Local authorities must take prompt action to prevent households from contributing to deforestation in Dac Lac Province’s Ea Mroh Commune, according to a land surveyor.
Residents in the commune have destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest located in M’gar District to use the land for cultivation, local authorities have reported.
In 2008, Ea Mroh Commune asked Cu M’gar District to allot 692ha of forest to 84 households to manage and protect in Hamlet 20, and Ea Mroh and Chua villages.
However, only a short time later, about 200ha of forest were destroyed by the households for farming.
Nguyen Duy Khang, a land surveyor at Ea Mroh Commune, said households burned forested land to grow maize, cassava, sugarcane, coffee and cashew.
At the end of last year, the land surveyor staff of the commune discovered that at least 150ha of forest had been destroyed.
Since the beginning of this year, many households have burned more hectares of forest, Khang said.
He said deforestation was worse in Hamlet 20 compared to that in Chua and Ea Mroh villages in Ea Mroh Commune.
All 200ha of forest allotted to 42 households in Hamlet 20 have been destroyed.
Even though Ea Mroh Commune surveyors have inventoried the land and uncovered many cases of deforestation, the residents continue to practice slash-and-burn agriculture.
To date, 300ha of 937 ha of forest have been destroyed.
Le Van Hau, chairman of Ea Mroh Commune People’s Committee, said that if agencies did not take prompt action to prevent deforestation, all forested land in Ea Mroh Commune in Dac Lac would disappear.
