Since the beginning of this year, 2,463 illegal logging cases have beenfound nationwide. In actions taken in several cases, 44 forest rangershave been injured and four people killed, according to the report.
Local authorities should immediately act to educate and come up withnecessary solutions to end the illegal exploitation, said Ha Cong Tuan,deputy head of the department.
He was speaking last weekat the National Conference on Forestry Management and Protection in theCentral Highland province of Gia Lai .
Tuan also called on the local authorities to bring illegal cases to court.
"In the long term, localities should properly use land and forestresources as mentioned in the socio-economic master plan," he said.
The situation of illegal forest exploitation was particularly bad inthe northern provinces of Bac Kan , Lang Son and Thai Nguyen; thecentral provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa; and theCentral Highland province of Dak Lak , the conference heard./.