To better understand the growing controversy over leasing forest lands to foreign developers of tree plantations, VietNamNet reporters travelled to Quang Ninh province.
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“We collect bamboo from the natural forest to weave baskets and collect reeds to dry for brooms. Now foreigners come. If they lease all the forest land here to grow eucalyptus, what will my family do to live?” said Tang A Tai said. |
Background: Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on March 10 instructed local governments to pause leasing forest land to foreign investors until the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (MARD) completes a review of projects of this kind.
Dung acted on the basis of concerns raised by retired Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen, who protested that among the areas being leased were tracts of old-growth forest, forests in watersheds and in strategically significant border locations.
According to the MARD, ten provinces have granted investment certificates to plant forest to foreign investors for a total area of 305,000 hectares. Actually, provinces have thus far only allocated and leased 33,800 hectares of forest land, or eleven percent of the total area licenced.
VietNamNet’s reporters have traveled to Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Nghe An and Quang Nam to investigate the situation, and thus provide further information for the government’s reference.
Part 1 (Quang Ninh): “We will starve to death without the forest”
Quang Ninh province has licenced a Hong Kong company, InnovGreen, to plant trees on 100,000 hectares. This firm has planted over 2000 hectares of eulypcatus on the 3300 hectares that it has so far been allocated.
This company is carrying out its project in six districts: Hoanh Bo, Ba Che, Tien Yen, Binh Lieu, Dam Ha and Hai Ha, and in Mong Cai City.
Among these districts, Binh Lieu and Mong Cai border China. Tien Yen district borders Dinh Lap district in Lang Son province, which also hosts a project of InnovGreen.
In this firm’s investment certificate, the total area promised is 100,000 hectares, nearly one fourth of the total forest land area of Quang Ninh province.
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From Ha Lau town, Tien Yen district, Quang Ninh province, it took VietNamNet reporters over one hour on motorbikes to reach Ban Danh village. The village is considered a “hot spot” in Quang Ninh province, because local people have been resolutely protesting the lease of forest land to foreign investors.
“We definitively don’t agree. My village has 17 families. Five families don’t have any forest land at all, so how can we give forest to foreigners” asked village chief Tang Coong Venh.
The reporters met with families who don’t have forest land at the recommendation of the village chief.
Weaving a bamboo basket in front of his tattered house, Tang A Tai said that his family is in very difficult circumstances because they don’t own forest land. His family is makes its living exploiting forest products.
“We collect bamboo from the natural forest to weave baskets and collect reeds to dry for brooms. Now foreigners come. If they lease all the forest land here to grow eucalyptus, what will my family do to live?” Tai said truthfully.
All the 17 families in this village depend on the forest. Pun Tai, 65, said: “Thanks to the forest I can earn some money from chopping reeds and drying them to sell. If foreigners chop down all bamboos and reeds to grow eucalyptus, how can we live? We have been living on the forest so we cannot give it to them (foreigners)”.
Ban Danh villagers also worry they may lose their only pasture. Tang Phuc Henh, who has the biggest herd of cattle in the village, said: “Our village has over 100 buffaloes and cows. The Ban Danh hill is our only grass pasture. If foreigners lease it to grow eucalyptus, where will our cattle graze? We will try to keep the pasture at any cost!”.
Hoang Vinh Hai, chairman of Ha Lau commune, verified the local people’s worries. He said that this case was reported to the district administration and InnovGreen stopped planting eucalyptus on that hill.
Like people in Ban Danh village, La Van Vi, secretary of the youth branch of Ha Lau commune, and 13 families in Ban Buong village don’t agree to yield forest to foreign investors.
“Why should we lease our forest to foreigners and become their hired workers?” Vi asked. “Man can give birth but land cannot. If they keep the forest for 50 years, not only I but also my children and grandchildren will not know what to do to live. Many things will change in 50 years but one thing is sure: without forest land, we will starve to death!”
Leasing forest in Ha Lau commune, InnovGreen promised to build roads and create jobs for local people but until now, the ten kilometer road to Ban Danh village is still a rough dirt road.
Ha Lau commune vice chairman Giap Hong Hanh emphasizes that “InnovGreen has not built the road or anything else for local people. This half-made road is funded by the local budget.”
Since it was licenced to plant forest in Ha Lau in 2006, the InnovGreen Company has planted 96 hectares of eucalyptus in Ban Khuong village. Initially, it hired local people to tend this plantation, but many of them have quit because the pay is low and the work is hard.
Vi said InnovGreen paid only 70,000 dong (nearly $4) per day but workers have to cut down trees, carry fertilizer and transport seedlings to hill peaks. Local people don’t want such hard work for such low pay.
Asking local officials why land has been allocated to foreigners when many local people don’t have ownership rights to parcels of forest land, Ha Lau commune’s chairman Hoang Vinh Hai explainedd that the commune administrative has tried to allocate land to local residents but they refused to accept it.
At Tien Yen district headquarters, vice chairman Vu Hong Thang, explained it another way. After forest land was allocated to InnovGreen, some new families were established. The district administration knew that these families didn’t have land yet, and invited them to submit applications for land but these families didn’t do so.
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Ban Danh villagers also worry they may lose their only pasture. |
At present, the Ha Lau forest has many acacia trees which grow very well. The reporters asked why the local government doesn’t let local people develop acacia plantations, but instead allows InnovGreen, a Hong Kong firm, to grow eucalyptus.
Thang said that this is the policy of Quang Ninh province and his district has to follow it. “This is the province’s instruction. But we are considering whether this project is effective or not. We have to be careful to keep land for our descendants,” Thang said.
Quang Ninh doesn’t care whether investors are local or foreign as long as they do the job
Quang Ninh’s economy has developed strongly recently, so why does the province feel it must lease forest land to foreign investors, a VietNamNet reporter asked.
Quang Ninh province vice chairman Nguyen Van Doc: In 2005, the MTV InnovGreen Company came to Quang Ninh to survey, and it was licenced to plant forest in Quang Ninh the following year. This investor began planting forest in 2007 on bare hills and land which did not belong to any local resident. This project is currently being carried out in six districts in Quang Ninh.
Initially, the investor has grown Cu Vy eucalyptus in Hai Ha district on a trial basis under a permit issued by by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The province has allocated 3300 hectares of forest land to this company, including 2800 hectares for growing new trees and 500 hectares for maintenance. The investor is not allowed to chop down natural forest to plant new trees.
VietNamNet: Why doesn’t Quang Ninh develop forest itself instead of leasing forest land to foreigners?
Doc: The government encourages afforestation; the national plan aims at increasing forest coverage by five million hectares. The faster forest coverage increases, the better it is. Quang Ninh aims is mobilizing all resources, both local and foreign, including InnovGreen, to grow forest.
The areas that are easy to access to have been allocated to the people and local investors. We are trying to encourage investment in remote areas and in reforestation of denuded land. Beginning eight years ago, we have tried to turn such land over to local people but they wouldn’t accept the responsibility.
Only capable investors can invest in difficult areas where the people don’t have the capability to plant forest. For environmental purposes (reforestation), we need to encourage such activities.
VietNamNet: Did InnovGreen commit to employ local workers?
Doc: This company has some advantages over others, especially it has the capital resources to grow forest quickly. If it invests in a large area, it must enlist the cooperation of the local people to take care of the forest.
This investor builds roads to the forest and those roads also serve local people. The company also committed to implement small projects in populated areas to improve local facilities.
VietNamNet: Did the local government allocate natural and protected forest to this foreign investor?
Doc: We allocated them a small area of natural forest but we don’t allow them to chop down trees to grow new trees. Forest rangers oversee this. We don’t allocate protected forest to them.
VietNamNet: Is there any agreement between Quang Ninh and InnovGreen in using labour? Are they allowed bring their workers to Vietnam during their 50 year lease?
This is controlled by our laws. Foreign workers must have work permits to come to Vietnam. The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs issued Decree 84 on issuance of work permits for foreign labourers. At present, they are using nine foreign technicians.
Foreign investors are only allowed to grow trees, not build houses or do other things on forest land. This is entirely under Vietnam’s control.
VietNamNet: How has Quang Ninh’s budget benefited from this project?
Doc: Profit from this project so far is tiny because InnovGreen is planting trees only. Whenever they cut down the trees to sell timber, we can earn from this project.
Since 2009 we have paused leasing more land while we are revising our regulations. InnovGreen is planting trees on its allocated land areas.
VietNamNet: Which of the forest areas that are allocated to the foreign investor is the nearest to the Vietnam-China border?
Doc: That is in Hai Son commune near Mong Cai city. We consulted the security agencies at district and provincial level before granting the permit. The military considers Hai Son to be a border commune; it is 10-15 kilometers from the border. The border area is under strict military control.
VietNamNet: So much for the forest near the border. Was the entire area of the InnovGreen projects OK’d by the defence-security agency?
Doc: Yes, the whole project was coordinated with the provincial military headquarters; they commented in an official letter.
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PV
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