Preventing forest land encroachment in Quy Hop

(Baonghean) Recently, many individuals and households in Chau Ly - Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district have rushed to compete to occupy forest land managed by Quy Hop Forestry Enterprise and Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise, turning public property into private property, creating chaos.

We entered the forest into sub-area 164 of Yen Hop commune (Quy Hop) to investigate the forest encroachment. This forest is mainly natural forest. The atmosphere is strangely quiet, not a single person can be seen in this area. A local resident said: People have entered the forest to fight for the division of forest land in this area...

Mr. Ho Thanh Hung - Director of Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise said: Recently, workers of Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise went to clear the ground cover for PCCCR in Sub-zones 262 and 164 and saw hundreds of people from Trong Canh hamlet and Cong hamlet, Yen Hop commune also entering to clear the ground cover to compete for encroachment. The forestry's security force promptly came out to prevent and made a record of suspension, but they did not comply and deliberately gathered in larger numbers to compete for forest land.

Mr. Hung added: According to the locality's request, in 2002, the forestry farm proactively transferred 1,473.6 hectares to Yen Hop commune, of which 331.1 hectares were forested land and 1,142.5 hectares were land with the potential for agricultural and forestry production. In Sub-zone 262 alone, the forestry farm returned 31.6 hectares of forested land and 219.4 hectares of land with the potential for agricultural and forestry production. In 2010, the provincial People's Committee and the People's Committee of Quy Hop district requested the forestry farm to continue transferring 100 hectares of raw material forests and forestry land in Sub-zone 262 to serve the site clearance for the Mong village irrigation project.

Pursuant to Official Dispatch No. 3888-CV/UBND-DC dated July 1, 2010 of the Provincial People's Committee, the forestry farm has transferred a total area of ​​1,488.87 hectares to the locality. The total area of ​​the forestry farm is only 3,595.25 hectares of forest. The transfer of forest land according to the policy of the Provincial People's Committee to create production conditions for local people has been seriously implemented by the forestry farm. However, many local people are still illegally fighting for forest land of the forestry farm.

Mr. Mac Van Hung - Chairman of Yen Hop Commune People's Committee admitted that the people of the two hamlets above occupied the forest land and said that the Commune People's Committee is currently holding meetings with the Party cells of the two hamlets to propagate and mobilize each household to return the land to Dong Hop Forestry Farm.

In addition, in some forest areas of Quy Hop Forestry Enterprise, recently, more than 20 people from Khua hamlet, Chau Ly commune, have occupied the land of the enterprise to grow cassava, leading to a situation where people are fighting to "divide" the land. The forest protection force, despite great efforts, could not prevent all the people from entering the forest to burn and occupy the land.

It is known that this is the stage when the Provincial People's Committee is reviewing to complete procedures to cut 564 hectares of land from the forestry farm and transfer it back to Chau Ly commune for use in afforestation and agricultural and forestry production. However, when the Provincial People's Committee has not yet decided to reclaim the land, many people in Chau Ly commune have taken advantage of the situation to jump into the dispute. It is known that most of the households in dispute over the land of the forestry farm have forest registration books (green books) issued since 1998 but have not been signed by the District People's Committee (meaning the forest registration books are not valid).

Mr. Cao Thanh Long - Chairman of Quy Hop District People's Committee explained: The District People's Committee has established an interdisciplinary team, assigned the Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee as the head of the team to direct the two communes to hold meetings with people, propagate and mobilize people not to encroach on forest land, and gradually clarify the authority to manage and use land in these disputed areas.

Van Truong