vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn  

Deputy PM says stop illegal logging, poaching

HA NOI — Illegal logging and poaching in Viet Nam’s forests must be stopped by whatever means necessary, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung has said.

Violations continued to be a great worry and efforts to stop it ineffective, he told Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry officials and representatives from 11 provinces last Friday.

Illegal logging and poaching were becoming increasingly widespread, especially in pristine, special use and forests planted to prevent floods and other natural disasters, he said.

Forest Management Department reports show about 300 prosecutions for violating forest management and protection regulations each year.

Furthermore, the number of forest rangers remained inadequate and this was causing difficulties in stopping determined illegal loggers who did not hesitate to use violence in preventing arrest.

Dzung said the solution was for the ministry to co-ordinate with provincial authorities in strictly punishing those working in cahoots with illegal loggers.
In a further effort to stop the illegal logging and poaching, rangers would be given the power to revoke driving licences and temporarily confiscate the vehicles used to carry logs and wild animals.

But this would require co-ordination between the 11 provinces rangers, police and militia.

Dzung also demanded that grassroots authorities take full responsibility for forest resources in its locality.

If breaches still occur, the local people’s committee chairman and authorities should be disciplined.

But the Government’s policy was not all heavier policing and punishment.
Illegal loggers should be allotted land and helped with farming it.

The Government intended to encourage this process by providing each household in forest localities with VND5 million to farm terraced paddy and VND2 million for unterraced, Dzung said.

Deputy Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Nguyen Van Dang, said that the ministry had already asked all people’s committees to define those areas where forest is being destroyed in an attempt to devise concrete measures to stop it.

The ministry also called on provincial and city authorities to conduct surveys that show the causes of rural-urban migration in a first step to preventing it.

These activities had been co-ordinated by a steering committee appointed in response to a May 16 instruction from the prime minister intended to strengthen measures to protect and develop forest.

As a result, many provinces had eliminated ‘hot spots’ known for the illegally exploit and trading in forest products. For example Quang Binh Province had reduced violations by 52 per cent and Thai Nguyen City by 50 per cent. — VNS