Early determination of land boundaries after corn and cassava are uprooted

Many households in My Thanh commune, Ham Thuan Nam district are hoping that authorities will clarify why their noodles and corn were uprooted.

A farmer stands watching his cassava crop being uprooted.

In recent days, many ethnic minority households in My Thanh commune were shocked when many of their corn and cassava fields that were in the growing stage and ready for harvest were uprooted. Many people confirmed that staff from Cau Treo Forest Protection Station, under the Song Mong - Ka Pet Forest Protection Management Board (MB), did this without prior notice. Because most of the uprooted corn and cassava fields were located on land that people had encroached on, only a small amount was located on their land.

The corn was pulled out and the ground was bare.

Mr. TVK, who has been growing ^cassava for many years, said: I have been growing cassava here for many years, and have encroached on about half a sao of forest land because I thought that planting short-term crops would not affect the forest trees. Recently, when I visited the land, I saw that it had been uprooted, and it was very painful to see. I went to the Management Board to explain the situation and asked them to take coordinates, measure, and mark landmarks... so that next year I would know not to plant on that encroached land.

Mrs. NTM and her husband have 1.8 hectares of corn that is over a month old, of which about 1 sao was uprooted. Many other households are in a similar situation, some even having their legal land uprooted. However, there are also households that encroached but were not uprooted, causing people's frustration to increase.

Most households said they violated the law, did not blame the forest protection station for the uprooting, and were only upset that the station did not notify them in advance. “If they had notified us in advance, we would not have been upset, but they went and uprooted themselves... Moreover, if they saw that we had already planted, they would have let us harvest the rest of the crop, without affecting the investment in fertilizer and seeds. The next crop will not be cultivated when they receive the notice, and if any household deliberately does so, the station will handle it according to regulations...”, Mr. K and many other households commented. They also hoped that if the station went and uprooted, they would have to uproot all the trees, not just one household and not another.

Those concerns and frustrations have been sent to the People's Committee of My Thanh Commune. Ms. Hoang Thi Kha - Chairwoman of the People's Committee of the Commune said, we have received this information from the people and are directing the Vice Chairman of the Commune to coordinate with the land authority to inspect. If the Cau Treo Forest Protection Station does so, we are somewhat frustrated, because they did it on their own without coordination. Previously, the station discovered that forest land was encroached upon, and coordinated with the locality to handle it by establishing a team including people from the station, police, forestry officers, local forest rangers, and even violators. Doing so is both transparent and public to warn people, but this year it has not been seen. We will clarify the frustrations that people have reflected. According to the People's Committee of My Thanh Commune, the number of households whose corn and cassava were uprooted is nearly 10 households, not 1-2 households.

However, when talking to us about the incident, the Song Mong - Ka Pet Protective Forest Management Board said that it was probably due to a conflict between the people, so they took revenge on each other. Mr. Pham Van Chien - Head of the Song Mong - Ka Pet Protective Forest Management Board affirmed that there was no story of people from the Cau Treo Forest Protection Station going to uproot... and we will continue to clarify. The land of the local people existed before the Management Board was established in 2004, we still let the people cultivate it, every year we mark the milestones, and ask the people to commit not to encroach on the forest land.

The Management Board affirmed that, but in reality, there are still many problems that need to be clarified to avoid conflicts between the parties. The people of My Thanh need clear answers by redefining the boundaries of forest land and cultivated land of all households or people with cultivated land here. Only then will there be transparency and fairness so that the above situation will not happen again next year, helping people feel secure in production.

Source