Mr. Trung "pays his debt" to the green forest

Mr. Ngo Quang Trung helps people reclaim wasteland to grow rice. Photo: HO QUAN

Bringing livelihood to the village

Mr. Ngo Quang Trung - Head of the forest protection team at Hamlet 3, Tra Giac Commune (under the Bac Tra My Protective Forest Management Board) has many years of experience in forest protection work.

In the past, when forest management and protection were lax, most people had to rely on forests for survival. They took wood to build houses, then burned and encroached on forests to grow upland rice and acacia.

“When I was young, due to my lack of awareness, I used to keep buffaloes for loggers, then lead buffaloes to drag wood out of the forest for hire, and transport the hired forest wood to sell. The destruction of the forest and the floods that swept through the village made me think again, if I did something wrong, I must know how to fix it,” Mr. Trung shared.

Living locally, Mr. Trung has witnessed many cases of deforestation. Since 2005, he has been in charge of the area, providing information to forest rangers about strange people entering and leaving the forest and areas at risk of deforestation. Thanks to his knowledge of the trails and openings of illegal loggers, he has led the way for forest rangers to raid and destroy many violations. Although he works quietly and without pay, Mr. Trung feels relieved.

“The core problem is still the livelihood of the people. In the past, people still had the habit of slash-and-burn cultivation to sow seeds. Some seasons were good, some were bad, and poverty was always around. Bad elements exploited this weakness to lure people to help encroach on the forest,” said Mr. Trung.

More than 5 years ago, he donned the uniform of a full-time forest protection force when recruited by the Bac Tra My Forest Protection Management Board. In charge of village 3 - a "hot spot" of deforestation with dozens of cases each year, Mr. Trung proposed that the forest owner support people in reclaiming land to grow rice. Because only when there is enough food will the mindset of living off the forest end.

“As a prestigious person in the village, for many years, I have been encouraging people not to abandon their fields, to maintain rice cultivation to ensure food. For households in difficulty, I am willing to contribute labor and spend my own money to buy seeds to support. In some areas where plowing is difficult, I buy and ask for equipment and components to install plows for people to use. However, my strength is limited, I cannot create a strong change in people's awareness, while there is still a lot of abandoned land…” - Mr. Trung worried.

Luckily, the forest owner where Mr. Trung worked was very supportive of this approach, willing to provide money and human resources to transform the area. He was assigned to be the point person to implement the model, and the people of Village 3 supported and followed it.

Among the nearly 2.5 hectares of reclaimed rice land, Mr. Trung still cannot forget the happy faces of the people of village ^3C (Tra Giac commune) when 8,000m2 in Suoi Nua area, Hanh Phuc Village was planted in 2024. That was the first time the Ca Dong people here knew how to cultivate wet rice.

“People live near the old forest, but for a long time they only know how to grow upland rice. Moving their livelihoods away from the forest is very important. I am continuing to survey to expand the production land in this village,” said Mr. Trung.

Eyes and ears to protect the forest

Today, people have become the effective "eyes and ears" of the forest protection force, but Mr. Trung is not negligent because "fire" is very unpredictable, especially in the context of increasingly harsh weather in the dry season.

MIDDLE 1 — The wet rice farming model has changed people's awareness of reducing impacts on forests. Photo: HO QUAN

“I still remember the forest fire in the area a few years ago, caused by people burning their fields. The fire spread widely under the summer sun, catching fire on adjacent acacia and rubber plantations. To prevent the fire from spreading into the forest, we had to fight the smoke and fire for several days in a row. Now that the dry season has come, the forest protection force dares not be negligent or take a day off,” said Mr. Trung.

This year, the forecast is for severe heat, so Mr. Trung and his team have increased patrols and forest control. This year, the season of ươi is in full swing among the old forests. “The more people go in and out of the forest to collect ươi, the higher the risk of deforestation and forest fires,” Mr. Trung worries.

Previously, the whole Tra My mountain range was covered in bright yellow ươi trees. However, the destructive exploitation methods such as cutting down branches and cutting down trees have caused the ươi trees to become increasingly sparse. Faced with this situation, Mr. Trung went to each roof, encouraging people to know how to preserve their livelihood, only collect them and not listen to bad people's instigation to cut down ươi trees. This behavior not only destroys the forest tree species, is subject to criminal prosecution, but also causes the loss of livelihood for descendants.

“It is not easy for a seed to grow into a forest. From now on, protecting the forest must be done from the roots, from the trees to the birds… This responsibility is not only for the forest protection force, but also needs to be aroused from the community’s awareness,” Mr. Trung expressed.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/ong-trung-tra-no-rung-xanh-3157379.html