Alarming deforestation in Dak Lak, dogs used as lookouts, children injected poison into tree trunks

Many sophisticated deforestation tricks

On October 30, the Dak Lak Provincial Forest Protection Department said that the unit had reported the results of forest management, protection and development in the first 9 months of 2024, and deployed tasks for the last 3 months of the year.

According to the report, in the first 9 months of 2024, there were 859 violations of the Forestry Law in the province, an increase of 19 cases compared to the same period in 2023.

Forest management and protection pose many difficulties and challenges for functional sectors.

Of which, 681 cases of illegal deforestation occurred, with 190,807 hectares of damaged forest area; 22 cases of illegal forest exploitation; 2 cases of illegal hunting of wild animals; 72 cases of illegal transportation of forest products; 59 cases of illegal buying, selling, and storing of forest products... The authorities handled and confiscated 173 vehicles, confiscated 240m3 of various types of wood; the amount collected after handling was more than 1.4 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Head of the Dak Lak Provincial Forest Protection Department, said that the situation of illegal deforestation in the districts of Krong Bong, Buon Don, M'Drak, Cu Mgar, Ea Kar, etc. is complicated and has become "hot spots".

It is worth mentioning that in the process of committing crimes, the subjects used many sophisticated tricks to avoid detection and handling by the authorities. Accordingly, many subjects brought dogs into the forest to keep watch. In M'drak district, some subjects even let children into the forest to inject drugs into trees and drill holes in trees to "poison" the forest trees. This situation makes forest management and protection very difficult and challenging.

Nearly 128,000 hectares of forestry land were encroached upon and occupied.

Not only that, according to information from the authorities, in recent times, the situation of people cutting down forests, encroaching on forest land for agricultural cultivation, building houses, buying and selling, and illegally transferring forest land is still complicated, especially in the districts of Ea H'Leo, Ea Sup, Cu M'gar, Krong Nong, Ea Kar... Currently, the whole province has about 127,784.9 hectares of land of forestry origin being encroached upon; the recovery of this land area is facing many difficulties.

In the whole Dak Lak province, nearly 128,000 hectares of forestry land have been encroached upon.

Mr. Nguyen Thien Van, Vice Chairman of Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee, said that the cause of the encroachment and occupation of forestry land is due to the lack of strict land management in the area, revealing many limitations. In some localities, the direction of inspection, examination, and handling of violations of land laws, including the inspection, handling, and recovery of forestry land originating from agricultural and forestry farms that have been encroached upon and occupied, has not received due attention, the direction is not resolute, specific, and close, and many localities still loosen the state management of land.

In addition, the situation of state-managed forestry land and land of enterprises assigned or leased by the state has been encroached and occupied for a long time but has not been detected, prevented and handled promptly. People illegally cultivate, produce, build houses and constructions on encroached and occupied land, causing a lot of pressure and difficulties for local authorities at all levels in the state management of land and forestry.

Faced with the above situation, on October 24, the People's Committee of Dak Lak province issued a plan to handle the recovery of encroached and occupied forestry land in the area.

Cases of land recovery include: Forestry land areas that have been assigned by competent authorities to residential communities but have been encroached upon and used by people. Land illegally encroached upon and used by people in areas assigned or leased by the Provincial People's Committee to agricultural and forestry projects, LLCs, forestry cooperatives, management boards of protective forests, special-use forests, nature reserves and national parks.

In cases of encroachment and occupation of forestry land where the violators have not been identified, the commune level shall publicly announce the location and assets on the land (type of crops, constructions on the land) being encroached or occupied on local mass media and publicly post them at the headquarters of the People's Committee at the commune level, community activity points, and residential areas.

After 30 days, if no organization or individual comes to claim that they are the violator, the competent authority will carry out procedures to handle administrative violations in cases where the violator cannot be identified according to regulations...

The recovery of encroached land will be carried out from the first quarter of 2025 and completed in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Source: https://danviet.vn/dang-bao-dong-pha-rung-o-dak-lak-mang-cho-di-canh-gioi-cho-tre-em-bom-thuoc-doc-vo-than-cay-20241030183958065.htm