Recently, reporters received reports from a group of “hikers” that a large number of agarwood trees on Paiya Mountain in Dapeng New Area had been cut down, with some mountain areas nearly “devoid” of agarwood trees. The reporters then visited nearby villagers, where elderly residents told them that tens of thousands of agarwood trees on Paiya Mountain may have been stolen in recent years.
On the 16th, the reporters contacted the Shenzhen Forest Public Security Sub-bureau. In response to the reporters’ report, criminal investigation teams, public security divisions, and police officers from Longgang Police Station of the Forest Public Security Sub-bureau had braved the rain to arrive at the incident area on Paiya Mountain and were investigating relevant leads.
Hiker report:
Agarwood trees on Paiya Mountain cut down
Recently, reporters received reports from seven hiking enthusiasts who said they had entered Paiya Mountain for exploration on April 7 via an exit near the Gaoling Mountain Tunnel on the Heda Highway. During their nearly five-hour hike, they saw nearly 100 Aquilaria sinensis trees that had been illegally logged. Some of these trees were as thick as a person’s embrace, while others with diameters of just over 10 centimeters were not spared. Many agarwood trees had been repeatedly cut to “harvest agarwood” and had died. The mountain was littered with dug-up pits, severed thick branches, and dried agarwood leaves.
Hiker A’tai told reporters that about five years ago, he had climbed one of the peaks of Paiya Mountain, where the beautiful agarwood trees had not yet suffered such large-scale illegal logging. These agarwood trees, being native and not growing in clusters, were scattered across various areas of the mountain. But this time, only the agarwood trees had fallen victim, suggesting the loggers were targeting them specifically. If these trees are not protected soon, the consequences could be dire.
A’tai said that there are very few mountains in Shenzhen that still have these natural agarwood trees, and many of the agarwood trees on Paiya Mountain are decades or even nearly a century old. It’s truly a pity that they are being stolen by illegal loggers.
On-site visit:
The scale of illegal logging is shocking
Recently, reporters went to Ling’ao New Village to inquire with villagers about the agarwood trees on Paiya Mountain. Many villagers said that the agarwood trees on Paiya Mountain had been severely logged. Villager Ms. Li said that during the Qingming tea-picking period, she and several other villagers went up the mountain and discovered that agarwood trees had been heavily logged, with hardly any thick ones left.
Upon hearing that the reporters were covering the issue of agarwood tree logging on Paiya Mountain, some villagers immediately volunteered to show them the “worst-hit areas.” Villager Chen Asi led the reporters to the foot of Hongtou Mountain and Shanjiao Mountain in the Paiya Mountain range. They entered the mountain through waist-high overgrown grass. The mountain path had babbling streams and lush vegetation. After half an hour of climbing, the terrain became steeper, and along the way, pits left by tree felling began to appear. Chen Asi said these pits were originally agarwood trees, which had now been uprooted. “Many agarwood trees were first cut off section by section, and later were simply uprooted and taken away.”