Vietnam State-owned Firm Destroys 9,000Ha of Forest; PM Urges Verification

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of Public Security and state agencies to verify the case in which a state-owned forestry company is said to have destroyed up to 9,000 hectares of forest. The ministry must report the case to the PM within this month, the state-run Lao Dong newspaper reported. The request was made after the newspaper reported that as many as 9,000 hectares of forest, including hundreds hectares of natural forest, in Gia Nghia town of the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong were lodged. The destroyed area lies under the management of state-owned Gia Nghia Forestry Company. The rapid and aggressive destruction has forced local forest wardens to intensify control over the region while Dak Nong’s authorities needed to call for support by the Government Inspectorate and local police. Destroying forest has become more serious in Vietnam as state-owned forestry companies or timber traders colluded with rangers to lodge timber, including that in protective forest or watershed. The forest area in the country has sharply dropped to 13.2 million hectares or 38% of the total natural area currently from 40% some decades ago. (Lao Dong – Labor Sept 11 p4, VnEconomy.vn Sept 11)