VietNamNet Bridge - Forested land is under the strict control of six powerful agencies, but land continues to be cleared to make room for resorts.

Vu Ngoc Thanh from Hanoi Natural Sciences University said he and his colleagues are conducting a research project on douc, an endemic species in Indochina which now can be found only in Laos and Vietnam. 

However, Son Tra Peninsula is the only place in Vietnam where scientists can see doucs in the wild in any weather conditions. 

However, the scientists are meeting trouble. The Son Tra Natural Reserve, which covered 4,000 hectares in the past, has shrunk to 2,000 hectares, while forests exist on an area of 1,000 hectares only. 

“This is the habitat of seven douc groups with more than 100 individuals, which account for 1/3 of total douce in Son Tra,” he said. 

“It is unclear where they will go to and how they can find food when the area becomes narrower,” he said.

Also according to Thanh, many households have felled trees in old secondary forest to get site for jackfruit and bananas.

Why did the forest rangers allow the felling of trees in the forest? Because the forestland and trees in the forest have been allocated to local authorities for management.

Forested land is under the strict control of six powerful agencies, but land continues to be cleared to make room for resorts.

Meanwhile, environmentalists are concerned about the news that a sea tourism development company plans to build a resort with 40-storey buildings on an area of 42 hectares.

The project was approved 10 years ago, even though there was no report on the possible impact of the project on the environment. Meanwhile, experts have to be consulted about the impact on biodiversity.

“We have them Biodiversity Law and the Environment Protection Law. However, the consultation has been ignored so as to make conclusions that bring benefits to investors,” Thanh commented.

Nguyen Cu, an expert in nature conservation planning, while ringing the alarm bell over deforestation, commented that the overlap in forest management is a big problem.

“Two ministries control one subject, while each of them does this its own way,” he said.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) with the General Directorate of Environment and the Biodiversity Conservation Department; the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (MARD) with the General Forestry Directorate and the Nature Conservation Department – all the six agencies are in charge of protecting the forests. 

Thanh believes that it would be better to assign forest protection to MARD. However, Cu thinks that it is not important which ministry is in charge of management. 

“The key lies in the management,” he said.

Dat Viet