Quang Nam (VNA) - Two illegal loggingcases were discovered in the central province of Quang Nam’s Dong Giang and NamGiang districts in March, with 77 big trees chopped down.

Local rangers and the two protective forestmanagement boards of Song Kon and Nam Song Bung claimed they were unaware ofthe cases until the public security agency began investigations.

The cases are part of a series of illegallogging violations in the province since last September, when 110ha ofprotected forest was illegally cut down in Tien Phuoc district’s Tien Lanh commune.

The provincial investigation teams said theyfound a path had been cleared for transporting logs from the forest and theillegal logging had been ongoing for months.

A field examination found more than 126cu.m oflog were left by loggers, while more than 70 percent of the chopped timber hadbeen transported from the forest.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’sCommittee Le Tri Thanh admitted that insufficient administration and poormanagement in forest protection and patrol had resulted in forest devastations.Thanh was blamed by the provincial Party Inspection Committee for hisnegligence on illegal logging cases in recent years.

Ho Van Minh, director of the protectiveforest management board of Song Kon, confessed that irresponsibility inmanagement and patrol was major reason that illegal loggers axed 33 bigironwood trees – a timber that loggers are banned from exploiting.

Thanh said the province will investigate theillegal logging cases and uncover suspected collusion among local rangers andillegal loggers, timber traders and buyers.

Head of the provincial forest protectionsub-department Phan Tuan said local rangers have carried out 210 patrol tripsin the forest, discovering 242 illegal logging cases and seizing 306cu.m oftimber and 246kg of wild animal meat since early 2018.

Tuan said six illegal logging cases wereprosecuted, while 20 other cases have been under investigation. He said poormanagement of forest rangers and weak punishment were the main reasons for aseries of forest clearings.

In an illegal logging case in Tien Phuoc lastyear, three loggers, who were arrested for felling 3ha of forest, were onlyfined 700,000 VND (30 USD) each.

Quang Nam province has 425,000haof forest, of which 388,000ha were primary forest, with an estimated 30 millioncubic metres of timber.

In 2016, 60 rare and endangered Po Mu trees, athreatened species on the International Union of Conservation of Nature’sRed List in 2006, were illegally cut for timber in Nam Giang district. Severalofficials in the district were punished for those illegal logging operations.-VNA