Project of 100 resort villas 'devours' 12 hectares of forest in Nui Chua National Park

The project affects 12 hectares of natural and planted forests.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) is consulting the community on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report of the Vinh Hy Luxury Resort project in Ninh Thuan province.

The Vinh Hy luxury resort is invested by Syrena Vietnam Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (Syrena Vietnam Company). This project is expected to be invested and built on land under the management of Nui Chua National Park, Vinh Hai commune, Ninh Hai district.

The project's objective is to lease the forest environment to invest in eco-tourism business, combined with high-end resorts. Bringing benefits to investors and economic benefits to the State through taxes. The total investment capital of the project is about 1,600 billion VND.

A corner of Nui Chua National Park. (Photo: Huynh Van Truyen)

According to the EIA report, the land for the Vinh Hy Luxury Resort project is located in plot 5, sub-zone 150, a special-use forest, under the administrative subdivision managed by Nui Chua National Park.

Based on the local adjustment project of the detailed construction planning at a scale of 1/500, the land use area of the project is 64.65 hectares and is divided into 2 investment phases.

In phase 1, in addition to service and auxiliary works, the investor will build 54 resort villas with areas ranging from 150m2 - 450m2/unit. In phase 2, continue to build 46 more villas with areas ranging from 250m2 - 1,500m2/unit.

With a total area of 64.65 hectares, when implementing the project, the investor will clear and clean an area of 12.9 hectares.

It is worth mentioning that in these 12.9 hectares, there are 12.78 hectares of special-use forest planned by the Management Board of Nui Chua National Park and 0.12 hectares outside the planning of 3 types of forest managed by Vinh Hai commune.

For the 12.9ha of special-use forest planning, according to the current inventory, there are 10.6ha of natural forest, 0.98ha of planted forest and 1.32ha of land without forest.

With the exploitation of forests for construction, the investor proposed a plan to pay for replacement forest planting with an area of 12.9 hectares.

21 households affected, only one household received land compensation

During the implementation of the Vinh Hy Luxury Resort project, according to the EIA report, the investor will occupy 2.32 hectares of land of 21 households in Vinh Hai commune, Ninh Hai district.

Of these, 1 household has been granted a certificate, 4 households have a stable land use origin, 10 households have used land after 2003 and 6 households have reclaimed land from 2010 to present. These households are mainly Raglai ethnic people, mainly living on agriculture, forestry and fishery.

Project location and correlation to surrounding objects at Nui Chua National Park.

The report on the results of the land origin review by the Ninh Hai District People's Committee in March 2019 showed that, in the total land area of the Vinh Hy Luxury Resort project, 11.7 hectares of land were planted with cashews by the 21 households mentioned above. After the review, only 1 household was granted a certificate with an area of 8,000m2 and the remaining 20 households have not been granted a certificate.

For households that have been granted certificates, the People's Committee of Ninh Hai district requests the Provincial People's Committee to assign investors to negotiate the transfer of land use rights and assets on land according to regulations.

With 20 households not eligible for land compensation, Ninh Hai District People's Committee proposed considering measures to support public land reclamation for 4 households and not compensate or support land for 16 households.

According to VietNamNet reporters, in 2015, the Ninh Thuan Provincial People's Committee approved the investment policy for Syrena Vietnam Company to be the investor of the Vinh Hy Luxury Resort project. This project was adjusted twice in terms of investment policy, in 2017 and 2022 respectively.

To implement the project, Syrena Vietnam Company is completing procedures to change the purpose of using forests and forest land to other purposes with an area of 11.58 hectares. Of which, 10.6 hectares of land has natural forest and 0.98 hectares of land has planted forest.

According to the latest decision to adjust the project investment policy, phase 1 of the project must be completed and put into operation within 24 months from June 2022.

Specifically, the investor must complete land, construction, environmental and related procedures to be eligible to start construction within 10 months. The construction of 54 resort villas and other ancillary works within 14 months.

After phase 1, the investor must complete phase 2 of the project and put the entire project into operation within 12 months.

Regarding Nui Chua National Park, in April 2022, the People's Committee of Ninh Thuan province received the certificate of recognition of Nui Chua World Biosphere Reserve from UNESCO. With a total area of 106,646 hectares, including forest, sea and semi-desert, the core area of Nui Chua World Biosphere Reserve is Nui Chua National Park.

Nui Chu National Park is rich in forest and marine biodiversity with thousands of species of animals and plants, many of which are rare. In addition to Nui Chua, Vietnam is also recognized by UNESCO as having 10 world biosphere reserves.

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