VietNamNet Bridge - Thousands of hectares of forests have been cleared to make room for industrial crops, but many project investors have ‘forgotten’ to plant new forests to compensate for land that was cleared.

Thousands of hectares of forests have been cleared to make room for industrial crops

The government’s latest report showed that the afforestation program has been carried out in 23 out of 50 localities with forests having been planted on an area of 8,000 hectares, only 36 percent of the plan. 

Under the regulations, investors will have to plant forests to compensate for the forests they clear to get sites for public works. However, the regulations have been ignored.

The Gia Lai provincial authorities plan to convert 66,457 hectares of forestland in 13 districts and towns into rubber growing areas by 2020. 

Under the project, thousands of hectares of forests have been cleared over the last eight years. About VND4.6 trillion has been spent to turn 32,555 hectares of forest land in five districts into rubber fields.

However, the project has failed: rubber trees have died. They cannot grow on the forestland. In Duc Co district, rubber trees have been growing very slowly as they are planted on dipterocarp forest land, with poor nutrients, where there are mostly gravel and stone.

Under the regulations, investors will have to plant forests to compensate for the forests they clear to get sites for public works. However, the regulations have been ignored.

The Quang Duc Export Products Company has been growing rubber for seven years, but it still cannot exploit rubber latex because the trees cannot develop well.

In Chu Puh and Ia Pa districts, rubber trees have been cleared in a large area because the investors foresee they will take losses with rubber. Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, which has been allocated 1,526 hectares of land to grow rubber, has decided to grow sugarcane and breed cows on that land.

The move by Hoang Anh Gia Lai has triggered the movement of clearing the forests to grow other industrial crops, not rubber, as initially planned by local authorities. 

According to the Gia Lai provincial People’s Council, 10.2 percent of rubber growing area have died or underdeveloped, while 65.2 percent of area have been developing very slowly. About 2,100 hectares of land have been cleared, and thousands of cubic meters of wood have been exploited, but no crop has been grown.

As a result, the Gia Lai provincial authorities now are embarrassed as they don’t know how to generate jobs for local people.

Under the projects, about 9,400 jobs would be created as rubber farms will need workers. However, only 2,200 workers have been employed so far, while the pay for the jobs is very modest.

It is still unclear who is to blame for the failure of the projects. The Gia Lai provincial authorities have asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to urge investors to plant forests to compensate for the devastated forests. However, investors have ignored their tasks.