​43 hectares of forest wiped out in Vietnam

The mysterious disappearance of the forest patch was discovered on September 1, Pham Van Nam, chairman of the People’s Committee in An Lao District, Binh Dinh Province, confirmed on Wednesday morning.

Officers from the district’s forest protection office noticed the situation when they were patrolling a part of the woods in An Hung Commune, located in An Lao, Nam said.

“Some sections of the destroyed woods were protection forest while the others were zoned for industrial activities,” the official continued.

Most of the trees had the diameter between 10 and 15 centimeters, he stated, assuming that the culprits had wiped out the area with chainsaws.

Such a large area of forest must take a long time to be chopped down, leading to a question why local authorities and forest rangers were not aware of the destruction.

According to Chairman Nam, the road running to the part of the forest is quite rough, which might be one reason why the deforestation had not been detected.

“There is a total of 3,000 hectares of forest in An Hung, whilst only one forest protection officer is in charge of the management, resulting in late detection and slow reaction,” the official elaborated.

It is now urgent to stop the deforestation and hunt for the culprits, Nam asserted.

“After that the oversight and responsibility of any competent agency or individual will be taken into account,” he said.