VietNamNet Bridge – The Central Highlands, the largest forest area in Vietnam with 2.84 million hectares of forests, has never seen such a serious deforestation before. Over 130,000 hectares have been cleared just in the last five years.

Major forest fires have been occurring every year since 2010 in Lao Cai and Lai Chau provinces, which have gradually reduced the vast forests to ashes.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has reported the encouraging achievements in protecting the forests in 2013. However, illegal logging remains a hot potato to the local authorities throughout the country.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Thousands of hectares of forests in Hoang Lien National Park in the northern province of Lao Cai are struggling to overcome forest fires, deforestation and illegal logging.

About nine hectares of the forest protecting against sand encroachment and climate change have been cleared to give place to a cemetery project covering an area of 10 hectares in Loc Ha district of Ha Tinh province.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Deforestation is not the story of some specific communes or provinces. Forests have been devastated all over the country for firewood, hydropower and agriculture development.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Taking away thousands of hectares of forests, hydropower plant developers have not paid the environment service fees and re-planted the forests.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The protective forests throughout the country are bleeding. There are many reasons that induce businesses and people devastate the forests.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The land grabbing has become more and more serious in mountainous areas. Local people, who suffer from hunger, try to clear forests and go get land for cultivation.

In March 2011, the Lam Dong provincial people’s committee instructed relevant branches to stop licensing more rubber projects to private enterprises. However, it had had suffered heavily for the projects already.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Experts believe that investors won’t make profits with their small hydropower plant projects, and they understand this well. However, they still ask for the permission to implement the projects, for other purposes.

The Da River regenerated watershed has been seriously devastated. A paradox exists - that if not having deforestation, people would have no land to grow industrial trees to escape poverty, but they will violate the laws if their chop down trees.

More and more precious teak wood forests in Bac Kan province have been devastated by illegal lumberjacks, with the support of modern engine petrol-run saws.

After the old trees in the Yok Don National Park were chopped down by illegal lumberjacks, the young trees in the forest have also disappeared recently.

Local residents who have been living together with the forests, considering the forests as their homes, still devastate the forests. It’s because they need land for agricultural production.

Tens of hectares of teak forests which are tens of years old in Dong Nai province have been killed. Meanwhile, the local authorities still turn a deaf ear to the problem.