VietNamNet Bridge – The Can Gio preventive forest plays a very important role in the protection of the environment in HCM City, described as the “lung” cleaning the air and industrial waste converged from Dong Nai River upstream.

The green 37,000 hectare preventive forest has been put under the very stringent security precautions and strictly protected by a lot of local residential families.

5 o’clock in the morning is the time when forest keepers begin rowing boats to the hundreds of hectares of forest they are assigned to protect.

Kim Chuong, one of the forest keepers in Tam Hiep commune, related that after the liberalization day in 1975, the Can Gio forest was devastated by the war. The ruined land then became a part of HCM City and began recovering. In an effort to protect the preventive forest, in 1990, the city authorities decided to entrust people with the protection of the forest. And Kim Chuong was one of the first 10 households registering to protect the forest.

Chuong said she registered to take care for 112 hectares, but her husband did not agree with her. He said even armed forest rangers were attacked by illegal lumberjacks, let a lone normal people. However, they had no other choice than taking the job to earn money to feed the seven children.

Kim Hoang and her family also decided to go to the forest also because of the same reason. On the first days after taking the job, Hoang could not sleep because of the fear for illegal lumberjacks.

The people in the forest do not live near each other, because each family takes care for hundreds of hectares, while there was no facility to contact with each other. Here people go to bed when it gets dark, though they do not know the time exactly. Therefore, people believe that only single women can live in the forest.

Kim Chuong affirmed the information, saying that 10 percent of the total women protecting the forest are single women.

According to Le Van Sinh, Head of the Can Gio preventive forest management board, there are 37,160 hectares of forest which have been allocated to 132 units and individuals for protection. The city spends 23 billion dong a year on the forest protection.

Also according to Sinh, the people who protect the forest now would get pension when they get retired.

However, in fact, not only single women go to the forest as people think. Bui Thi De, a young girl became the daughter-in-law of a forest keeping household and the couple is now living in the remote isolated area.

An working day of De begins early in the morning. She rows boat, squeezing amid hundreds of hectares of the forest, trying to discover abnormal things to report to the board of management.

De said she remembers every tree and every canal, because she has been living here for 12 years. In 2011, she discovered tens of trees attacked by worms and reported to the board of management, which then helped prevent big damages.

When asked about the income, Kim Chuong said that with 112 hectares of the forest, she can save 50 million dong a year. Besides, she can earn money from shrimp hatchery on an area of the forest. With the income, she can grow up the children and support their studies.

Chuong said she now is not afraid of illegal lumberjacks, because she has got much experience.

Source: SGTT