Rampant forest destruction found in Gia Lai Province
On the mountain foot, several trucks can be seen transporting timber into Hra Commune. The sound of the saw and machines and vehicles can also be heard from far away. Along the path leading into the forest, groups of illegal loggers, including many local people, walked into the forest and chose a tree to cut down. They usually operate from 3 pm to 6 pm every day. On June 2, about 15-20 people went into the forest.
Trees with a diameter of 40-60cm were fell and sawn into timber. The loggers then use bullock carts to bring the timber to the foot of the mountain.
The site is only 5km away from Hra Commune People's Committee's headquarters, yet the local authorities said they didn't know anything.
During a meeting on June 2, Hra People's Committee said they hadn't detected any forest destruction and only found a case in which one timber log was being transported.
Tran Thanh Tuan, Chairman of Hra People's Committee, said, "Over the past month, we haven't detected any illegal logging case. We'll send employees to verify and investigate the forest destruction claim."
According to Tuan, in 2020, the commune was allocated over VND60m (USD2,600) for forest protection activities. In 2021, the communal authorities proposed allocating the money to the villagers of De Kon and assigning them to help.
On June 2, the Forest Protection Department of Gia Lai Province, Forest Protection Department of Mang Yang District and Hra People's Committee worked together to catch the loggers. Eight boxes of timber were seized.
Tran Tat Dac, deputy head of Mang Yang District Forest Protection Department, said, "After receiving the report, we sent people to stake out along the main roads and found many timber trucks."
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