VietNamNet Bridge - The State has allocated forestland to private enterprises for management in an aim to improve protection of the forests. However, more forested areas have been devastated and more murder cases discovered.

Under a project on rubber development, 100,000 hectares of rubber forests would be developed from 2009 to 2020. 

By 2015, about 164,000 hectares of land had been shifted for rubber development, 1.5 times higher than the initially planned area. Vast green forests were then listed as ‘poor forests’, used for rubber growing. They have become deserted.

A report of the Dak Nong provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shows that the provincial authorities have allocated 31,000 hectares of forestland to investors to develop 41 afforestation and rubber plantation projects. 

Under the projects, 14,000 hectares of forests would be protected and 10,000 hectares of forests would be planted.

However, about 5,000 hectares of forests have been devastated since then. The local authorities find that afforestation projects are ineffective, while many projects have never been implemented.

Long Son Co Ltd, where three people died and 16 were injured in a land dispute, was allocated 1,079 hectares of forestland in Quang Truc commune for growing rubber and for forest protection. 

The total forestland the company has to protect is 500 hectares, but only six hectares have been left. Due to loose management, 979 out of 1,079 hectares have been appropriated by locals.

The State has allocated forestland to private enterprises for management in an aim to improve protection of the forests. However, more forested areas have been devastated and more murder cases discovered.

Also in Dak Nong province, MDF Long Viet was assigned to protect 993 hectares of natural forests. To date, 893.5 hectares of forests have been devastated and appropriated, causing a loss of VND145 billion. 

After losing 86 percent of the allocated forests, the company sent a dispatch to the provincial authorities, stating that it wants to give the forests back to the state.

In 2008, Thinh An Khuong Company leased 2,600 hectares of land. In 2014, when the provincial agriculture department’s inspectors came to the site, they couldn’t contact the investor. The company never implemented the project and all of the allocated land has been appropriated by locals.

A report of the local authorities showed that only VND6 billion has been collected from forest leasing projects, while the loss has reached VND272 billion from 17 projects covering an area of 2,600 hectares.

Bao Lam district in Lam Dong province is one of hotspots with deforestation occurring with dozens of projects. 

Most of the forests and forestland managed by An Nguyen Company have been encroached upon by locals’ coffee fields.

The forests in the Central Highlands have also been cleared to make room for hydropower plants. According to MARD, investors must plant 21,879 hectares of forests to compensate for the forests that are cleared. However, by mid-2016, only 4,860 hectares have been planted.


Nam Lich