CCTV News:Huanghua pear, also known as Dalbergia odorifera, is a national second-class protected plant with slow timber, solid wood and beautiful texture. At present, wild huanghuali is on the verge of extinction, and almost all that can be seen is planted artificially. It takes hundreds of years for wild huanghuali to become a timber, and it takes more than 30 years for artificial cultivation.
However, during a recent investigation in Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province, the reporter found that a large number of unfinished huanghuali were illegally cut down every day, including wild huanghuali.
Wild huanghuali was cut down and sold, but the acquisition was not approved.
Ying Ge Mountain in Hainan is a national nature reserve, in which the protected spot of wild huanghuali is located in Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province.
In a river under the Ying Ge Ridge, the buyer, Mr. Huang, was smuggling a huanghuali tree from the water. After landing, they quickly sawed off the trunk and put it into an off-road vehicle. The boss Huang said that the reason for smuggling from the river is because they cut a wild huanghuali.
Huang Boss, the purchaser of Hainan huanghuali: Wild huanghuali can’t be obtained, but it can’t be carried.
In Maoyang town, there are many purchasing points of huanghuali. At this acquisition point of the purchaser Abao, a tree weighing several hundred kilograms of huanghuali caught the attention of the reporter. A Bao told reporters that this huanghuali is also wild. It was found in a forest contractor in a deep forest, and four people carried it for several miles.
Abao, the purchaser of Hainan huanghuali: This is wild, and it is in somebody else’s woodland.
Wild huanghuali is a national second-class protected plant. According to China’s Regulations on the Protection of Wild Plants, the sale and purchase of national second-class protected wild plants must be approved by the administrative department of wild plants of the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government or its authorized institutions. So, has the acquisition of these wild huanghuali been approved?
Boss Huang, the buyer of Hainan huanghuali: I haven’t had a license. Huanghuali has been dug for more than 20 years and I haven’t done it.
Abao, the buyer of Hainan huanghuali: We don’t have a license to cut huanghuali every day. We don’t need a license, so we don’t have so much time to do it.
In Maoyang Town, it’s not just Boss Huang and Po who illegally bought wild huanghuali without a license. The buyer, Boss Wang, told reporters that in February this year, a wild huanghuali was also bought from a forest contractor in nearby Konglian Mountain.
Boss Wang, buyer of Hainan huanghuali: Look at the beautiful patterns. They are all wild huanghuali. I sold this tree for more than 60,000 yuan.
Boss Wang found two wild huanghuali trees in Konglian Mountain, and several buyers are negotiating prices with Lao Wang, the contractor of Shanlin Mountain.
Boss Wang, buyer of Hainan huanghuali: He wants 80,000 yuan. If I ask him to sell it for 60,000 yuan, I will dare to cut it.
For quick success and instant benefit, Huanghua pear saplings were hacked and felled.
China’s "Forest Law" stipulates that cutting trees must apply for a cutting license. However, in Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province, the reporter found that many artificially planted huanghuali, even young huanghuali trees with short trees, have been illegally cut down.
In this forest area of Konglianshan, Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City, the reporter saw that pieces of huanghuali were cut down, and discarded crowns and trunks could be seen everywhere.
Reporter: Do you need approval to cut down trees?
Lao Wang, contractor of Konglianshan, Yali Village, Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province: No approval.
Reporter: Do I need to apply if I cut it?
Boss Wang, the buyer of Hainan huanghuali: No need, cut five or six trees at a time and pull them back, then come and cut five or six trees and pull them back.
Boss Wang, the buyer, said that since January last year, he has cut down more than 100 huanghuali trees in the forest area contracted by Lao Wang, and cut down more than 100 trees without going through the formalities. It’s not just this forest area that the young huanghuali trees are cut down without a permit. Boss Wang told reporters that he has been doing huanghuali business for 18 years, and he has to go up the mountain to find trees to cut down trees almost every day.
Boss Wang, buyer of Hainan huanghuali: I can cut at least thousands of huanghuali trees a year.
Reporter: How many trees are cut the most in a year?
Boss Wang, buyer of Hainan huanghuali: Four or five thousand trees were cut down last year.
It is understood that in order to save and protect huanghuali, a rare tree species, Hainan Province has been providing farmers with huanghuali saplings for free for more than ten years, so that they can plant them in front of their houses and in the back of their own hills.
Lao Wang, the contractor of Konglianshan, Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City, is one of the earliest local growers of huanghuali. Since the early 1990s, he has been planting huanghuali artificially. In the 40-mu forest land he contracted, there are nearly 1,000 huanghuali at most. In recent years, he has been cutting down trees, and there are currently less than 200. Lao Wang said that the huanghuali he sold was only ten years old and the price ranged from 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan.
Insiders told reporters that the most valuable part of huanghuali is the "tree core" which can be used to make household appliances, and the locals call it "grid". With the growth of trees, the "grid" gradually becomes larger. The huanghuali tree that can be used as furniture must grow for at least 30 years. At present, the price of a catty of Hainan huanghuali is more than 10,000 yuan.
Wang Yongtao, president of Hainan Huanghuali Association: As soon as this tree grew, it was cut down immediately, which means that the chicken was raised from a chick to a big chicken. As soon as there were eggs, it was a pity to kill the chicken and take them out.
The artificial planting time of Huanghua pear in Hainan Province is only over ten years, which does not meet the approval conditions of mature timber forest. The staff of relevant departments in Wuzhishan City told reporters that they have not issued the cutting license and transportation license of Huanghua pear yet.
Staff of the Administrative Service Center of Wuzhishan Municipal People’s Government, Hainan: At present, it is not agreed to sell, because Hainan huanghuali is a national second-class protected tree species.
The local forestry regulatory authorities are used to sitting idly by.
Dealers’ vehicles transporting Hainan huanghuali generally pass through the timber inspection station in Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City. The inspection station is responsible for inspecting the past timber transportation, checking the timber transportation documents and stopping illegal timber transportation. The reporter then visited the checkpoint, and the result was surprising.
The reporter came to Maoyang Wood Inspection Station. During working hours, some people were lying in chairs and sleeping, some people were studying to buy lottery tickets, and some staff actually played cards and gambled in the office.
At a huanghuali purchasing point in Yahu Village, Maoyang Town, the purchaser just cut down five huanghuali trees from the mountain, and a ranger’s motorcycle was parked on the side of the mountain.
Reporter: Does he care if you cut down trees?
Buyers of Huanghuali in Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City: Everyone knows them.
A ranger in Maoyang Town told reporters that they have long been used to cutting down huanghuali without a license.
Wang Feng, Ranger of Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province: Maoyang is basically very frequent, so it’s okay to pull a few huanghuali.
It’s not just Maoyang Town that clearly knows that huanghuali has been hacked indiscriminately. In Maodao Township, Wuzhishan City, the reporter found the scene where the former buyer, Boss Huang, hacked wild huanghuali and reported it to the jurisdiction of this mountain forest — — Maodao village Committee reported it.
Huang Haiwen, secretary of the branch of Maodao Village, Maodao Township, Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province: Why don’t you report to the township government and report to our village Committee, and our village Committee will not care about forest protection.
Reporter: Can’t I report to the village first?
Huang Haiwen, secretary of the branch of Maodao Village, Maodao Township, Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province: No, we only care about the village, regardless of the mountains.
At the repeated request of the reporter, the person in charge of the village promised to send the village ranger to assist in the investigation, but asked the reporter to pay the service fee to the ranger.
Huang Haiwen, secretary of the branch of Maodao Village, Maodao Township, Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province: If you want to check, you need them to take you there, and you have to pay them for their work, at least 50 yuan.
The ranger came, but to the reporter’s surprise, after understanding the situation, the ranger actually left and never came back.
According to the "Measures for the Administration of Forestry Workstations", forestry workstations are grass-roots forestry institutions located in towns and villages, which manage and supervise forests and wildlife resources according to law. So, the reporter came to the forestry station in Maodao Township, Wuzhishan City to report that several staff members were playing cards. Director Huang gave such an answer to the reporter’s report.
Then, in Wuzhishan city, is it nobody’s business to cut huanghuali indiscriminately and illegally? According to China’s "Forest Law", those who illegally cut and destroy precious trees shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law. The reporter saw in a hotel in Wuzhishan City that the purchaser Huang Boss was drinking with the relevant person in charge of Wuzhishan Forest Public Security Bureau. The reporter reported to the person in charge that the purchaser Huang Boss had illegally cut wild huanghuali, and the result was once again unexpected.
Stealing and deforestation are prevalent, and mature huanghuali is hard to find.
The people in charge sat idly by, and in this way, under the illegal logging, there are fewer and fewer huanghuali in Hainan, and it is rare to see the huanghuali in the trading market.
China Huali City, located in Haikou City, is the largest huanghuali commodity trading market in China. Every Sunday, thousands of huanghuali trees are traded here.
According to insiders, old trees are very rare now, and almost all the young trees sold in the market are more than ten years old, which are mainly used to make bracelets and some small handicrafts, which are called bead materials in jargon.
Not only the offline market, the reporter noticed that in Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker and other online platforms, some registered buyers showed the process of cutting huanghuali live by video, peddling huanghuali wood and its products, and then mailing them to all parts of the country through logistics channels such as SF Express.
According to industry estimates, there are more than 100,000 young huanghuali trees that are illegally cut down every year in Hainan Province. At present, it is almost difficult to find huanghuali with a DBH of more than 25 cm in Hainan Province. The reason for this situation is that the price of huanghuali has skyrocketed in the past two decades.
In China Huali City, the price of huanghuali furniture starts from several hundred thousand yuan, and the price of large furniture ranges from several million to ten million yuan, while a Hainan huanghuali bracelet also sells for several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan.
According to the buyer, the value of huanghuali mainly depends on the size and texture of the core, and everything is unknown before cutting the tree. As a result, many buyers are lucky enough to cut down trees when they see them and gamble wildly on them.
Boss Dong, the buyer of Hainan Huanghuali: There is nothing wrong with your eyes. It depends on whether you dare to gamble or not.
Hainan set up a provincial and municipal joint investigation team to carry out the investigation.
In view of the problems in Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province, such as huanghuali being hacked and deforestation, and forest resources supervision falling behind. The Hainan Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government decided to set up a joint investigation team of provinces and cities to immediately investigate the problems exposed in the report, file an investigation on suspected criminals and public officials involved in the case according to law, and severely punish criminals. At the same time, by analogy, a special campaign to crack down on the destruction of forest resources was quickly launched in Hainan Province, and a special law enforcement inspection was carried out on the commodity market of Huanghua pear; Carry out special rectification of work style in the province’s public security and forestry systems.
The Hainan Provincial Public Security Department has stopped performing his duties on Liu Wende, deputy director of the Wuzhishan Forest Public Security Bureau, and filed an investigation.
Financial Short Comment: No matter how hard Huanghua pear is, it is difficult to stop the "moth chain"
Rangers, village party secretaries, checkpoints, and public security bureaus, which were supposed to protect this precious tree species, Huanghua Pear, from external invasion, fell down one by one, and even became accomplices in hunting Huanghua Pear.
What is even more frightening is that the hunting of huanghuali has been going on for more than ten years, but it has not been discovered and punished. The strictness of this net proves the weakness of local supervision and the inability to enforce the law.
Fortunately, Hainan has taken action to carry out investigations, and we hope that the roots of this moth chain will be carefully found and dug up.
