Raising awareness of forest protection and forest fire prevention and fighting

Van Chan - Tram Tau - Nghia Lo Forest Protection Department (the Department) manages the forest area of ​​Van Chan district, Tram Tau district and Nghia Lo town. This area has a strongly fragmented terrain, a hot and dry climate in the summer, and the risk of forest fires is always present. In order to protect the existing forest area and help people develop their economy and livelihoods under the forest canopy, the Department not only strengthens professional measures to protect forests and prevent and fight forest fires (BVR, PCCCR) but also promotes propaganda and raises people's awareness to minimize damage caused by forest fires.

Reporter (PV) of Yen Bai Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Vu Dinh Truong - Head of Van Chan - Tram Tau - Nghia Lo Forest Protection Department about this issue.

PV : With a fairly large management area and also localities where forest encroachment and forest fires frequently occur during the hot season, can you share about the current forest protection and fire prevention work in the area?

Mr. Vu Dinh Truong : In order to protect the forest area well, every year, the Department advises the People's Committees of districts and towns to issue documents and directives on strengthening forest fire prevention and control measures in the dry season; strengthening the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Forestry Development Program; adjusting and supplementing forest fire prevention and control plans at the commune level and of forest owners who are organizations, households, individuals, and communities; consolidating forces and maintaining the activities of forest fire fighting teams in villages, hamlets, and residential groups; implementing the signing of forest fire prevention and control commitments to households, with special attention paid to ethnic minority areas living near forests.

Mr. Vu Dinh Truong - Head of Van Chan Forest Protection Department - Tram Tau - Nghia Lo town.

The District organizes forest fire response drills in high-risk areas; repairs propaganda walls, forest fire warning signs, and fire-free forest signs; receives and distributes equipment for forest fire prevention and control. At the same time, the District directs local forest rangers to advise the People's Committees of communes and towns to effectively implement fire prevention and control work and be ready to respond according to the "4 on-site" motto; strictly implements the directives of districts and towns on strengthening forest fire prevention and control measures in the dry season of 2024 - 2025; counts areas at risk of spreading into the forest and signs a commitment to strictly implement the slash-and-burn process, reaching 930 areas/634 households in 11 communes of Tram Tau district; regularly inspects and urges forest fire prevention and control according to the established plans and strategies.

PV : Could you please tell us about the solutions that the forestry sector and local authorities have implemented to raise public awareness about PCCCR?

Mr. Vu Dinh Truong : Along with directing the forest protection teams in villages and hamlets to strictly implement the duty hours and shifts according to each fire forecast level, the unit also increases the force to inspect and patrol areas at high risk of fire to warn people; assigns fire prevention and control forces to be on duty 24/7 to grasp the developments and forest situation in each locality; organizes professional training and fire prevention and control skills for forest owners and forces participating in forest fire fighting in key communes; inspects and strictly handles cases of slash-and-burn farming in natural forest areas.

Along with that, we focus on three main groups of solutions: communication, training, drills and building core forces at the grassroots level. In addition, we use commune loudspeakers, social networks Zalo, Facebook to regularly inform about forest fire forecast levels and recommend safe behavior when entering the forest.

At the same time, every year, the District coordinates with the Fire Prevention and Control Committees of districts and towns to organize training courses on fire fighting techniques and forest fire response skills for the shock forces of communes. Each commune and village has a self-managed fire prevention and control team, usually consisting of 5 to 15 people. They are people who understand the forest, live with the forest, have a high sense of responsibility, and can handle initial situations very effectively.

In addition, we have strengthened the inspection and control of violations of the Forestry Law and illegal forest encroachment. Since the beginning of 2025, Van Chan district has detected and handled 11 violations of the Forestry Law, 5 violations of regulations on forest product records management; 1 case of illegal storage of forest products; 2 cases of illegal transportation of forest products causing damage to over 608m2 ^of forest. The unit has confiscated over 8m3 ^of various types of wood, imposed administrative fines and paid over 85 million VND to the state budget.

Thereby, awareness of forest protection and forest fire prevention and control in the community has clearly changed. Many villages have established conventions and village regulations on forest protection, linking community responsibility with forest resources.

PV : To raise awareness of BVR and PCCCR work in the community, what solutions has the unit had, sir?

Mr. Vu Dinh Truong: In addition to promoting the forest planting movement according to the annual plan, the unit focuses on propagating in a diversified manner, from direct to social networks, grassroots radio and documents in ethnic languages; strengthening fire prevention and fighting education right in schools, integrating it into the curriculum and activities of the Youth Union and the Young Pioneers. The district continues to strengthen and improve the capacity of grassroots fire prevention and fighting teams, equipping them with specialized machinery, upgrading the fire-break system in high-risk forest areas; closely coordinating between the government - forest rangers - police - military in inspection work, strictly handling violations; at the same time praising good models and typical examples of fire prevention and fighting.

The unit continues to review and supplement fire prevention and control plans at commune and village levels to be closer to reality; organize training courses on forest fire prevention and control skills for residential groups and teams. In addition, the District is proposing to localities to invest in more drones to monitor forests from above, detect fire points early; continue to build models of "Safety Plans for Fire Prevention and Control", clearly assign forest management to the community, linking people's rights with protection responsibilities. We hope to have more support from projects and organizations on forest protection, helping localities develop sustainable forestry, harmonizing economic development and natural resource protection.

PV : Thank you very much!

Thanh Tan ( performed )

Source: https://baoyenbai.com.vn/12/350861/Nang-cao-nhan-thuc-ve-bao-ve-rung-phong-chay-chua-chay-rung.aspx