VietNamNet Bridge - News about forest devastation cases occurring throughout the country have appeared in newspapers recently. Deforestation has also been a hot item on the agenda of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee.

“When I was flying back from Dien Bien, I looked down and saw the hills getting bare. There is no green color in the Central Highlands. And when I came to Lai Chau, I saw treeless hills as locals have chopped down all trees to make room for growing bananas,” said Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, chair of the National Assembly.

“They (local people) have to do this, because they cannot live on forestry,” she commented.

News about forest devastation cases occurring throughout the country have appeared in newspapers recently. Deforestation has also been a hot item on the agenda of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee.

Chair of the National Assembly’s National Defence and Security Vo Trong Viet, commenting about the draft law on amending the 2004 Law on Forest Protection and Development, said the drafted regulations cannot guarantee forest rangers’ work and their fight against illegal loggers.

With the current investment policies, Vietnamese overexploited the forest, but did not make appropriate re-investments. In Laos, people have to plant one tree for every tree cut. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, people chop down 100 trees and plant only one tree. 

“The forests have enriched illegal loggers,” he commented. “In the localities where I have been to, the forests all have been devastated. The forest coverage is very thin.”

Nguoi Lao Dong on March 14 reported that the deforestation in Bac Tra My district of Quang Nam province has been going on for a long time, but the local authorities have not dealt with it.

Reporters, led by locals, have visited old jungles and discovered a big sawmill in the middle of forest on Chop Non Mount. There were tens of stumps left. The width of the trees showed that the trees must have been large enough for three to four people to embrace.

Bac Tra My district authorities had not known about the deforestation in the district until reporters alerted them and showed the images of the felled trees.

Nguyen Nhuan, deputy chair of Bac Tra My, said that deforestation doesn’t occur in Chop Non area, while there is only illegal mineral exploitation. Only when reporters showed the pictures they took on the site did the official promise to investigate. 

Infonet on March 15 reported that thousands of square meters of coastal protective forest in Hai Duong commune of Thua Thien – Hue province, planted many years ago, have been ravaged.

Nhan Dan on March 1 reported about serious deforestation in the ‘hot spot’ of Ea Sup in Dak Lak province and the devastation of protective forest in Huong Hoa –Dak Rong in Quang Tri. The Voice of Vietnam also reported about deforestation in Quang Binh province in March.

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