handle the subjects according to the law.

Quy Hop district, although closely following the developments and having specific instructions, when realizing that the local authorities are not capable of handling the incident, needs to quickly intervene, not to prolong the situation of disorder and insecurity in the area. At the same time, it is necessary to coordinate with relevant levels and branches to survey and grasp the situation and people's land use needs, in order to find solutions to gradually meet the people's needs, associated with promoting the effectiveness of the forest land area assigned to the forestry farm but not yet exploited and used effectively.

Article and photos: Nhat Lan