Illegal loggers resort to violence
BBC, Copyright 2000
October 23, 2000
By Owen Bennett-Jones in Hanoi
Illegal loggers in Vietnam are resorting to increasingly violent tactics.
Theoretically there are tight restrictions on logging in Vietnam, but poorly paid and ill-equipped forest rangers are finding it difficult to enforce the rules.
According to Vietnamese officials, the rangers face threats on a daily basis.
Vietnamese newspaper reports say many of those trying to cut down trees are well-organised, using mobile phones and weapons to outwit and intimidate the rangers.
Over the past three years there have been over 200 violent skirmishes between those trying to protect the forests and the illegal loggers.
Tiny rewards
Some of those who are cutting down trees are poor farmers who consider the wood to be a legitimate cash crop.
Many of them work for tiny rewards.
One hardwood tree felled, cut into planks and delivered by raft to a market could fetch a farmer as little as $15.
But further down the chain the business is highly profitable and environmentalists believe that part of the problem is that vested interests in Vietnam protect some of those involved in the logging trade.
Despite all that, observers agree that the situation is far worse in neighbouring Cambodia and Laos.
The deforestation in all three countries is having a clear impact on the environment.
This year's flood in the Mekong Delta is partly explained by the fact that the loss of forest cover in the Mekong river basin means that less water is retained upstream.