On November 9th, the leaders of Hoa Vang District held a press conference to address the destruction of nearly 100 hectares of protected forest in Da Nang, citing the reason that… “the area where the forest was destroyed is somewhat far from the center of the commune.”
During the press conference, the leadership of Hoa Vang District along with relevant departments acknowledged that this incident was indeed the most serious in recent years.
However, while the report from Hoa Vang District admitted that the area of destroyed forest was 42.75 hectares, the report from Hoa Bac Commune indicated that the total area of both legally and illegally destroyed forest by three households—Nguyen Hai, Nguyen Thi Cuc, and Truong Thi Le Thuy—amounted to nearly 100 hectares.
Additionally, the report from the District People’s Committee stated that most of the destroyed area consisted of agricultural land, with only a small portion being protected forest. Nevertheless, when reporters presented photos of large trees felled and scattered throughout a vast section of forest, Chairman of the District People’s Committee Huynh Minh Nhon could only shake his head, stating: “This is indeed a very sad and regrettable reality.”
When we asked the question: “Why was such a large area of forest destroyed for nearly three months without anyone speaking up?”, Chairman of Hoa Bac Commune Pham Tan Dung responded: “We hope you understand that the area where the forest was destroyed is somewhat far from the center of the commune and on the other side of the mountain, so we only became aware of this issue when you journalists raised it.”
Mr. Dung further explained that the locals destroyed the forest because they had submitted applications to the commune’s People’s Committee requesting land for reforestation, and the commune’s leadership had forwarded these applications to the district’s People’s Committee. However, while waiting for a response, they took it upon themselves to cut down trees and burn the forest for farming!
The leadership of the Hoa Vang District and Hoa Bac Commune, along with relevant departments, have conducted strict reviews for allowing such a serious incident to occur as reported.
However, according to Mr. Tran Van Quy, the head of the district’s forestry department, the process of allocating land and granting forest rights to the people for cultivation must involve clear advice from the forestry force to avoid situations where, when the forestry force intervenes to stop deforestation, the locals oppose it by claiming that… “the forest has been issued a land use certificate.”
The results of the review and handling of violations will be announced in the near future; however, the loss of nearly 100 hectares of forest is a steep price to pay for the laxity and inadequacies in forest management.
