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Hai, a farmer in Tan Hoa commune, cried when he talked with reporters from Tuoi Tre. He said: “I don’t understand how they decide that a forest is ‘exhausted,’ but here they are chopping down big trees so they can grow rubber. The forest is being cruelly destroyed.”
He led the reporters to plantations of 30 to 100 hectares and named their owners.
It seems that many “big shots,” some from the province capital and some from HCM City and Binh Duong to the south, have flocked to Binh Phuoc to establish private plantations throughout the border province.
Destroying forest to plant rubber
In late June 2010, a reporter visited a forest in Thong Nhat commune, on the border of Dong Nai and Binh Phuoc provinces near Cat Tien National Park. The forest reverberated with the sound of electric saws and of trees falling into the Ma Da river. Logs from rare trees of the southeast’s red earth region like dầu, sao, chò, bằng lăng and huỳnh lay everywhere. Big stumps were left behind.
Thanh, who was cleaning out brush, was very reserved when he was asked about the owner of this forest. “I don’t cut down or burn trees,” Thanh said.” I only tidy up this area to earn some money.”
A kilometer further on, a group of young men were clearing the ground on 50 hectares of destroyed forest. Xiec, from Phuoc Long town, said “they are paying us 100,000 dong a day for this job.”
Xiec didn’t know the name of the owner. He had only heard that “big bosses” from Saigon and Binh Phuoc came here to clear out forest to grow rubber.
A meeting with forest rangers
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A Tuoi Tre reporter met with forest rangers in the Vinh Cuu protected area in Dong Nai province, adjacent to the remains of the forest in Thong Nhat commune. The rangers agreed to take the reporter to inspect the area.
Each several steps, they saw stacks of logs. “How can they certify this forest as ‘exhausted’ when it has such trees! We can stand in Vinh Cuu nature reserve and watch the trees falling in Binh Phuoc’s forest. They are destroying nearly all of it. Only about seven kilometers of forest adjacent to Cat Tien national park and Vinh Cuu nature reserve remain, but it won’t last long either,” said a ranger named Nong.
Nong and his fellow rangers fear that once the forest in Binh Phuoc is totally destroyed, the big shots will encroach on the Vinh Cuu nature reserve also. Nong said that recently a group of people crossed the Ma Da into Vinh Cuu to cut down eight sao trees, totalling about 133 cubic meters of wood.
“Anyone who loves the forest feel anguish when the great trees fall. Now they are being chopped down and replaced by 2-year-old rubber trees,” Nong added.
Vinh Cuu nature reserve Director Tran Van Mui said: “On this side Dong Nai is trying to preserve forest but on the other side Binh Phuoc has ruled that ‘the forest is exhausted’ and allowed people to chop it down to plant rubber”.
Mui said the “exhausted forest” concept is flat wrong.
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Staff at the Vinh Cuu nature reserve have urgently reported to Dong Nai province authorities about the steady destruction of the forest on the Binh Phuoc side of the river. “The border between Binh Phuoc and the nature reserve totals 78 kilometers,” they wrote. “We don’t understand why the natural forest area in Binh Phuoc is being destroyed.”
According to official records, in August 2005, Binh Phuoc authorities surveyed the area and concluded that “around 1000 hectares of natural forest adjacent to Ma Da River are in very good condition.” However, this area has been allocated to “big bosses” and many plantations have appeared.
Mr. Tu’s plantation
From Rang Rang Forest in Dong Nai, a Tuoi Tre reporter crossed over into Tan Loi commune in Binh Phuoc, then turned right toward a rare remaining patch of natural forest. After two kilometers, the road dead-ended at the “welcome gate” of a private farm, which was constructed of two pillars made from ancient trees.
Some dogs barked, and many people flocked out. A young man in shorts with several tattoos on his arms asked “Who are you looking for?”
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“We are looking for Mr. Tu’s plantation,” the reporter answered.
“This is the forest,” replied the tattooed youth. You can’t get there this way. Mr. Tu’s plantation is along the big road over there.”
Redirected, the reporter found the farmhouse, a wood and cement building in the middle of forest. Asked for Mr. Tu, workers said “The bosses only visit the plantation during the weekend.”
Is the forest exhausted?
Leaving Binh Phuoc’s Bu Dang district, Tuoi Tre reporters went to Dong Phu district to see rubber plantations in Tan Hoa and Tan Loi communes. Not very long ago, this area was thick forested; there were many big trees. The forest was cleared to open a 30 kilometer road from Dong Xoai town to the Ma Da river. Along this road are rubber trees but if one goes onto a side road for a couple of kilometers, he will see the natural forest.
At the Binh Phuoc Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, director Nguyen Van Toi said that at the end of June, investors had submitted 211 proposals to turn “exhausted forest” into rubber plantations, encompassing 42,600 hectares. Binh Phuoc had approved 177 of the projects.
Toi explained that these projects are evaluated by a council that determines whether the forest land in question is poor or exhausted or not. Then the council assesses the environmental impact of the projects and decides whether to issue a license to exploit the land.
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Toi was asked whether some individuals or groups were hiring workers to chop down trees, thus turning rich forests into poor forests so that they could get a licence to grow rubber. Toi replied that he had doubts but “I think that it is impossible that people would chop down a good forest.”
Hoang Vinh Kim, a member of Binh Phuoc People’s Council, said: “When we met with constituents, they complained that many forest areas with high wood reserves are classified as poor forest. They also complained that forest land is being allocated to companies to plant rubber but the land is transferred illegally.” (to be continued)
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