On November 9, leaders of Hoa Vang District held a press conference to explain the destruction of nearly 100 hectares of special-use forest in Da Nang, attributing the situation to the fact that… “the area where the forest was destroyed is somewhat far from the commune center.”
During the press conference, leaders from Hoa Vang District, along with related departments, acknowledged that this incident was indeed the most serious in recent years.
However, while the report from Hoa Vang District only admitted that the area of destroyed forest was 42.75 hectares, according to the report from Hoa Bac Commune, 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.
Furthermore, in the report from the District People’s Committee, most of the destroyed forest area was classified as agricultural land, with only a small portion being special-use forest. However, when reporters presented photos of large trees felled and lying scattered across a vast forest area, Chairman of the District People’s Committee Huynh Minh Nhon could only shake his head: “This is indeed a very sad and heartbreaking reality.”
When we asked, “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 commune center, and it’s on the other side of the mountain, so it wasn’t until you reporters raised the issue that we became aware.”
Mr. Dung further explained that the villagers destroyed the forest because they had submitted applications to the Commune People’s Committee for land to plant trees. The local leadership forwarded these applications to the District People’s Committee, but while waiting for a response, they took it upon themselves to cut down trees and burn the forest to create farmland!
The leaders of Hoa Vang District and Hoa Bac Commune, along with relevant departments, have conducted a serious self-examination for allowing such a significant incident to occur, as reported in the media.
However, according to Mr. Tran Van Quy – Head of the District Forestry Department, the allocation of land and granting of forest rights to local people for cultivation needs clear guidance from the forestry force to prevent situations where villagers oppose the forestry staff’s intervention, claiming that… “the forest has been granted a land use certificate.”
The results of the self-examination 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 laxity and shortcomings in forest management.
