Luong Ngoc Binh, provincial party committee secretary of central Vietnam’s Quang Binh Province, today released a document to the management board of the province-based Phong Nha – Ke Bang national park regarding the case in which valuable sua trees were felled in the park’s forest.

The are where three valuable sua trees were felled inside Phong Nha forest, Photo: Tuoi Tre

Some park rangers of the national park lacked responsibility in performing their duty, and are suspected of colluding with illegal loggers in the illicit wood exploitation in Phong Nha, the document said.

The provincial party committee urged the national park’s chiefs to specify those involved and enact sanctions or warnings on any forest management officers who have violated rules.

Earlier, the management officials of the national parks excluded two vice-heads of its park ranger unit -- Hoang Van Que and Nguyen Huu Tri -- from the force to hunt for the illegal loggers in order to “secure information.”

The two were also asked to write a report regarding the allegation that they let illegal loggers transport the wood out of the forest. 

“The content of their reports cannot be publicized now as we are focusing our effort on sweeping away illegal loggers,” said Luu Minh Thanh, director of the national park.

Que was placed on a one week leave for allegedly allowing illegal loggers to transport 100 planks of sua wood through the ranger inspection post on May 1, while Tri was denounced for receiving one sua plank as bribery.

Meanwhile, Tran Duc Tien, head of the Tro Moong park ranger unit, is also under scrutiny as he failed to detect the loggers when they illicitly chopped down three sua trees in the area he is in charge of.

In another development, early yesterday morning park rangers in Phong Nha – Ke Bang caught a group of 11 men transporting 96kg of sua roots and branches out of the forest.

The smugglers said they had collected the wood inside the forest over the last few days.

Source: Tuoi Tre