VietNamNet Bridge – A protective forest in Xuan Chinh Commune in Thanh Hoa province was cut down illegally over the last month, but local authorities deny they know nothing about the action.

People in Xuan Chinh Commune have been busy every day, going into the forest and chopping down trees to sell to merchants, who often come to collect timber and carry it away.

When asked how many locals have taken this job, a man said the number of loggers is big enough to “form an army”.

The man said he was hired by a merchant, who promised to pay VND70,000-120,000 for every log, depending on the size of the tree trunks.

“We live in poverty. The rice fields cannot feed us. Therefore, we would rather go to the forest to fell trees, though we know that it is illegal to chop down trees in protective forests,” the man said.

However, logging there is legal because it was licensed by local authorities.

The man said loggers have to ask for the local authorities’ permission to “cut some trees for family’s use”.

“Once we obtain the license, we can go to the forest and do what we want,” he said.

Cam Ba Nhang, chair of the Xuan Chinh Commune People’s Committee, confirmed that the logging had been allowed by the local authorities.

He told VietNamNet’s reporters that he granted four licenses for timber exploitation in the last month.

Nhang said that illegal loggers “made corrupt use” of the licenses that he had granted to chop down trees. They did not chop down the right trees and in the right places. As the local authorities could not control the logging, this led to deforestation.

Regarding the licensing procedures, Nhang said that those who have demand for timber for family use have to give petitions to commune authorities. He said he would sign them. After that, the petitions would be forwarded to the district’s authorities.

He said he does not know about the procedures that district’s authorities use to deal with the petitions. He only knows that loggers will begin cutting trees after they get licenses from commune authorities.

According to Le Thi Huong, deputy chair of the Thuong Xuan District People’s Committee, in principle, commune authorities can only allow people to exploit planted forests.

“Anyone who wants to chop down trees in forests, except planted forests, must obtain my signature first,” she said.

“I can say for sure that I have not signed any decision to allow people in Xuan Chinh Commune to fell trees since February,” she said.

Nguyen Thanh Luyen, head of the Bu Don forest rangers’ unit, said no illegal logging cases had been discovered recently.

Meanwhile, Cut Ac commune’s people said they had reported the illegal logging cases many times to the forest rangers’ unit. But the units did not come to investigate.

Le Anh