Storage of illegal timber found at a warehouse from Quảng Bình’s department of science and technology. — Photo baodatviet.vn |
QUẢNG BÌNH — Authorities in central Quảng Bình Province have ordered an investigation to trace the origin of timber stored illegally in a public agency’s warehouse.
The province’s department of forest rangers late last week discovered timber stored in two warehouses owned by the local department of science and technology. One of the two warehouses contained illegal timber.
Nguyễn Đức Lý, director of the science and technology department admitted that he lent his wife the warehouses to store the timber, which is a violation of regulations on the usage of public property.
Lý affirmed that his family purchased the timber legally, but the ranger department has determined that some of the timber is illegal.
Meanwhile, Nguyễn Hữu Hoài, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, told local newspapers that he had ordered the ranger department to conduct a more thorough investigation of the timber’s origin.
Logging, purchases, transport and storing of forest timber are prohibited by Vietnamese laws. Quảng Bình is among the localities in the country where illegal logging has caused severe consequences to the environment. — VNS