VietNamNet Bridge – Wooden houses and a villa were built on an area of 3,000 square meters in the Nam Hai Van special-use forest.

The owner of the wooden houses is Ngo Van Quang, director of the Quang Nam-based Phuoc Minh Gold Company.

The owner of the villa, illegally built on forestland, is a major general and former director of the Quang Nam provincial Police.

The Southern Hai Van Special use Forest Management Board said it was unaware of the existence of the large buildings.

In fact, the management board “did not know” many other facts. More than 4,000 hectares of the protected forest has been seriously damaged. This was blamed by the management board on strong typhoons which caused the trees to fall. The trees were collected and sold for money without any notice to the local authorities.

With the forest “open” to all people, from illegal loggers to local residents and the watchdog agencies, more and more trees have been cut. The large area of Caribbean pine forest has become a bare hill.

More seriously, the Southern Hai Van Forest Management Board allocated land to individuals to plant forests, thus turning the green light on for the illegal buildings.

The “superb construction works” owned by the high ranking official and the businessman are two of the illegal works.

The chair of the Hoa Hiep Bac Ward People’s Committee Truong Viet refused to accept responsibility for the existence of the illegal construction works.

Viet, while saying that it is illegal to build houses in national protected forest, said the construction works had been completed before the ward’s authorities were set up.

“The forestland allocation to individuals was carried out a long time ago, before the splitting of Quang Nam province and Da Nang City,” Viet said.

However, as the Hai Van special-use forest management board was dissolved in 2004, there is no one to blame for the forest devastation.

The forest management has been transferred to the Lien Chieu district’s forest rangers’ unit. However, the official handover of thousands of hectares of forest has not been done.

The individuals made corrupt use of “transitional period” to build houses illegally,” Viet said.

The current forest owner – the Da Nang City Forest Rangers’ Unit – also said it has not been informed about the allocation of forestland and the existence of construction works in the forestland.

“I have not received information about the illegal construction. I don’t know anything about this,” he said.

Lao Dong