Nghe An: Forests are devastated because people destroy them to plant acacia and burn charcoal.

(Baonghean.vn) - Recently, we have received information that many forest areas in Chau Hoi and Chau Nga communes (Quy Chau) have been severely damaged. Many forests on the left bank of the Hieu River passing through these areas have been illegally cut down to plant acacia trees, collect wood for charcoal, etc., causing significant impacts on the coverage and negatively impacting the upstream forest ecosystem. Meanwhile, most of these forests have been allocated land and forests by the State to the people according to Decree 163 of the Government.

An area with many coal furnaces in Quynh village, Chau Binh commune (Quy Chau).

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On the night of March 14, after secretly infiltrating and monitoring, Nghe An Newspaper reporters discovered a truck with license plate 37C - 03624 transporting wood out of the forest. In the middle of the night, the group of reporters directly "stormed" the headquarters of PCCR Mobile Forest Ranger Team No. 3 (Nghe An Forest Ranger Sub-Department) to report. Mobile Forest Ranger Team No. 3 identified the truck with license plate 37C - 03624 driven by Nguyen Ngoc Hoan, a resident of Chau Binh Commune (Quy Chau). The amount of wood that driver Nguyen Ngoc Hoan transported on the night of March 14, 2016 was illegally logged in Chau Nga Commune. This type of wood belongs to group 7, group 8, the confiscated volume was 2.9m³.

The truck has the license plate37C – 03624 chin illegal timberThe driver was Nguyen Ngoc Hoan, residing in Chau Binh commune.controlbThe forest rangers escorted him to headquarters on the night of March 14-15, 2016.

Expanding their research, the Nghe An Newspaper team traveled dozens of kilometers to Ke Tan 2 village, Chau Hoi commune (Quy Chau - Nghe An). This is an area where most of the forest area is assigned by the State to households for protection, management and protection according to Decree 163 of the Government. In addition, there are more than 2,000 hectares of forest managed by the Quy Chau District Forestry Company.

In the Khe Quyen stream area, Ke Tan 2 village, about 2 hectares of forest have been cut down. Mr. Le Van Ban, one of the households whose forest has just been cut down in Ke Tan 2 village, said that many other households in the village are also clearing the forest to plant acacia trees. The State has issued red books to households in the village for a part of the cleared forest.

Most of the people whose forests were cut down, when asked, explained that they only cut down young forests to plant acacia trees and use some of the wood for charcoal. However, according to our observations, many large trees in the forest area right next to Khe Quyen were mercilessly cut down. Some tree trunks required two people to hug around. Some people in Ke Tan 2 village said that there was still a situation where people transported wood to build houses and sold it to brokers.

Forest area 163 of Mr. Le Van Ban's household, Ke Tan 2 village (Chau Hoi) has been cleared and cut down, losing 1.3 hectares.

Speaking to Nghe An Newspaper, Mr. Lu Van Phuong, head of Ke Tan 2 village, said: The village does not have the authority to handle the case, so it only reports violations of forest protection laws to the commune government. In 2015 and early 2016, dozens of cases were reported to the commune government.

Mr. Lang Anh Ty - Chairman of Chau Hoi Commune People's Committee said: In Ban Tan 2 (ie Ke Tan 2 - PV), not only Mr. Le Van Ban's household but also more than 10 households cleared the forest. In particular, the two households of Dang Kim Phuong and Le Van Ban cleared the most.

At the time the commune government measured and processed, the area that Mr. Phuong's family had cleared was 1.66 hectares and that of Mr. Le Van Ban's family was 1.3 hectares. According to Mr. Lang Anh Ty, it is not that the people disregard the law on forest protection, but "when they see one household doing it (clearing the forest), other households will follow suit."

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Not only the forest areas in Chau Hoi commune but also Chau Nga, one of the communes with large forest areas in Quy Chau district, are being cut down in an unscrupulous manner. Many people in some villages in the commune still brazenly bring chainsaws into the forest to cut down trees and sell them to brokers. This happens quite continuously and is very noticeable.

Following the source, Nghe An Newspaper reporters went directly to Chau Nga commune. Standing near the center of the commune, we could clearly see the wooden slope with bright red soil and many logs lying around. Going directly into the forest, when climbing the slope called Lao slope, we encountered about 30 round logs 4m - 5m long lying mixed with square sawn wooden slabs about 1.2m long, about 15cm wide, 6cm thick.

Round timber and sawn timber exploited by the subjects on top of Lao slope have not been taken out of the forest yet.

A wooden buffalo yoke was left by locals on Lao slope after being discovered by the inspection team.

Leaving Lao slope, arriving at Tan Tien village, we met a woman named Vi Thi Thuy, who thought we were looking to buy wood. She pointed to a pile of wood in front of her house and said: selling for 1.4 million VND/truck (2.5 tons). Ms. Thuy also asked us to leave our phone number so we could make an appointment to pick it up.

Right next to Tan Tien village is Thanh Son village. Through discussion, Mr. Lo Van Cuong, Head of Thanh Son village shared that currently about 50% of households go to cut wood to burn charcoal or make firewood.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hoa - Chairman of Chau Nga Commune People's Committee said that the total forestry land area of ​​the commune is 9,685.89 hectares, of which the production forest of Quy Chau Forestry Enterprise is 5,560.95 hectares. The production forest of the people is 2,490.22 hectares, the remaining is the protective forest of Quy Chau Forestry Enterprise, which is 1,554.8 hectares.

Regarding land and forest allocation according to Decree 163 of the Government: In 2003, land use certificates were granted to 198 households, equivalent to 1,282.57 hectares, and land was temporarily assigned to 98 households with 449.45 hectares. In 2014 - 2015, 136 households were granted land use certificates with 29.3 hectares.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hoa, the lack of land for production and jobs is the reason why many people in the commune still go into the forest to illegally cut wood and clear the forest to plant acacia. Recently, the commune government has also administratively handled 9 households who illegally converted forest land.

The large tree stump that was cut down was determined by the forest rangers to be located at coordinates 550700 - 2167210 in forest area 163-CP managed by Mr. Vi Van Thu's household, Chau Nga commune.

Continuing to expand our research, we went with the working group of Chau Nga Commune People's Committee and Quy Chau Forestry to conduct a field inspection. Through the coordinate measuring device of the forest rangers, we were able to determine that: in sub-areas 174 and 176 (Chau Nga, Quy Chau), the team discovered 3 logging sites with saw marks, sawn boards as well as large tree stumps with fresh saw marks.

It is determined that this is a forest area assigned by the State to the people to manage and protect according to Decree 163 CP. In addition, the delegation also discovered 2 other illegal logging sites in the border area between Forest 163 and Quy Chau Forest Enterprise. It is known that taking advantage of the border area and the lack of attention from the authorities, the subjects illegally exploited forest products and smuggled them out of the forest.

PV Group