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.

Thanh Tra newspaper has quoted MARD as reporting that 56 provinces and cities have set up their steering committees on the forest protection to implement a Prime Minister’s instruction on the forest development. Thanks to the drastic measures taken so far, the number of the violations of the forest protection laws in 2013 was lower by 2,300 cases in comparison with the year before.

Together with the afforestation projects, the measures to prevent the forest fire have been implemented strictly, which has helped a lot in preventing incidents.

The total damaged forest area was 1,964 hectares in 2013, a decrease of 39.1 percent from 2012. Of this, 1,156 hectares of forests was damaged because of the fire, while 808 hectares was chopped down, a decrease of 29 percent.

However, while government agencies reported the great achievements in the forest protection, more and more forests have been devastated.

In late 2012, some 2 hectares of the casuarina forest in Quy Nhon City were illegally logged. The local authorities then threatened to punish the violators heavily. However, 16 casuarina trees more were chopped down in 2013.

Cong An Nhan Dan newspaper has reported that in Tuy Phuoc district of Binh Dinh province, the protective forest is getting disappeared just because local people chop down trees to get charcoal.

The deforestation for charcoal has been existing for the last many years, but the local authorities still have not found the measures to stop it.

A local resident said some 20 people go to the forest everyday, where they cut down the trees with the diameters of 20-25cm and make charcoal for profits.

On January 6, 2014, a group of more than 10 people was seen going to the Ma Da natural forest covering an area of 512 hectares in Binh Phuoc with motor saws, trying to chop down the trees in the forest.

A worker of B58 Company, in charge of managing the forest, said the local authorities refused to “make interventions” into the case, though the company asked for help.

Le Van Trung, Chair of the Tan Hoa Commune People’s Committee, also denied the fact, saying that no one tried to destroy the forest.

The 10,000 hectare protective Kien Vang forest in Ca Mau province is also in a danger because of the regular deforestation campaigns.

According to the forest management board, 10,410 square meters of the protective forest was destroyed in 2013, while the figure was just equal to 50 percent of the total area devastated in 2012.

People want to chop down trees for many reasons. The people in Binh Phuoc province wanted to make charcoal. Others stake their lives to get precious wood to sell to urbanites at high prices.

And there are many reasons for urbanites to buy wood at high prices. They need precious wood to build ancient-style houses, make beds and interior decorative things. They chop down wild peach trees just to decorate their houses on Tet days, though they understand that they are devastating the nature.

T. Mai