Official's son found destroying protective forest

An illegal tourism site has been built on forested land by the son of an environment official in Quang Nam Province.

An illegal tourism site has been built on forested land by the son of an environment official in Quang Nam Province.

 

A tourism site is built inside protective forest in Quang Nam Province

The forest in Tra Ly Village, Duy Son Commune, was classified as protection forest in 2017, however, a large tourism site has been constructed inside the forest. At the gate of the site, there is a warning sign which says "Private residence, no trespassing."

The construction was started since early October 2018 and has destroyed 0.9 hectares of forest. A wood workshop was set up right next to the site to serve the on-going construction. Several houses and ponds have been built.

Nguyen Phuoc Minh, vice chairman of Duy Son Commune, said the investor was Ngo Phi Nhi. Nhi is the son of Ngo Bon, vice head of Duy Xuyen District Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to Minh, the district used to have 1,000 hectares of production forest. In 2017, all of them were converted into protective forest. Nhi then bought 2.9 hectares from three households that have land use right certificates. Minh said they were told that the land was bought to grow vegetables and fruit trees.

The communal authorities have reported the case and ordered the investor to demolish the construction by March 10 or face forced removal.

Nguyen Cong Dung, chairman of Duy Xuyen District People's Committee, said on March 5 that they would apply administrative fines and remove the illegal construction.