So far this year, local authorities detected 1,220 cases violating the Forestry Law, including 17 cases leading to criminal proceedings and 1,046 facing administrative fines.
A deforestation case in Dak Lak (Photo by Bao Trung)
The authorities confiscated 143 cubic metres of wood and collected a total fine of VND2.2 billion (USD93,023) through 786 deforestation cases.
The case in which 382 hectares of forest in Ea Sup District’s Ya To Mot Commune was destroyed in April was the most serious. Thousands of trees were cut down.
On May 22, as many as 28 people in Ya To Mot Commune and the neighbouring communes of Ia Rve, Ea Le and Ea Sup were detained for the investigation into the case.
According to a representative from Ya To Mot Commune People's Committee, the deforested area was previously assigned to four groups of households to manage and protect by the district people's committee, but it was not effective. In 2020, the district people's committee recovered the forest area and assigned it to the commune people's committee for management. However, taking advantage of the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, people cut down trees to clear land for farming.
