Forest devastation continues as agencies neglect their jobs
The deforestation cases found recently, including 10,000 hectares in Quang Tri province, the fokienia forest devastation in Quang Nam province, and the use of 575 hectares of forest for a husbandry project in Binh Phuoc province, all show problems at supervising agencies. FAO once ranked Vietnam second in the world in the number of primitive forest devastation cases, just after Nigeria. From 2008 to 2013, the Central Highlands lost 130,000 hectares of forest, including 107,400 hectares of natural forest and 22,200 hectares of planted forest. A report released at a conference in June discussing solutions to restore forests in the Central Highlands held showed that in 2010-2014, the forestland in five provinces of the Central Highlands fell by 180,000 hectares. In the last 30 years, 1.5 million hectares of forests, or 41 percent of the total area in the region, have been lost.
