Rampant illegal logging of redwood (Afzelia xylocarpa) in the Central Highlands province of Dac Nong is threatening to destroy a national historical and cultural heritage site.
Forest rangers say that meager resources and resourceful loggers have heavily damaged the 1,300-ha Dray Sap special use forest in Krong No District.
The forest and the waterfalls of Gia Long and Dray Sap in Dac So Commune have been recognised as a national historical and cultural heritage site, that the Dac Nong Trade and Tourism Company manages to exploit its tourism potential.
Le Men, deputy director of the Gia Long-Dray Sap Waterfalls area, says loggers enter the forest from all sides at day and night to log redwood.
Redwood is a highly sought after wood for its beauty and sturdiness against the elements, and widely used in interior decorations including wooden-tiled floors, Men says.
"The company has only three people to protect the forest, so most logging cases are discovered only after illegal loggers have carried the wood out of the forest."
The company dug two trenches along the 7-km asphalted road in the middle of the forest to prevent poachers’ vehicles from transporting wood out of the forest.
But the illegal loggers are able to open new roads, filling sections of the trenches or using tree-trunks spanning the trenches to get the wood out, Men explains.
The company has also hired four bodyguards from the Dak Lak-based A Chau Security Company to cope with the loggers, but the move has not paid off. The loggers have attacked forest rangers and cut redwood trees even in areas near the management board offices of the tourism company.
The company has assigned 30 families in Dac So Commune to protect the 1,300ha of forest land at VND100,000 per ha per year.
But when the deforestation is discovered, they claim not to know who did it, according to inspectors from the Krong No District Forest Protection Office.
Office chief Tran Van Giang says redwood illegal logging in the province has been a hot issue for nearly one month.
"Loose management by the Dac Nong Trade and Tourism Company is one of main factors of leading to the destruction," Giang says.
Besides, there are 50 families living in the forest who have planted 100ha of coffee and cashew, but local authorities have not dealt with them yet, he notes.
These families have broken a pledge given earlier that they would not destroy and encroach on forest land.
The office has recently transferred two cases of illegal encroachment on 4ha of the forest land to investigation agencies, Giang says.
He warns that if the wanton destruction of the Dray Sap special use forest continues, the national historical and cultural heritage site will disappear very soon.