According to Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, currently thousands of hectares of coastal protection forests and in the midlands and mountainous areas of Ha Tinh have been knocked down by storm No. 5, with fallen branches and leaves, posing a great risk of forest fires.
In those protective forests, many areas are planted and cared for by the people themselves. After the storm broke, they completed procedures and were allowed by competent authorities to separate the waterfall and harvest it.
In Co Dam commune, people are actively exploiting and cutting down trees that were knocked down and broken by the storm to sell firewood.
Mr. Le Van Hoa, a resident of Co Dam commune, said that he bought 2 hectares of mangrove forest from people who had broken due to the storm for more than 40 million VND. After that, he hired people to cut wood to sell for profit.
According to Mr. Hoa, the procedures for requesting permission to exploit fallen forests have been completed by the family of the forest tree seller according to regulations.
In the acacia plantation forest in Ke Go Nature Reserve (Cam Due commune), many households have also completed procedures and have been approved by competent authorities to exploit the forest trees they have invested in planting and caring for on protective forest land.
According to the Ke Go Nature Reserve Management Board (Ha Tinh), initial statistics show that storm No. 5 caused damage to the unit of about 4,500 hectares of protection forests contracted, with a damage rate of 30-90%.
Of which, about 1,600 hectares of 1,000 households that received contracts to invest themselves in growing acacia were severely damaged.
With the above damage, the representative of the Ke Go Nature Reserve Management Board proposed: For protective forests invested by the State budget, it is necessary to have complete documents and procedures according to regulations because they are related to the liquidation and settlement of planted forests.
As for protective forests that people have invested in growing themselves, simplify procedures, create conditions for people to both exploit and supplement missing records, thereby helping people minimize damage after the storm, while limiting the risk of forest fires due to slow exploitation of broken, fallen, and dry forest trees.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ha Tinh - said that the Department has directed and instructed to focus on approving quickly and promptly the application for exploitation and collection of trees in protective forests invested by people to plant and care for them in order to reduce damage to the people.
However, the viewpoint is to facilitate quick procedures but also ensure that there are new records and procedures exploited, to limit the situation of overlapping exploitation, the exploitation process does not ensure regulations on forest fire prevention.
