Over 3,000ha of forests lost in 2012, says conference

Vietnam lost more than 3,000ha of its forest cover in 2012, a year-end review conference heard last week.

A forest being destroyed in Quang Binh Province

The General Forestry Department, which held the conference, said 27,671 violations of forest protection laws were discovered nationwide last year. This included 5,724 cases of deforestation, 13,550 cases involving illegal transportation of forestry products, 905 wood processing violations and 928 cases of wildlife hunting and trading.

"Around 3,225 hectares of forest were lost last year, 2,091ha to fire and the rest was logged down," Nguyen Huu Dung, head of the Forest Protection Department, was quoted as saying in the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper.

Forest destruction was most severe in the Central Highlands provinces of Lam Dong and Kon Tum, and the north-western province of Son La.

Dung said "risky, complicated activities and modern equipment" were increasingly being resorted to in the destruction of forests in the country.

Farming households that had land to cultivate were still clearing forests for industrial projects and farming. Some were even selling land illegally, he said.

Fines were imposed in 23,666 cases, 327 were taken to court and nearly 34,000 cubic metres of wood was confiscated. By the end of 2012, the country's total area of natural forests and forest land was estimated at 46,031 hectares.

Since 2006, around 160 hydro-power projects in 29 provinces nation-wide have taken 20,000ha of forest, but only eight of them have reforested 735ha, or 3.7 per cent of the area lost.

Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent seven teams to deforestation spots, instructed local authorities to review activities of all wood processing companies and co-operated with police in arresting forestry-related criminals.

"We already have a forest protection and development programme. All we have to do now is to bring all forces of the Forestry General Department to bear on protecting the forest," deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan said at the conference. He stressed the role of forest rangers in forest protection.

Forest rangers must be morally clean and never become one of the most important factors in the losing of this precious resource, he said. "Every ranger must remember that his mission is to protect forest, not to destroy them."

He also called on greater attention to be paid to fire prevention and fire-fighting, given that the loss of forests to fires increased nearly 20 per cent last year.