Asking for opinions from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to direct the handling of 'loopholes in protective forests' in Northern Nghe An

Nearly 170 hectares of protective forest were planted with agricultural crops.

In recent days, officials from the Northern Nghe An Forest Protection Management Board have visited many households to propagate and mobilize people to sign a commitment to manage and use protective forests in accordance with regulations. This move took place after Nghe An Newspaper published a series of articles."Gaps in protection forest management"posted on July 6. The content of the series reflects that for many years now, people in Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu district have openly cut down and exploited protective forests, planted agricultural crops, built large-scale farms, and built solid houses right in the middle of the forest..., in the face of the powerlessness of authorities.

In a written response to Nghe An Newspaper, the Northern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board said that the total area of ​​forest and forestry land assigned to the Provincial People's Committee for management according to the decisions approving the project to establish the Board is 6,946.11 hectares (production forest: 1,583.3 hectares, protective forest: 5,362.8 hectares). After converting the forest type, continuing to reclaim and return to local management..., the current area of ​​forest and forestry land under management is 6,441.02 hectares (production forest: 1,582.92 hectares, protective forest: 4,858.1 hectares) in 24 communes, wards and towns of Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu district.

People illegally exploit wood on protected forest land. Photo: Tien Hung

After its establishment, the Board has reviewed the current status of forests and forestry land and identified a number of difficulties and obstacles affecting the management, protection and use of forests, such as: The area of ​​protection forests assigned for management has not been marked, measured and filed for the issuance of land use right certificates, and assets on the land have not been recovered and processed for handover to the Northern Nghe An Protection Forest Management Board. Forest and forestry land management is based on boundaries according to data and maps to review and adjust the planning of 3 types of forests approved under Decision 48/2014/UBND dated August 14, 2014. The origin of land use was previously allocated by state agencies to households (granting land use right certificates, allocating land according to Decree 01/CP, 02/CP, allocating land for forestry production, forest garden business according to Decision 184/HD-BT, forest land allocation contracts...), or being assigned to protect natural forests, being contracted to implement forestry projects and afforestation programs, or contracting with the Commune People's Committee, or people reclaiming and using land themselves before the establishment of the Forest Protection Management Board. Some areas are residential land (residential land and adjacent land) planned for protection forests. In particular, the situation of planting agricultural crops, building houses, livestock barns and arbitrarily exploiting protected forests... has been going on for many years.

According to Mr. Tran Van Son - Head of the Northern Nghe An Forest Protection Management Board, from these difficulties, the unit has worked with state management agencies in the area and directed the assignment and reinforcement of staff in areas with hot spots to patrol, inspect and protect forests and forest land under management, implement measures to prevent, inspect and stop acts of deforestation, forest encroachment, exploitation of forest products and other violations of laws on forest management and protection, mobilize local people to manage and use forests according to regulations on protection forest management...

Mr. Son said that from the end of 2018 to the end of 2021, there were only a few violations related to forest protection and management and land management. However, in early 2022, there was a situation where households arbitrarily exploited protective forests, which are forests planted with their own capital on forestry land under the protection forest planning. This situation was concentrated in Quynh Tan, Quynh Thang and Tan Thang communes in the Vuc Mau reservoir basin. The unit inspected and prevented, made initial inspection records, protected the scene, preserved evidence of violations, and reported to competent authorities for handling according to the provisions of law. However, the handling of the above exploitation cases encountered many difficulties due to unclear regulations on administrative sanctions.

“After the above households started exploiting, we mobilized people to sign afforestation contracts to manage and use the forest according to the regulations on protection forest management. Some households voluntarily signed afforestation contracts and committed to comply with the regulations,” said Mr. Son.

Hundreds of hectares of protective forest land have been arbitrarily converted by people to grow agricultural crops. Photo: Tien Hung

Regarding the protective forest area in the communes of Quynh Tan, Quynh Thang, Quynh Trang, Tan Thang where people had previously planted agricultural crops, according to the results of the 2019 review, 260.61 hectares of protective forest land had been converted by people to grow agricultural crops. The Northern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board has reviewed and mobilized households to contract forest planting for the area currently growing agricultural crops. The results so far have been forest planting using budget capital, capital for replacement forest planting with 69.12 hectares of So trees (many areas have pineapple and incense trees intercropped with So trees for the purpose of short-term use to support long-term income for people and support So trees to grow well) and 22.54 hectares of people have replanted forests after planting agriculture. Thus, up to now, the area of ​​converted agricultural land has been reduced by 91.74 hectares. The Northern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board is gradually signing contracts to plant forests in the remaining 168.87 hectares to manage them according to the protective forest management regulations.

Protective forests are cut down to build houses and grow agricultural crops. Photo: Tien Hung

Ask for direction from the Central Government

According to the leader of the Northern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board, before the establishment of the unit, there were 35 large and small farms and livestock barns illegally built on protective forest land. Most of them were temporary with small areas from 6m to 15m and had a house and livestock barn with a solid scale like Mr. Vu Van Toan's farm (1 coal kiln, 1 factory, 1 brick kiln). The Northern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board coordinated with district-level departments and branches and the People's Committees of communes to work with households to persuade them not to bring people in to live, not to expand, build new ones, or expand the scale, and to proactively dismantle their houses and barns. It is recommended that the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district and the Electricity Branch stop supplying grid electricity for production and daily life to some farms and farms. Up to now, there have been no new constructions or expansions, and there are even about 18 temporary barns with small areas ranging from 6m to 15m that are now abandoned and unused. For barns and barns built after the establishment, the Northern Nghe An Forest Protection Management Board will coordinate with district-level departments and agencies and the Commune People's Committee to handle them according to legal regulations.

The Quynh Luu District People's Committee has fined Mr. Vu Van Toan's house and farm for administrative violations and assigned the owner to dismantle the construction. To date, Mr. Toan has partially dismantled the illegal construction. The Bac Nghe An Management Board continues to coordinate with the district-level departments and agencies and the commune People's Committee to assign responsibility to Mr. Toan to continue dismantling the illegal construction.

Regarding the house of Dau Ngoc Can, located in Quynh Tan commune, Quynh Luu district, which was illegally built on protective forest land, when discovered, the Bac Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board coordinated with the People's Committee of Quynh Tan commune to make a record of the scene, organized a meeting with Mr. Dau Ngoc Can and suspended the construction. Mr. Can said that the land under construction belonged to the Tam Le resettlement project since 2006. The Bac Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board worked with the People's Committee of the district and Quynh Tan commune to verify and clarify and propose handling.

Mr. Can's house on protected forest land. Photo: Tien Hung

According to Mr. Tran Van Son, from the beginning of 2022 until now, there have been 4 violations of construction works and digging and leveling on land without forests under the protection forest planning. The cases were detected promptly and have been handled by the authorities. In addition, there are also about 33.08 hectares of residential land planned for protection forests... The Bac Nghe An Protection Forest Management Board has also coordinated with the District People's Committee and the Commune People's Committee to review, separate and propose to the competent authority to remove them from the protection forest planning.

Meanwhile, speaking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Ms. Vo Thi Nhung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the solutions being implemented are only temporary. "These shortcomings cannot be resolved overnight. We have just submitted a report to ask for direction from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development but have not received any response. In the coming time, we will continue to work with relevant units to soon have a plan," Ms. Nhung said.