Need a common voice

(Baonghean) -Quy Hop is a district with a large forest area, most of the forests here have been covered with green trees for high economic efficiency. However, in recent times, the situation of disputes and encroachment on forest land between households and forestry enterprises has still created "hot spots" when people, authorities and forestry enterprises have not yet found a common voice.

From the "hot spot" in Yen Hop

These days, in Yen Hop (Quy Hop), wherever we go, we hear chatter about the forest land dispute between households and Dong Hop Forestry. Next to the endless green acacia forests, people pointed out to us the Bu Chi hill that had been shaved during the dispute. After investigating, we learned that in 2012, after the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the design documents for afforestation with a total area of ​​144.2 hectares, in Sub-area 262, under the management of Dong Hop Forestry, during the forestry's implementation of the construction, some households in Cong and Trong Canh hamlets (Yen Hop) came out to prevent and fight each other to occupy the forestry's land.

The incident was reported by the forestry farm and the authorities at all levels also got involved, but the resolution process was still not complete. On April 22, 2013, the forestry farm's forest protection force discovered that the people of Ban Bo hamlet were blatantly organizing illegal forest clearing and land occupation (at lots a, b, c, d, block 4, Sub-area 262). The forestry farm made a record of suspension, and continued to send reports to the authorities at all levels to take measures to prevent and handle the incident. However, the incident became increasingly complicated when people in neighboring hamlets such as Trong Canh, Cong hamlet, Na Phe hamlet, Moi hamlet, Dong Mong hamlet, and Ban Bo continued to rush out to clear the ground cover and dig holes to plant trees on the forestry farm's land.

Bu Chi Hill was encroached upon and shaved bare by people.

Since the dispute, until August 6, 2013, the forestry farm and the departments, branches and organizations of Yen Hop commune have organized more than 20 meetings with the people in hamlets and villages to propagate, explain and mobilize people to immediately stop occupying the forestry farm's land. However, some households in Cong, Trong Canh, Dong Mong and Bo hamlets still do not comply, but continue to brazenly occupy the forestry farm's land, challenging the law, with an area of ​​up to about 91.7 hectares. On August 6, 2013, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district chaired a meeting between the departments, branches and organizations at the district level and Yen Hop commune, assigning the People's Committee of the commune to coordinate with the forestry farm to issue a final notice to each household about the deadline for signing a contract with the forestry farm to plant forests under the 49/51 mechanism, which is August 25, 2013... However, up to now, this case has not been completely resolved!

Regarding the cause of the dispute, Mr. Tran Van Ngoc - Secretary of the Party Committee of Yen Hop commune, said: Initially, when they learned that the forestry farm had a plan to plant forests in this area, the people came to ask for a contract with the forestry farm but the forestry farm did not agree, while there was information that the forestry farm had signed for a number of individuals, including commune officials... so the people used this as an excuse to dispute land with the forestry farm.

Explaining this issue, Mr. Nguyen Cong Giap - Vice Chairman of the commune said: When seeing some households being contracted to distribute sections to the forestry farm (to work for wages), some other households misunderstood that these households were being bid for the contract, so they started a dispute.

Mr. Giap also said: It is not correct to say that these households lacked productive land to dispute, because if they lacked land, they would have demanded it long ago, not just now. It is also not correct to say that they lacked knowledge, because many people also showed that they understood the policies on land very well. According to Mr. Giap, the underlying cause was the influence of the State's land acquisition in Tram Canh and Cong hamlets for the Ban Mong irrigation and hydropower project.

During the recovery process, the land allocated to individuals was fully compensated, while there were 8 households with land for long-term cultivation, but upon inspection, this area belonged to Dong Hop Forestry Farm, so these households did not receive compensation for the land, but only for the crops on the land. Although, later, the District and Provincial People's Committees allowed these households to receive 40% support for the land price and support for the remaining investment costs and land (equivalent to 30% of the land price), these households still did not agree. Since then, some households have mobilized and incited other households to occupy the forest farm's land!

Explaining the forest land encroachment by the forestry farm, Mr. Dinh Viet To - the village chief of Trong Canh village said: Previously, the forestry farm said that it was a protective forest, and the people did not want to destroy the forest, because as long as there was forest, there would be a place to graze cattle and buffalo. However, when they saw that the forestry farm had cleared a lot (cleared trees to plant production forests - editor's note), the people were upset and cleared them too. After clearing, the people planted trees to preserve the land. From the beginning, the people wanted to ask for a joint venture for production, but the forestry farm refused. Now that they have come back and agreed, we, the people, do not want to be involved with the forestry farm anymore, but want to ask for land allocation, work, and then pay taxes to the State. This was not approved by all levels, but we did it out of frustration!

Also using the excuse of being upset, about 30 people in Dong Mong and Trong Canh hamlets even went to the Provincial People's Committee to report on the Dong Hop Forestry Farm occupying land of households in Yen Hop commune! And on August 19, 2013, the Provincial People's Committee issued a notice assigning the Quy Hop District People's Committee to inspect, resolve, report the results of this incident to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and respond to citizens before September 15, 2013.

The documents of the communes talk about the overlapping of forest land between the forestry farm and the people's production land.

To the overlapping lands

In Quy Hop district, there are currently 2 forestry farms managing and using an area of ​​10,960 hectares of forestry land in 10 communes. Of which, Quy Hop Forest Farm is currently managing 7,500 hectares, of which 3,500 hectares are planned for production forest planting; Dong Hop Forest Farm is currently managing 3,460 hectares, of which 2,700 hectares are planned for production forest planting, but currently these two forest farms have not fully utilized the area (Quy Hop Forest Farm has planted 1,300/3,500 hectares, Dong Hop Forest Farm has planted 1,160/2,700 hectares). Meanwhile, in many places, people living right on the land of the forest farms lack land for production. There are areas where people have lived and produced for many years on a large area, but on paper this land has been assigned to the forest farm for management.

Mr. Lo Trung Son - Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quy Hop district said: At the time the Government allocated land to the Forestry Enterprise (in Quy Hop district, there are Dong Hop Forestry Enterprise and Quy Hop Forestry Enterprise), there was an overlap in production land and residential land of the people. The reason is that, previously, land was allocated according to Directive 02 (around 1997-1998) to households, records were made from the grassroots up (records for issuing green books only stopped at the commune level, the district had not confirmed). Later, when red books were allocated according to Decree 163 (around 2003) to the Forestry Enterprise, the boundaries were not clearly defined during the process of making records (due to lack of coordination between the Forestry Enterprise and the commune), which led to overlapping of land that people were cultivating. Some people also reported that, previously, when reviewing and separating land to issue red books to the Forestry Enterprise, some areas of land that people were cultivating were not processed. Later the forestry department said that this land area was within the forestry department's area!

To create conditions for people to have land for production, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a document to reclaim some land areas that the Quy Hop and Dong Hop forestry farms are managing to hand over to the people, but in reality, these reclaimed lands for production include residential land and production land that people have cultivated for many years!

Regarding this situation, in Official Dispatch No. 09, dated March 18, 2013 of the People's Committee of Dong Hop Commune, regarding the request to continue reviewing and reclaiming land from the forestry farm to return it to the people for production, it is stated: "Dong Hop Commune has been reviewed and returned land 3 times. However, in reality, in all 3 rounds of review, most of the returned land plots are mainly residential land, garden land, and agricultural land, located in the Bai Ke hamlet area previously managed by the forestry farm. The remaining land is mainly rice field land that people reclaimed along the streams, located in the land of Dong Hop Forest Farm.

The area of ​​forest land returned is insignificant, mainly the area along streams. Meanwhile, the ethnic people of Dong Hop commune, who are indigenous people for generations, because they have been building the economy since 1963, do not have forest land to plant forests, and there is a serious shortage of production land, especially for ethnic minorities. Currently, in Dong Hop commune, there are 8 hamlets where most of the people do not have forest land, living adjacent to the land of the forestry farm…”.

In Chau Ly commune, in 2012, Quy Hop Forestry returned 564.3 hectares to the commune, but up to now the commune has not been able to hand them over to the households. Explaining this issue, Mr. Vi Van Quanh - Vice Chairman of Chau Ly Commune People's Committee said: The area returned to the commune by the forest farm has some areas where the forest farm still grows trees, some areas where people have cultivated for many years, including rice fields. Because the allocated land areas are interspersed like that, we cannot divide and hand them over to the people immediately, but must temporarily hand them over to 4 hamlets for management. Currently, the commune is making a document requesting the forest farm to continue returning 207 hectares to make them adjacent to the areas the forest farm has returned, to make it easier to divide among the people.

Mr. Quanh also said: There are some areas that the commune and forest rangers previously gave to the people (the commune People's Committee Chairman has signed to confirm, but the district People's Committee Chairman has not signed), but later the forestry farm took them back to plant forests (because this area is in the red book of the forestry farm). If this area is not returned to the people, the dispute will continue.

When we asked about the current overlapping land area between the forestry farm and local households, Mr. Lo Trung Son - Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quy Hop district said: Currently in Quy Hop area, the overlapping land areas between the forestry farm and long-term farmers such as in Dong Hop and Chau Ly communes are very large and there are no specific statistics yet.

At the 6th session of the 17th term of the People's Council of Quy Hop district, voters and delegates of the People's Council of the district also proposed: "The competent authorities continue to request the province to reclaim the land of the forestry farm (in addition to the area that has been handed over in writing) to hand over to the people because the area assigned is too small compared to the area proposed for recovery. The people of Khua hamlet, Pan village, Ngon village, and Con village do not agree with the area of ​​forest land that the forestry farm has handed over, because this area includes residential land and production land that the people have owned for hundreds of years, and request that the area of ​​forest that has been planted and exploited, as well as the area of ​​land that has not been planted, be handed over to the people in the above hamlets, so that the people have land for production...".

Thus, in addition to the "hot spot" in Yen Hop where people arbitrarily encroached on forest land belonging to the forestry farm, the overlapping situation between land managed by the forestry farm and land used by long-time farmers in Quy Hop is still widespread and is potentially creating new conflicts if not properly resolved.

Lack of determination in handling violations

The cause of the "hot spot" in Yen Hop has been frankly pointed out in meetings, directives and reports on this incident, which is: The area managed by the forestry farm is quite large. Meanwhile, many households living in the area have land owned by the forestry farm but do not have land for forestry production, so land encroachment has occurred. Because the land management capacity of the forestry farm has not met the requirements, with a large area (over 10 thousand hectares), wide scope, distributed in many communes, divided hills, unclear boundaries, and few staff of the forestry farm, the forestry farm cannot strictly manage the assigned area. Before the encroachment occurred, the forestry farm was not transparent in implementing the forest planting contract, letting outsiders do it, while local people had a need. The capacity of the Party Committee and local government of Yen Hop commune is still limited, some comrades still show signs of losing prestige, and are not very responsible in handling work...

Talking to reporters, the leader of Dong Hop Forestry said: When the incident first occurred, we reported it, but the local authorities were not decisive in handling it, and even covered it up. When we chased away the cases of encroachment on forest land, we even discovered relatives of Yen Hop commune officials! We also propagated, but some households still deliberately occupied the land with the hope that when the State reclaimed the land, they would be compensated!

In this case, the Yen Hop Commune Party Committee also admitted: The Party Committee has not assigned specific tasks to organizations, unions, and hamlet Party cells, so the process of implementing the tasks is still general. The direction and management of the Commune People's Committee, although having solved some problems, is not resolute, still hesitant, respectful, and administrative handling is just a formality...

To keep Quy Hop forest green

In the immediate future, to solve the problem of employment for people in areas lacking production land, Dong Hop Forestry has introduced a model of joint venture capital contribution for production on land managed by the forest farm at a ratio of 49/51. Accordingly, the forest farm contributes a minimum of 51% of the investment capital, including the following items: seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides, measurement, design, budget preparation, submission to competent authorities for approval of the stages of planting, caring for, and protecting forests according to the norms, opening roads to transport fertilizers and seedlings, protection, etc. Households contribute a maximum of 49% of the investment capital, including the following items: labor, planting, caring for trees, and protecting forests. At the end of the year, the forest is inspected and accepted, and the two parties calculate the investment costs of the parties according to the approved norms. If the investment amount of the household exceeds 49%, the forest farm will pay. During the process, if any household requests the forestry farm to pay cash when facing difficulties, the forestry farm is willing to pay in full (but the benefit rate of the households will decrease according to the capital contribution)... When harvesting, the forestry farm receives 51%, the households receive 49%, if the plan is exceeded, the people receive 100% of the excess output.

Regarding this 49/51 form, Mr. Lo Trung Son - Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quy Hop district said: The policy is very suitable for the difficult conditions of capital and production land of the people. Besides, the allocation of land under this 49/51 contract will help forest management more convenient for both the forestry enterprise and the households. If when doing any project, the State will not have to pay land compensation.

With the 49/51 form, currently, some households in the "hot spots" in Yen Hop such as: Moi hamlet, Na Phe hamlet... have been aware and have applied to sign a joint venture forest planting contract to contribute capital with the forestry farm.

Mr. Vi Van Hanh - the head of the New Hamlet said: Currently, the whole hamlet has signed a 49/51 joint venture contract with the forestry farm with an area of ​​15 hectares. For now, that is good enough, but we hope that in the near future the forestry farm will increase the signed area so that at least each household will have 1 hectare.

In addition to the 49/51 forest planting joint venture (to date, Dong Hop Forestry has signed with 461 households with an area of ​​820 hectares), Mr. Ho Thanh Hung - Director of Dong Hop Forestry said that in the near future, he will continue to review and separate any overlapping areas to have a plan to return them to the district and commune for households to produce.

In order for the land and forest allocation work in Quy Hop to be completed soon, the land areas that the Provincial People's Committee has issued documents to recover from the forestry farm to hand over to the people for production, local authorities at all levels from district, commune, and hamlet must have a handover plan, a specific handover method with the motto "people know, people discuss, people are in charge", and set a certain deadline, avoiding prolonging from year to year. When allocating land, priority must be given to households whose land has been recovered for projects, households that do not have land, or have little land for production...

When handing over, the forestry farm and the commune must coordinate to confirm the boundaries specifically and notify each household. The forestry farm also needs to create conditions to hand over convenient places for people to cultivate, instead of keeping the "ripe land" for itself, and handing over to the people the barren, rocky land far from residential areas, as the people of Chau Thanh commune have reflected. When the forestry farm and the authorities at all levels have goodwill, the people also need to cooperate, instead of "getting an elephant and demanding more" like some households in Trong Canh hamlet, Bo hamlet, Cong hamlet, Dong Mong hamlet in Yen Hop commune. Only then will Quy Hop forest land become greener and greener, and the people's lives become more prosperous.

On August 28, 2013, the People's Committee of Quy Hop district held a meeting to invite a number of households involved in the forest land dispute in Yen Hop commune to work with the district leaders and relevant departments and agencies to find a solution, but Mr. Vi Thanh Tuong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district said: the invited households did not attend this meeting. Talking to reporters, Mr. Dinh Viet To - Head of Trong Canh hamlet and Mr. Nguyen Cong Giap - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Yen Hop commune said they were not invited to attend this meeting!

Article and photos: Duc Chuyen