VietNamNet
Bridge – Tens of quarries are operating in the buffer zone and dozens of
restaurants selling wild meat are located on the way to Phong Nha-Ke Bang
national park in Quang Binh province, a world natural heritage. But the local
authorities do nothing.
Illegal
quarries
Though mining activities are banned in the
buffer zone of the heritage, over 30 stone-pits are operating busily. Dust from
these quarries covers a vast area. Locals are banned from passing the road for
several hours a day when these quarries explode mines.
“Over 30 stone-pits are opened in the buffer
zone. If the press does not report the situation, Phong Nha-Ke Bang heritage
will be destroyed sooner or later,” a local man told Tien Phong Newspaper.
This man agreed to assist Tien Phong’s
reporters to investigate the operation of these stone-pits.
The man picked up Tien Phong’s reporter at the
Ho Chi Minh highway, the section cross Phuc Trach commune, Quang Binh province.
The man covered his face with a mask and held a bird cage on one hand.
“I have to disguise like this otherwise it
would be very dangerous. If anyone asks you what you are doing here, remember
to tell them that we come here to trap birds,” he reminded the reporter before
they infiltrated into quarries.
The man took the reporter deeply into the
forest to reach stone-pits, which are located around over one kilometer from Ho
Chi Minh Highway, in several hamlets in Phuc Trach district, the buffer zone of
Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park.
“The buffer zone is compared as the skin of
the heritage. Mining stone in this area is peeling the skin of the heritage,”
the man said.
Each stone-pit is located on a limestone
mountain. These quarries have been operating for a long time, so most of the
mountains have lost their peaks. These illegal quarries are equipped with a lot
of machines.
The local man said that behind these quarries
is the Son River and across the river is the office of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang
national park’s management board.
According to local people, most of miners are
not local residents. They have asked the local government to close down these
illegal quarries but nothing changes.
“Frankly, we are not interested whether these
stone pits are harmful for Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park or not, but they
(quarries) seriously affect our lives. You see, the road is destroyed and dust
covers the entire hamlet. We cannot go to the road every afternoon because
that’s the time they explode mine. Several fatal accidents happened at
quarries,” the local man said.
Local people said that these quarries operate
publicly but local authorities ignore them.
Tien Phong’s reporter disguised a stone trader
to talk with the owner of a quarry, named Luong, 45, from Phuc Dong village,
Phuc Trach district.
“We can supply as much as your demand. The
price is reasonable. The quality is perfect because this is stone of heritage,”
Luong offered.
He said a cubic meter of rock is priced
VND90,000-100,000 ($4-5) and macadam is priced VND160,000 ($8) per a cubic
meter.
Asking Luong about the ban of mining
activities in this area, Luong said: “Do you think that anyone can mine rock
here? The ban is for form’s sake. It only works on chicken-hearts. If they
really ban mining, how can we sell our product?”
Saying goodbye to Luong, after making an oral
contract, the reporter saw a group of students who were riding on the rocky
road, with a lot of potholes. They complained: “It is miserable! If we do not
pass this road quickly, we will have to wait until late afternoon until they
finish mine explosion.”
On the road, a woman shouted at his cow,
urging it to walk faster.
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is located in
Bo Trach and Minh Hoa districts in Quang Binh province. The park is bordered by
Laos on the west.
The park was first nominated as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1998. It was recognized as a world natural heritage at
UNESCO's 27th general assembly session in Paris from June 30-July 5, 2003.
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is one of the
world's two largest limestone regions. In comparison with 41 other world
heritage sites which have karsts, Phong Nha – Ke Bang has dissimilar
geomorphic, geologic and biotic conditions. The karsts of Phong Nha can be
traced back to the Palaeozoic era, 400 million years ago. This makes Phong Nha
the oldest major karst in Asia. If the Hin Namno, bordering Phong Nha on the
west (in Laotian territory) was to be combined with the national park in a
continuous reserve, the combined reserve would be the largest surviving karst forest
in Southeast Asia (317,754 ha).
The area has numerous grottoes and caves,
including Son Doong, the world’s largest cave.
Besides the grotto and cave systems, Phong Nha
has the longest underground river, the largest caverns and passageways. Phong
Nha-Ke Bang also contains two dozen mountain peaks of over 1,000 meters heigh.
Noteworthy peaks are the Peak Co Rilata with a height of 1,128 m and Peak Co
Preu with a height of 1,213 m.
When
monkey meat is cheaper than pork
The core area of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National
Park is also seriously harmed. Many locals go to the park to hunt wild animals
to supply to restaurants.
Leaving stone pits in the buffer zone, the
local man took the reporter to a restaurant, which is specialized in special
cuisines processed from wild animals.
The restaurant they visited is named Hien
Trang, located along Ho Chi Minh Highway, in Phuc Trach commune. The restaurant
was fully occupied by tourists.
According to the local man, this restaurant is
famous for dishes processed from monkey. “You should order specialty cuisines.
They are very cheap here,” recommended the restaurant’s owner, a middle-aged
woman.
She opened a big refrigerator, picked up big
pieces of meat and introduced: “This is deer meat, this is wild boar meat and this
is monkey meat… These kinds of meat are very delicious.”
Asking her about monkey meat, she recommended:
“If you like stewed monkey meat, it is available. If you don’t, I can serve you
with monkey haunch, fried with chili and citronella or grilled with la lot
(spicy herb).”
“Don’t worry! Monkey meat is cheap, only
VND150,000 ($7) per kilo. Monkey meat is the cheapest among all kind of wild
meat. It is even cheaper than pork,” she said.
As the reporter did not eat the monkey-meat
cuisine, just looked at it. The local man urged: “Are you afraid? Let’s try!
They tell you it is monkey meat, but perhaps it is not monkey meat. People here
do not differentiate between monkeys or gibbons, endangered animals or not.
They only care of money. They catch both monkeys and rare gibbons. If rare
gibbons are living, they sell them as pets or process them into cuisines, with
the same price of monkey meat.”
He said monkey meat is cheap here because
locals can catch so many monkeys. Prices for other wild animals are higher
because they are scarcer than monkey.
Since sua trees were exhausted in Phong Nha-Ke
Bang, locals have shifted to hunting wild animals. They often go to the forest
in groups and take every measure to catch animals.
Over a month ago, two men in Son Trach commune
chocked to death while catching gibbons. These people are members in the same
families. After driving some gibbons into a cave, they burnt wood to smoke out
them. When they were sure that the gibbons are dead, one of them entered the
case. As the man did not get out of the cave after a long time, another got
into the cave and he did not get out too. It turned out that both of them choked
to death with the gibbons.
After the meal at the restaurant, the manager
showed of a bill and said: “Don’t you see? It is very cheap. Half of the monkey
thigh is only VND100,000 ($5)”.
The reporter asked her whether he could buy a
living monkey as pet. She agreed and told him to wait for half of an hour.
“You had not to wait like this. Monkeys were
caged in my restaurants but nobody questioned about them. Damn Hoang Nam! That
reporter wrote an article last year. After that forest rangers came here to
make things difficult for me!” she said.
According to her, after that article was
published, Quang Binh authorities continuously checked restaurants but they did
not fine or close any restaurant in the region.
“I’v heard that Hoang Nam has some friends here.
If he comes here, he would be dead! It is lucky that I have good relations with
forest rangers. Whenever inspectors come, they inform me in advance. So it is
no problem. Wait a moment, please! Rangers told me to be careful! Damn that man
(journalist Hoang Nam)!”
Taking advantage of her absence for a while,
the reporter and the local man left the restaurant. On the road from Phuc Trach
commune’s hurb to Phong Nha-Ke Bang, there are dozens of restaurants along Ho
Chi Minh highway. All of them sell specialties from Phong Nha-Ke Bang forest.
Local
authorities know, but do nothing
The reporter went to the People’s Commune of
Phuc Trach district to see the chairman. The meeting hall was full because
local authorities and businessmen were studying a new decision of the
government.
Seeing the reporter, a middle-age man stroke
up a conversation and introduced himself as a local businessman who sells
petrol. The reporter said that he came here to ask for a mining license. The
businessman dismissed, confirming that nobody can get a mining license legally
here.
“Nobody dares to license you to open a stone
pit. This is the heritage area. There are illegal pits only. Let’s go to Ha Lat
to see a lot of stone pits there but all of them are illegal. If you want to mine
stone, you must see Mr… If he nods his head, it is okay otherwise you should
not come near to this region,” he told the reporter.
After the meeting, Truong Van Hien, Party
Secretary of Phuc Trach district unwilling saw the reporter. Hien did not hide the
actual situation in Ha Lat. He even told the reporter details at illegal stone
pits. He named all owners of pits and victims of accidents occurred at pits.
According to Hien, illegal stone mining began
in Ha Lot ten years ago. Some firms were licensed to mine stone near Ho Chi
Minh Hihway. Some locals also illegally mined stone. The local authorities
banned illegal mining activities. The ban helped prevent illegal activities for
a time only.
Hien explained that the local authorities know
about the situation but they could not take strong measures, because local
people are too poor. But he asked the reporter to not write and promised to
take tough measures to suspend all stone pits.
Nguyen Van Huyen, deputy director of Phong
Nha-Ke Bang national park, also said that he knows about the situation but
under the regulations, the park is “not involved”.
Huyen said to protect the core zone well,
firstly the buffer zone must be protected. Illegal stone pits have seriously
harmed the buffer zone. But he said that the current rules do not allow the
park to involve in happenings in the buffer zone.
Huyen affirmed that the park is only
responsible to protect the core zone. The buffer zone is under the management
of the local government.
He also blamed the local authorities to the
operation of restaurants along Ho Chi Minh highway. He also said that the park
could not intervene in because of the rules. He said these restaurants are
under the local government’s management, too.
About the source of supply of wild animals to
these restaurants, Huyen said that it is impossible to confirm that wild
animals come from Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park because there is no official
investigation about it. However, he admitted that the number of monkey in the
park has reduced sharply.
Huyen said he did not know that monkey meat is
cheaper than pork, but when the reporter invited him to a restaurant to taste
monkey meat, he agreed.
After seeing Tien Phong’s reporter, Phuc Trach
district’s authorities suspended illegal stone pits. But locals said that the
authorities only appeased the press and avoid responsibility and stone pits
will resume operation very soon.
Do Trong Kim, vice chief of the Forest
Protection Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said
that the agency would investigate the situation in Phong Nha-Ke Bang.
Kim said he asked Quang Binh Province’s Forest
Protection Bureau and Phong Nha Ke Bang national park to submit report of the
case before September 30.
Kim said that the management board of Phong
Nha-Ke Bang national park must be the first that bears the responsibility for
the situation, then the local government, the forest protection bureau and
related agencies in Quang Binh province.
Tien Phong
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment