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Story Publication logo January 14, 2022

Ho Chi Minh City Lost More Than 1,000 Hectares of Forest (Vietnamese)

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A series of tropical trees.
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An investigation into how 1,000 hectares of forests in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, have been...

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This story excerpt was translated from Vietnamese. To read the original story in full, visit Nguoi Dothi. Our Rainforest Journalism Fund website is available in English, Spanish, bahasa Indonesia, French, and Portuguese.


In mid-2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) asked the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to announce the status of its forests in 2020 in the context that provinces and cities across the country were also due to announce their forest status for the same year. By the end of December 2021, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City announced the state of the forest in 2019 and 2020 with the total forest area of each year adjusted down by more than 3,000 hectares compared to previous years. And that doesn't even take into account another nearly 1,000 hectares of forests that have mysteriously disappeared.


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Recently, the current and forest area of the city in 2019 and 2020 are different from 2018.

Reduced to More Than 3,000 Hectares of Forest

Accordingly, the decision to announce the status of the forest in the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee at the end of last year showed that the total forest area of the city in 2019 and 2020 decreased by more than 3,000 hectares compared to 2018, with the forest cover rate of 15.9%.


The 42-unit residential area is nestled in the middle of the Can Gio forest, parts of which have only been removed from the Can Gio protection forest as a result of the Forest Inventory in 2016. Image by Nam Phong. Vietnam, 2021.

All of the more than 31 hectares of forest area on Phu Loi Island, Thanh An Island commune, Can Gio district have been removed from the protection forest as the results of the Forest Inventory in 2016. Image by Nam Phong. Vietnam, 2021.

The forest remained after Lang Le farm was dissolved. Image by Nam Phong. Vietnam, 2021.

Mr. Dinh Van Phuong is introducing buyers of land next to Can Gio forest that has been removed from the protection forest boundary since 2016, according to the results of the Forest Inventory of the same year. Image by Le Quynh. Vietnam, 2021.