Mr. Trung "pays his debt" to the green forest

Mr. Ngo Quang Trung helps people reclaim wasteland to grow rice. Photo: HO QUAN

Bringing livelihoods back to the village

Mr. Ngo Quang Trung - Head of the forest protection team at Hamlet 3, Tra Giac Commune (under the Bac Tra My Forest Protection Management Board) has been involved in forest protection for many years.

In the past, when forest management and protection were lax, most people had to rely on forests for survival. They took wood to build houses, then burned and encroached on forests to grow upland rice and acacia.

“When I was young, due to my lack of awareness, I used to keep buffaloes for loggers, then lead buffaloes to drag wood out of the forest for hire, and transport the wood for hire to sell. The destruction of the forest and the floods that swept through the village made me think again, if I did something wrong, I must know how to fix it,” Mr. Trung shared.

Living locally, Mr. Trung has witnessed many cases of deforestation. Since 2005, he has been in charge of the area, providing information to forest rangers about strange objects entering and leaving the forest and areas at risk of deforestation. Thanks to his knowledge of the trails and openings of illegal loggers, he has led the way for forest rangers to sweep and destroy many violations. Although he works quietly and without pay, Mr. Trung feels relieved.

“The core problem is still the livelihood of the people. In the past, people still had the habit of slash-and-burn cultivation, which means slash-and-burn cultivation to sow seeds. Some seasons were good, some were bad, and poverty was rife. Bad elements exploited this weakness to lure people into helping to encroach on the forest,” said Mr. Trung.

More than 5 years ago, he donned the uniform of a full-time forest ranger when recruited by the Bac Tra My Forest Protection Management Board. In charge of village 3 - a "hot spot" of deforestation with dozens of cases each year, Mr. Trung proposed that the forest owner support people to reclaim land to grow rice. Because only when there is enough food, the mindset of living off the forest will be closed.

“As a prestigious person in the village, for many years, I have been encouraging people not to abandon their fields, to maintain rice cultivation to ensure food. For households in difficulty, I am willing to contribute labor and spend my own money to buy seeds to support. In some areas where plowing is difficult, I buy and ask for equipment and spare parts to install plows for people to use. But my strength is limited, I cannot create a strong change in people's awareness, while there is still a lot of abandoned land…” - Mr. Trung worried.

Luckily, the forest owner where Mr. Trung worked was very supportive of this method, willing to provide money and human resources to transform the area. He was assigned to be the point person to implement the model, and was supported and followed by the people of village 3.

Among the nearly 2.5 hectares of reclaimed rice land, Mr. Trung still does not forget the happy faces of the people of village 3C (Tra Giac commune) when 8,000 ^{square meters} in the Suoi Nua area, Hanh Phuc Village were planted in 2024. That was the first time the Ca Dong people here knew how to cultivate wet rice.

“People live near the old forest, but for a long time they only know how to grow rice on the slopes. Moving their livelihoods away from the forest is very important. I am continuing to survey to expand the production land in this village,” said Mr. Trung.

Eyes and ears to protect the forest

Today, people have become the effective "eyes and ears" of the forest protection force, but Mr. Trung is not negligent because "fire" is very unpredictable, especially in the context of increasingly harsh weather in the dry season.

MIDDLE 1 — The wet rice farming model has changed people's awareness of reducing impact on forests. Photo: HO QUAN

“I still remember the forest fire in the area a few years ago, caused by people burning their fields. The fire spread widely under the summer sun, catching on to the adjacent acacia and rubber plantations. To prevent the fire from spreading into the forest, we had to fight the smoke and fire for several days in a row. Now that the dry season has come, the forest protection force dare not be negligent or take a day off,” Mr. Trung said.

This year, the forecast is that the weather will be extremely hot, so Mr. Trung and his team members have increased patrols and forest control. This year, the season of the ươi tree is in full swing among the old forests. “The more people go in and out of the forest to collect ươi tree, the higher the risk of deforestation and forest fires,” Mr. Trung worries.

Previously, the whole Tra My mountain range was covered in bright yellow ươi trees. However, the destructive exploitation methods such as cutting down branches and felling trees have made the ươi trees increasingly sparse. Faced with this situation, Mr. Trung went to each house, encouraging people to preserve their livelihoods, only collect them and not listen to bad people's instigation to cut down ươi trees. This behavior not only destroys the forest trees, is prosecuted criminally, but also causes the loss of livelihoods for descendants.

“It is not easy for a seed to grow into a forest. From now on, protecting the forest must be done from the roots, from the trees to the birds… This responsibility is not only the responsibility of the forest protection force, but also needs to be aroused from the community’s awareness” - Mr. Trung expressed.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/ong-trung-tra-no-rung-xanh-3157379.html