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| January 08, 2004 |
vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn |
Bu Gia Map forest rangers call for back-up Hieu Lich HA NOI — Illegal logging and poaching had impacted about one-third of the Bu Gia Map nature reserve in southern Binh Phuoc Province, said the reserve’s forest rangers. The ranger team– only 30 strong– was too small to patrol and protect the 26,032ha reserve said Nguyen Van Hoang, director of the ranger station. The nature reserve is in decline everyday, he said. Established in 1994, the reserve’s biodiversity includes 628 flora and fauna species, and is 96 per cent natural forest. Chairman of the Bu Gia Map Commune’s People’s Committee Nguyen Van Trinh estimated that hundreds of illegal poachers or loggers entered the reserve everyday. But at most, forest rangers catch only 20 a day. Rangers said the loggers hired poor local residents to carry the timber and carcasses on their backs. The couriers received VND10,000-15,000 for each load. The criminals also used Minsk motorcycles for transport. Also, provincial authorities recently improved the road, inadvertently making it easier for illegal traffic to pass. In 1999, the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development submitted a VND10 billion-investment proposal to set up a 8,000ha-buffer zone. But provincial authorities have failed to approve the protective measure. The reserve’s director Nguyen Dai Phu said the province must launch a co-ordinated effort to protect the reserve from further deforestation. He recommended that provincial authorities should set up a 33,000ha-buffer zone in nearby Bu Gia Map and Dak O communes. They should invest in programmes to raise residents’ living standards, so they would not need illegal sources of income to survive, he said. They should also encourage the communities’ participation in conservation. Also, the reserve
must hire more forest rangers and ask local police to help shoulder the
burden. — VNS |
