VietNamNet Bridge – At least 145ha of land has been returned to Bu Gia Map National Park by local residents in the central province of Binh Phuoc, according to the local forest management board.

VietNamNet  Bridge - Top businessmen and high-ranking state officials in the Central Highlands have spent billions of dong to build wooden villas.

Migrants have step by step encroached on forests from the outside, while illegal loggers have been dismantling trees in the core area. The Yok Don forests are withering and shrinking.

VietNamNet Bridge - With abundant resources and a variety of rare wood, the Yok Don National Park is a target for illegal loggers.

VietNamNet Bridge - As illegal loggers are ‘protected’ by local officials, it will be difficult to stop deforestation in the Central Highlands unless heavy sanctions are applied.

The project on allocating forests to hundreds of enterprises to manage and protect to forestland in five Central Highlands provinces has failed. Forests have been lost and land has been illegally appropriated.

Land disputes in the Central Highlands have spread to new areas. In Dak Lak and Dak Nong, conflicts have occurred, including a number of murders. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Illegal loggers have been using motor saws in Yok Don National Park and felling dozens of precious trees for a long time. But no agency has taken responsibility for the deforestation.

VietNamNet Bridge - Many wooden houses built just two to three years ago have been sold and taken from of the mountainous district of Tuyen Hoa in Quang Binh province.  

VietNamNet Bridge - Large forests in Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces continue to be cut down despite serious protection measures applied by local authorities.  

VietNamNet Bridge - The forests in the Central Highlands continue to be cut down though they were closed more than a year ago as ordered by PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and to increase its absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) to 33 million tonnes.

The forests in Central Highlands have been disappearing at a rapid rate amid the helplessness of forest management units. In many ‘hot spots’, forests have been cleared, although they still exist on paper.

VietNamNet Bridge - A village in the central city of Hue has decided to protect the loc vung (Barringtonia acutangula) forest, which is over 300 years old and called the ‘green lung of the village’.

VietNamNet Bridge - In June 2016, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered closures of natural forests to prevent illegal logging. 

In 2013, MOIT decided to remove 400 small-scale hydropower projects out of the hydropower development program. But many projects were then carried out in the mountainous provinces of Ha Giang and Cao Bang.

The National Committee for Climate Change needs to enhance its international co-operation and learn from other countries’ experience to promote climate change response in Viet Nam, 

 VietNamNet Bridge – Dak Nong Province’s forest protection division has suspended four managers and rangers in Dak G’long District over the recent heavy deforestation in Quang Son Commune.

Miners have given back their mines and left Ha Giang province after causing serious consequences to the local environment, but the environmental protection fees were not enough to compensate for the pollution local people are suffering. 

Ancient nghien trees (Excentrodendron tonkinense) in Ha Giang province, in the middle of old forests and on high cliffs, have been lost due to illegal logging and clearing to make room for hydropower plants and mineral exploitation.