Strictly manage the treatment of vegetation to prevent forest fires.

The Seo My Ty village forest protection team (Ta Van commune, Sa Pa town) has 15 members. For more than a month now, the forest patrol frequency has been increased by 2-3 times and this frequency will be maintained until the end of May, because many forest areas managed by the team are in key areas with high risk of fire, especially the forest areas bordering Lai Chau province.

Mr. Giang A Cau, Head of the Forest Protection Team in Seo My Ty village, shared: The team is responsible for working with forest rangers to protect more than 700 hectares of special-use forest in Hoang Lien National Park. To prevent forest fires in the dry season, especially during the farming season, team members are assigned to patrol, control and protect the forest, promptly detect cases of clearing cardamom fields, clearing areas along the edge of the forest to grow corn, and people entering the forest to use fire to get honey without ensuring fire safety. The area bordering Lai Chau province has been patrolled more because it is a grazing area for livestock, there is a situation where people use fire to burn bushes to make grass grow, causing a high risk of fire spreading into the forest.

In Po Ho village, Trung Leng Ho commune (Bat Xat district), since February, the head of the village's forest protection team - Ly A Vang and the team members have also been busier with forest protection work. It is known that more than 90% of households in the village have production land adjacent to more than 2,790 hectares of forest that the village is assigned to manage and protect.

To raise people's awareness of forest protection, the village's Forest Protection Team is disseminating to people measures to protect and prevent forest fires during farming and vegetation clearing. The team also coordinates with forest rangers of Bat Xat Nature Reserve to sign a commitment to protect the forest to each household, requiring households to notify and obtain permission from the authorities when burning vegetation.

For Bao Yen district, where there are more than 36,000 hectares of production forest, exploitation and new forest planting take place all year round. Therefore, raising people's knowledge and awareness in the process of production, forest exploitation, and vegetation treatment before planting is of great significance. After being informed and instructed, most people have seriously implemented it.

The family of Ms. Lo Thi Toan in Xuan Hoa commune (Bao Yen district) currently has nearly 4 hectares of planted forest. The family has just exploited 0.4 hectares of cinnamon, is clearing the ground cover and preparing to plant a new crop of forest.

Ms. Toan said: “More than ten years ago, also during the time of clearing vegetation for planting, due to carelessness when burning the fields, I caused the fire to spread to the forest that was not yet ready for exploitation. Fortunately, the forces supported the fire extinguishing so the damage was minimal. Since then, I have always been careful when burning vegetation. Every year, my family signs a commitment to strictly implement the Forestry Law. I was instructed by forest rangers on how to handle vegetation such as: not burning on days when the risk of forest fires is forecast at level IV (dangerous level) and level V (extremely dangerous level), burning when the wind is light, before 9am or after 5pm”.

During the peak of the dry season (usually from early February to late April every year), which coincides with the time when people work on their fields, forest protection forces must regularly patrol and be vigilant.

Along with that, forest protection teams and authorities actively propagate to people technical measures to protect and prevent forest fires during farming, because this is one of the causes of high forest fires.

Accordingly, before burning fields, people must notify the village chief and forest protection team in advance. When burning fields, it is necessary to limit burning during peak hot hours (such as noon or early afternoon), and should burn in the late afternoon.

At the same time, a firebreak must be made at least 4-5 m from the edge of the forest; burning must be done from top to bottom, when the fire has burned about 30% of the field area, continue burning from bottom to top; must wait for the fire to go out before leaving the field.

To ensure effective and timely forest fire prevention and fighting, the Provincial People's Committee has issued many documents directing departments, branches and localities to carry out forest management and protection.

Forest owners and localities proactively develop and implement plans for forest fire prevention and fighting; repair forest fire prevention and fighting works; organize forces to be on duty 24/7 during prolonged hot days; guide forest owners to treat vegetation, reduce combustible materials, take measures to control the use of fire in and near forests by people; proactively respond to forest fires with the motto "4 on-site", promptly handle forest fires when they first arise.