Lang Son: The difficult problem of preserving natural forests

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- In recent years, despite many efforts in forest protection and development, Lang Son province still has cases of illegal logging of natural forests. The problem of preserving natural forests is still a difficult problem for all levels and sectors.

Violations of forestry laws in the province still occur in remote and disadvantaged communes of Lang Son province. The fact that people - forest owners destroy natural forests themselves has created negative public opinion about the management of natural forest areas.

From a practical perspective

Following the guidance of the leaders of Thien Thuat commune, we went to Khuoi Cuom village - the area where illegal deforestation occurred in April 2024. Only by "witnessing" did we see that the lives of the people here are truly difficult.

It is known that Khuoi Cuom is a village in the list of particularly difficult villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas of Lang Son province. Accordingly, Khuoi Cuom village currently has 106 households, of which 32 are poor and near-poor. The main income of the people here is mainly based on agriculture and forestry.

Mr. HXB (Khuoi Cuom village, Thiet Thuat commune) - the person who committed the act of deforestation confided that, due to lack of understanding of the provisions of the law, when he saw that in the forest area assigned by the state to his family to manage and protect there was a poor forest, he brought a hand saw to cut it down with the purpose of clearing the land to plant forest trees with more economic value. When the authorities discovered, stopped and explained the regulations on natural forest protection, he himself realized his violation.

In addition to Mr. HXB's case, in Thiet Thuat commune in 2024, there were 2 other cases of similar violations.

Mr. Hoang Anh Vu, Vice Chairman of Thiet Thuat Commune People's Committee shared: Thien Thuat is a particularly difficult commune, after the merger it is still a commune in region 3. The poverty rate of the commune is still 11.14% (about 170 households). The economic conditions of the commune are still slow to develop, the lives of people in the commune largely depend on the forest. Due to economic pressure, some households assigned to manage the forest have arbitrarily cut down the forest with the sole purpose of planting other types of forest trees. The act of cutting down natural forests is a violation of the law, and violators have been handled in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Duong, Head of the Binh Gia Regional Forest Protection Department, said: In 2024, the Binh Gia Regional Forest Protection Department discovered and handled 32 cases of illegal deforestation; in the first 10 months of 2025, 11 cases of illegal deforestation were handled . Most of the illegal deforestation cases in the area were due to some households destroying natural forests to plant other raw materials instead. In addition, some other cases were due to the location of the fields adjacent to the natural forest area, but due to the small cultivated field area, some households arbitrarily leveled the natural forest land to expand the cultivated fields.

Binh Gia Regional Forest Protection Department officers inventory the amount of wood seized from forestry violations.

This situation does not only exist in the communes of the old Binh Gia district, but according to the records of handling illegal deforestation cases in the past, most of the violations are caused by people's lack of knowledge, with the thought of cutting down exhausted natural forests to plant other trees instead without knowing that this is a violation of the law.

It is known that out of the total area of ​​more than 246 thousand hectares of natural forest in the whole province, after review, there are currently more than 90 thousand hectares of natural forests that are not capable of developing into forests with reserves, most of which are forests recovered after slash-and-burn cultivation and depleted forests, natural forests that are not capable of self-recovery. Of which, more than 60 thousand hectares of natural forest that are not capable of developing into forests with reserves have been assigned to people for management (accounting for 66.2%).

This reality directly affects people who are assigned land for production forests which are natural forests. Because according to regulations on natural forest protection, production forests are natural forests, people assigned to manage and protect them are not allowed to arbitrarily impact or improve them, but only manage and protect them. Meanwhile, people who depend on forestry are in dire need of land to cultivate and develop economic raw material forests.

In addition to the lack of land for cultivation and raw material forest planting, according to regulations, the current investment level, investment support, protection and development of the State for forest management, protection and development is still low. Specifically, according to the Forestry Law, the State is providing funding for forest protection in communes in region I at 500,000 VND/ha/year; in communes in region II and region III at 600,000 VND/ha/year. Thus, if a household in region III is assigned to manage and protect 10 hectares of forest, the annual support level is 6 million VND. This level of income is not enough for consumption for a household, while many households do not have any additional income from the forest.

According to the assessment report of the Provincial Forest Protection Department, people's lives depend on forestry, lack of land for cultivation, economic forest development, putting pressure on forests, leading to violations of forestry laws still occurring.

Difficulties in protecting natural forests

The story of people illegally destroying natural forests due to pressure to make a living has been going on "persistently" for the past few years.

According to statistics from the Provincial Forest Protection Department, from January 2024 to October 2025, there were 135 cases of illegal deforestation in the province with a total damaged forest area of ​​64,684 hectares. Of which, the damaged production forest area was 59,431 hectares, and the damaged protection forest area was 5,252 hectares.

Violations caused by forest owners mainly occurred in communes of Binh Gia, Van Lang, Trang Dinh districts and some other old districts of Lang Son province.

As in the old Van Lang district area, in 2025, in the area managed by the Van Lang Regional Forest Protection Department, there were 3 cases of illegal deforestation.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Khoi, Head of the Van Lang Regional Forest Protection Department, said: The current management area of ​​the unit has 5 communes with a total natural forest area of ​​nearly 20 thousand hectares. Such a large area but there are only 10 forest rangers in charge of the area . In particular, according to the regulations before the merger, 1 forest ranger is in charge of 1 commune, but after the merger, with the forest area of ​​the previously merged communes, there must be at least 2 forest rangers in charge of 1 area. The large management area makes forest patrolling by the officers in charge of the area difficult.

This difficulty is also the difficulty of the forest rangers in other areas. It is known that the whole province has only more than 80 forest rangers in charge of the area (not including the leadership level). Before the merger, the number of more than 80 local forest rangers had to be in charge of 181 communes and 14 towns. Although after the merger, the number of communes has decreased, the forest area that needs to be managed remains the same, while the number of local forest rangers has not increased in terms of personnel.

Officers of the Van Lang Regional Forest Protection Department inspected and discovered that natural forest wood was being cut down in the forest area in Khuoi Tooc village, Hoi Hoan commune.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Hung, Head of the Provincial Forest Protection Department, said: The number of forest rangers in the province is currently low. The current staffing for the provincial forest rangers is the lowest in terms of area compared to the northern provinces. Each ranger is responsible for 2-3 communes, with an area of ​​5,000-7,000 hectares. The thin staffing makes it difficult to patrol, protect, and prevent forestry violations.

The work of protecting natural forests is not only difficult due to the thin forest rangers, but currently, although all communes have organized forest protection teams in the villages, the personnel in the forest protection teams in the villages are mainly part-time, and only when there is a specific incident or plan, the teams will assign personnel to participate in forest patrols with local forest rangers. The coordination between local authorities in building and implementing plans to coordinate forest patrols and protection with forest rangers and commune police is also not tight. These are also the reasons why the work of patrolling and preventing forestry violations in general is still facing many difficulties.

According to the Head of the Provincial Forest Protection Department, in order to control the area more closely, the Provincial Forest Protection Department is consulting and submitting a request to add local forest rangers to ensure that the requirements of the task are met. At the same time, the Department is continuing to advise the Department of Agriculture and Environment to propose to the Provincial People's Committee to study and consider increasing the level of support for households participating in forest management and protection. At the same time, the forest rangers will arrange a mobile inspection team to coordinate with the forest rangers managing the area to increase the frequency of forest patrols. Thereby, it aims to prevent illegal deforestation by people.

From the data on the number of illegal deforestation cases detected and handled by the forest rangers, it can be seen that the early prevention of deforestation by the people has not been achieved yet. Therefore, in order for the management, protection and development of forests in the province to be stable and maintained, in addition to the efforts of the forest rangers, it is also necessary to have the attention and participation of all levels and sectors, and close coordination between relevant forces. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the propaganda work on forest protection, review, supplement and adjust the coordination regulations with forces and sectors in the province to suit the new situation.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/lang-son-nan-giai-bai-toan-giu-rung-tu-nhien-5063562.html