Forest rangers arrested another 300kg of the valuable sua timber yesterday after seizing the first 366kg sua timber in protected Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park four days ago.
QUANG BINH —
The newly-found timber was located in four blockages, which were allegedly to be from three trees cut down by lumberjacks in the park, Xuan Trach Commune, Bo Trach District, said Luu Minh Thanh, the park's director. The traffickers, like in the last case, had escaped, Thanh said.
The sua tree (Dalbergia tonkinensis Prain) has been listed as an endangered flora species in Viet Nam and is on the international red list. Sua timber is rare and valuable, and as per local myth, can be used for spiritual purposes and treatment of some diseases in China.
The director told Viet Nam News that it was possible "the lumberjacks had hidden the timbers in different places in the forest for easily trafficking."
"Thus, many local people get into the forest to seek the timber and it is very difficult to make them stop their search as the timber is much expensive," he said.
The amount of sua timber was estimated at more than VND10 billion(US$490,000) at market's price.
However, Thanh said the chaos was less now when rangers seized more timber.
Besides the park's 116 rangers, provincial rangers and police were ready to work in finding the timber, the director said. — VNS