The pine forest, located north of Khe Sanh Town in Quang Tri's Huong Hoa District, spans over 200 ha and is around 40 years old. It is managed by the management board of the Huong Hoa-Dakrong Protection Forest.
People have been ruining parts of the forest to make room for cash crops or to steal land since last year. Such ruined trees are seen mostly near Tan Do Lake and along Hung Vuong and Tran Hoan roads.
A swath of the pine forest on Tran Hoan Road, at the boundary between Khe Sanh Town and Tan Lien Commune, has been ruined by people using chainsaws. Several trees have been dead for a long time.
A tree that has been cut down illegally.
Nguyen Cong Tuan, director of the management board of the Huong Hoa-Dakrong Protected Forest, said the board manages 23,000 ha of the forest.
"For now, we have tasked technical employees with finding the right medicine to save trees that have been cut," said Tuan, adding that the sabotage has been happening for years, but there have been no specific statistics on the total area affected or and the number of trees.
Tuan said that due to the small number of personnel, one employee is in charge of an entire commune, so management has not been effective enough.
Swathes of paperbarks grow in between the stumps of pine trees that have been cut down.
The pine forest was formerly maintained by the Huong Hoa Afforestation Yard. Sap harvested from the trees was their main commercial component.
In 1996-1997, the forest became a protection forest and was put under the management of the board.
A dying swath of pine forest is gradually replaced with other trees like mango or coffee.
Dang Trong Van, chairman of the Huong Hoa People's Committee, said the protective forest plays an important role regarding the aesthetics and ecosystem of Khe Sanh Town. Part of the forest has been planned for tourism purposes. However, the forest's owner has not deployed enough measures to protect the forest from saboteurs.
"For areas where they are invaded by other trees, the forest's owner may fine those who planted the trees. If no one comes to take responsibility, the tree must be taken out," Van said.
A shanty belonging to locals is erected within the forest. Several new trees can be seen growing near the area, while many pine trees are seen dead.
Le Quang Thuan, deputy chairman of Huong Hoa District, said those who have sabotaged the forest are locals. Authorities had caught them red-handed planting new trees on forest grounds, but they have not yet been caught in the act of sabotaging the pine trees directly.
Two days prior to that most recent incident, authorities had a field check and requested the cooperation of the forest's owner to figure out the cause of the sabotage, and ways to prevent it.
A 40-year-old protective pine forest in Quang Tri is sabotaged. Video by VnExpress/Hoang Tao
