SRD VNGO FLEGT Policy recommendations QIII IV 2015 ENG ver

QUARTER III - IV/2015 14 Occupational Safety And Environmental Protection - Two Factors Needed For Legal Timber WITH A LONG TRADITION OF SMALL PRODUCERS, VIET NAM HAS A GREAT MULTITUD

QUARTER III - IV/2015

14

Occupational Safety And Environmental Protection - Two Factors Needed For Legal Timber

WITH A LONG TRADITION OF SMALL

PRODUCERS, VIET NAM HAS A GREAT

MULTITUDE OF TIMBER PROCESSING

HOUSEHOLDS WHO USE VARIOUS

TIMBER MATERIALS FOR THEIR

PRODUCTION MUCH OF THIS IS

NATURAL TIMBER OF UNCLEAR

ORIGIN (WITHOUT VERIFICATION

DOCUMENT), COMMONLY USED

DUE TO FAVORABLE FACTORS SUCH

AS DISCOUNTED PRICE, FLEXIBLE

SUPPLY, AND EASE OF ACCESS FOR

HOUSEHOLD PRODUCERS THIS IS

BECOMING A CHALLENGE FOR VIET

NAM’S TIMBER PRODUCTION SECTOR,

IN LIGHT OF THE ONGOING TRADE

AGREEMENT WITH THE EUROPEAN

UNION WHOSE REGULATORY

SYSTEM IS QUITE STRICT ON TIMBER

LEGALITY IN ORDER TO IMPROVE

THE ALARMING USE OF ILLEGAL TIMBER BY

THE LEGALITY COMPLIANCE OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCERS IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE, POLICY SHOULD AIM TO PROMOTE COOPERATIVE BUSINESS AND FACILITATE THE ACCESSIBILITY

TO LEGAL TIMBER, ALONG WITH A COLLABORATIVE MECHANISM TO SUPERVISE LOCAL PRODUCERS.

The paper focuses on timber legality

compliance by processing households

Based on a survey by VNGO-FLEGT in Hoa

Binh, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, Kon Tum in

2015, the paper describes the reality of

illegal timber present in processing units in

violation of the law It then proposes some

solutions to improve and supervise the

legal compliance of these producers

CURRENT POLICY VS ACTUALITY

In terms of policy, the Government has

passed regulations on timber legality for

processing operations Specifically, legality

verification documents are packing lists

(provided by forest planters),

value-added-tax receipts (applied to timber purchased

from organizations), and Confirmation of

forest ranger’s hammer mark (see Box 1)

Box 1: Legality requirement for timber material for processing

Timber material used as input for processing must have the following proof of legal origin: Packing list (Circular 01/2012/BNNPTNT Article 12,14,16,20; Circular 42/2012/ BNNPTNT Article 1)

VAT receipt (for purchase from company) (Circular 01/2012/BNNPTNT Art 20)

Confirmation of forest ranger’s hammer mark (applicable to any log with larger end’s diameter >= 25cm and length>= 1m and either from natural forest or of rare and endangered species from plantation, imported log without hammer mark of original country, and resale of seized logs) (Circular 01/2012/BNNPTNT Art 9)

Source: Ministry of Justice

largest timber processing hub in South

East Asia and the 6th largest in the world

(VNForest 2015) Timber input such as logs,

lumber, and planks from various sources

enter numerous processing units run by

households in the country, to be made

into products for household and office,

woodcraft items, construction materials,

etc for domestic consumption and export

With such complex operation and diverse

material sources, it is rather difficult to

achieve good compliance with regulations

on timber legality

However, the level of compliance in

actuality is low There are currently tens of

thousands of small household producers

with a diverse timber supply Among

these producers, timber without legality

verification (illegal timber), usually from

natural forest is commonly used Illegal

timber is bought at a comparatively low

price and in varied quantity; very suitable

to household production.There is no

official data on timber material used by

Chart 1: Percentage of household producers

without timber legality verification

households due to the lack of formal records

by households, and the “sensitivity” of natural timber A survey of 112 household producers in provinces of Nghe An, Binh Dinh, Kon Tum reveals that about 65% of households do not have VAT receipt for their purchase, 75% do not have a packing list for acquired timber input, and 41% do not have confirmation of hammer mark for applicable timber material (see Chart 1 for data for each province)

AWARE OF REGULATIONS, STILL

NOT COMPLY

Producers usually have good access

to information and akeen awareness of

requirements on timber legality Some of them

have a close relationship with local authority,

especially key players such as People’s

Committee, Forest Ranger, Office of Natural

Resources, etc The survey in Nghe An, Binh

Dinh, Kon Tum shows that 49% of households

are aware of timber legality verification such

as packing list, VAT receipt, confirmation of

hammer mark (though may not know the

precise name of the regulation)

The ringing question is why these

households deliberately violate the law,

even though they are quite aware of the

consequence First, it is necessary to analyze

the diverse timber supply in Viet Nam, which

can be broken down into the following sources:

i natural timber imported from other

countries (Laos, Myanmar, Africa, South

America, etc.).

ii natural timber illegally harvested country or smuggled from outside (this is illegal timber).

in-iii natural timber seized by forest rangers and resold(most comes from (ii) and thus becomes “legalized” by the government’s resale operation).

iv plantation timber and dispersed trees purchased from local areas.

Most small producers can only access timber source (ii) and (iv), of which source (ii) is illegal, without proper verification documents

In fact, most of them acquire timber in small volumes from middlemen or local planters Some producers attempt to purchase timber with VAT receipts (as proof of legality, so that they can sell and transport the timber products outside the local area) but large timber companies refuse to sell their timber in small volumes to small producers.

Most household producers have limited production capacity, limited capital, small

Group discussion with household producers in Kon Tum

Source: Provided by author

Box 2: Timber supply for household

producers in Kon Tum city

The research team interviewed a small

producer named L.H.S.,in a woodcraft village

inKon Tum.He used about 6 m3of natural

timber in 2014, mostly Sao xanhandGioi gung

purchased without any legality document

from a sawmillin Ngoc Hoidistrict;the rest of

the material is supplied by his own customers

for individual orders.

Another producer named P.T used about

10 m3of natural timber, mostly planks and

boards supplied by middlemen from Sa Thay

district.

These cases of illegal timber are common

in Kon Tum, without legality documents as

specified in Box 1 Most of these households

are unable to participate in the government’s

auction of seized timber because an auction

usually involves a large volume of hundreds

of m3 oftimber, requiring a large investment

capital and spacious storage area.

As indicated above, the Government

has passed regulations on timber legality

but in reality violations of the law occur

more frequently than expected Beside the

deliberate violations by household producers

storage areas, and small-sale markets, so they

purchase a very modest volume of timber (few

m3/year) Whereas, timber from source (i) and

(iii) is only available for large-quantity order,

thus accessible to big companies only.

due to inaccessibility to legal timber, as indicated in the above passage, another cause of the prevalence of illegal timber is the insufficient local law enforcement At district level, the district Forest Ranger is in charge of managing timber activities from harvesting, transportation, and processing The number

of rangers, especially office-holder positions, is insufficient to meet the workload The current law specifies that every 1000 ha of forest has

01 forest ranger (Decree 119/2006/ND-CP), and every 500 ha of special-used forest has 01 office-holding ranger (Decree 117/2010/ND- CP) With 13.9 million ha of forest (VNForest 2014) it would need 16,000 rangers, whereas the whole country has about 12,000 rangers

In each commune that has timber processing activities, only 01 local ranger is responsible for supervision of all timber processing activities With limited Government budget, insufficient manpower and machinery, inadequate renumeration and allowance, it puts much constraint on the law enforcement at the local level.

In the context of international timber trade agreements, facing strict legality requirements from major export markets like the USA and

EU, the current state of illegal timber in Viet Nam will negatively impact its export.

The EU market is regarded as stable, with high margin of added value because the EU mostly imports finished timber products instead of lumber ( see Box 3 )

Since March 2013, The EU has implemented the Timber Regulation (EUTR), tightening the control of legal timber and timber products entering EU markets In addition, the Vietnamese Government promises to expedite the timber trade negotiation with the EU in 2016, showing its commitment to

Box 3: Viet Nam’s timber export to the

EU in the period 2012 – 2015

In 2014, exports of timber products tothe EU reached 703 million USD, an increase of 100 million USD, compared to

608 million USD in 2013 Exports in the first 8 months of 2015 is 442 million USD The EU is currently the 4th largest timber import market from Viet Nam.

The average growth of timber export to

EU from 2012 – 2014 is 2.2% per year

Source: Forest Trends 2015

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Non-compliance, or violation of various regulations on timber legality is common

in household producers Besides the deliberate violation on the part of households for profit or livelihood purposes,there are also some external reasons, such as households’ inaccessibility to legal timber, which in turn shapes the business operation and compliance capacity of these households.

In order to support household producers to adapt and thrive in the new setting of international trade, the paper would like to propose some simultaneous solutions to improve legality compliance:

- First, it is imperative to prevent illegal timber from being used as input in households’ processing units As mentioned above, illegal timber is usually harvested from natural forest in the country or smuggled from outside Local governments need to devise effective monitoring and impose just penalties on all cases of illegal timber activities.

- Simultaneously, it is crucial to improve households’ accessibility to legal timber by promoting cooperative business and even management board modelsfor woodcraft villages.The management board in each woodcraft village is elected by household producers in that village and is responsible for timber supply contracts, logistics and storage management, marketing, and provision of support service for legality verification When operating in a cooperative format, household producers collectively have more chance of getting legal timber.

strict requirementson timber legality over

the whole supply chain, from harvesting to

transportation, processing, consumption and

export Nonetheless, the actual state of

non-compliance with timber legality verification,

on the part of household producers in Viet

Nam, could result in the violation of the timber

trade agreement with the EU.

European Union’s Timber Regulation EU, 2013

Report of Trade on timber and timber products between Viet Nam – EU Forest Trends, 2015

- Third, when issuing business license to any household producer, conditionality must

be imposed upon, such as household’s responsibility for timber legality verification There needs to be a monitoring mechanism between the local authority and community, in light

of limited resourcesof local authorities.

- Fourth, in the long run, there needs to be a suitable strategy to strengthen law enforcement capacity at the local level In the context of the Government’s strategy on forest protection and development, as well as its ambition on timber trade, it is a prerequisite

to have a strong forest ranger force in quantity and quality, sufficient equipment, and adequate renumeration mechanisms,in order to enhance forest development and legality

of the timber supply chain This will lead tothe development of Viet Nam’s timber industry

in the context of international trade development

UNCLEAR LEGAL FRAMWORKS IN PLANTATION TIMBER,

FROM ILLEGALITY TO LEGALITY IN THE VIETNAM CONTEXT JOINING

VPA/FLEGT

Hoang Xuan Duc ( RESED )

KEY MESSAGE

RECENTLY, MANY PLANTATION-FOREST

HOUSEHOLDS LIVING NEXT TO EACH OTHER HAVE

BEGUN SELLING TIMBER TO THE SAME NEGOTIATORS,

OR COOPERATE TOGETHER TO HARVEST TIMBER

THIS TREND IS OCCURRING IN SOME LOCAL

AREAS HOWEVER, LEGAL FRAMEWORKS HAVE

NOT BEEN YET REGULATED TO SPECIFY A REPORT

EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT (REI)

FOR THE ABOVE TWO CASES WHEN TOTAL FOREST

AREAS REACH TO BE MORE THAN 200 HECTARES

IN A CONTEXT THAT VPA/FLEGT IS GOING TO

BE SIGNED, PLANTATION-FOREST TIMBERS ARE

HARVESTED WITH DECENTRALIZED AREA OF

MORE THAN 200 HECTARES, IF THEY ARE NOT

REGULATED IN DECISION APPROVED REI, THEY

WILL BECOME ILLEGAL THEREFORE, IT IS VITAL TO

HAVE REGULATIONS AND CONCRETE GUIDELINES

ABOUT REI IN THESE CASES TO MEET REQUIREMENTS

OF LEGAL TIMBER

INTRODUCTION

With applicable policy and socialized direction of forestry, plantation-forest area has increased rapidly during recent decades, from

1 million hectares in 1990 to approximate 3.7 million hectares in 2014 Plantation forest is a livelihood output partly contributing to the income of 1.4 million households in Vietnam With plantation-forest areas of rapid growth,

it does induce some inevitable negative impacts on the environment during plantation establishment and timber harvesting Vietnam legislation regulates if harvesting timber in a plantation forest with a decentralized area of more than 200 hectares, an REI is required to

be conducted.

According to investigation results in

Hoa Binh, Nghe An, Binh Dinh and Kon Tum

provinces (August 2015), this policy brief

points out that in many cases, many

plantation-forest households sell to timber-harvesting

negotiators Alternatively, households with

plots next to each other equating to more than

200 hectares, tend to cooperate together This

phenomenon has been occurring recently

However, REI in the above two cases has not

been implemented Because regulations in

the legal frameworks are not clear about these

above cases, addressing this will become

more necessary within the context of Vietnam

joining the Voluntary Partnership Agreement

addressing Forest law enforcement,

Governance and Trade (VPA/FLEGT)

Box 1: Regulations about Environmental Regulation and plantation-forest harvesting documents:

1 Factors necessitating REI:

- Projects have a risk impact on the environment (Article 18, Environment Law in 2014)

- Forest harvesting projects of more than

200 hectares of plantation forest, which are production forest with an applied clear-cutting method, and has harvesting in decentralized areas (Article 12, decree 18/2015/NĐ-CP)

2 Harvesting document: includes harvesting registration and expected harvesting production (Article 19, circular 35/2011/TT-BNNPTNT)

Picture 1 Research areas

LACK OF SPECIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATIONS AND ENFORCEMENT AGENTS

Legal frameworks do not specify in detail that plantation-forest harvesting by households having adjacent areas, with a total area more than 200 hectares, must produce an REI (see box 1) Environmental protection law in 2014, Decree 18/2015/NĐ-CP, regulates producing an REI when harvesting plantation-forest projects of more than 200 hectares, which are production forest, apply clear- cutting methods, and have parts with a decentralized harvesting design Nevertheless, these documents do not clearly address cases

in which (i) individuals or organizations harvest plantation-forest of multiple forest owners with large and adjacent areas, (ii) many households with neighboring plots cooperate together

to harvest an area equating to more than

200 hectares Moreover, the plantation-forest timber harvesting documents of households are regulated in Circular 35/2011/TT-BNNPTNT, and also do not include REI for harvesting case with more than 200 hectares

The responsibilities of approving

plantation-forest harvesting documents of

households, who have their own investment

or Government support, belong to the

Communal People’s Committee But the

responsible officers within the Communal

People’s Committee do not acquire regulations

about REI for forest-plantation harvesting with

large areas, therefore, it does not meet the

requirements for harvesting owners to carry

out this mission In regards to investigation

results of the potential impact evaluation of

VPA on livelihood vulnerability in Nghe An and

Ha Tinh, 100% of forestry officers interviewed

did not know the correct regulations related to

REI when harvesting forest- plantation of more

than 200 hectares.

FOREST-PLANTATION HARVESTING

OF MORE THAN 200 HECTARES

WAS INCREASINGLY PREVALENT

WHEN LOCAL PEOPLE SOLD STAND

PLANTATION TIMBER TO NEGOTIATORS

According to investigations in 4 provinces,

only approximately 10% is plantation-forest

harvesting Because the remaining

plantation-forest households do not have enough human

resources or equipment to harvest and do not

have transportation to deliver to distribution

agents, they must sell to negotiators (see

in box 2) These negotiators are individuals

or organizations who have strong capacity,

knowledge and experience in plantation-

forest harvesting and have the ability to access

and provide stable outputs On the other hand,

when forests become harvestable, households

want to sell to get the best price; buyers will

purchase timber in neighboring plots for

convenience and cost-efficiency In order to

facilitate the purchase of large areas of timber,

decentralization, fast capital cycles, and cost/

time efficiency are required Negotiators purchase the timber, then extract the desired amount of timber to be transported to the point of use immediately

The number of negotiators in each location

is not much In regards to Hoa Binh provinces, total forest area in 3 districts is 17.899 hectares; however, only approximately 100 negotiators buy the timber in this area - each negotiator will purchase approximately 179 hectares for each harvesting cycle In Nghe An plantation-forest harvesting covers 15.673 hectares, with only

70 negotiators - each negotiator purchases about 224 hectares Nevertheless, negotiators have a good economic understanding, meet equipment requirements and have access to transportation This often means the purchased amount will often be larger than the average

Therefore, cases of negotiators collecting plantation forest from multiple households, equating to more than 200 hectares, are occurring in some locations

Box 2: Plantation forest people have

to sell forest to negotiators

Because capital cycle is quite fast, they purchase an average of 400 to

500 hectares They only purchase the households borrow the forest

of forest state-owner company and Youth Volunteer Team, focus on some communes with large forest areas In

2014, we purchase a compartment with more than 220 hectares In communes with small forest plantation areas, mainly,

we purchase forest areas from different individuals (Mr N.D.B in Quy Hop district, Nghe An province said)

Villagers don't have transport means for post-harvest activities

Source: Provided by author

THE LINKING TREND AMONG

HOUSEHOLDS HAS BEEN CREATING

LARGE AREAS DURING HARVESTING

To avoid the negotiator’s pulling price

and improve the economic value of

plantation-forest, households in some

places have collaborated to open an

extraction route, harvest together, rent

transportation to deliver and sell to agents

Set extraction routes only need to be

created for the first harvesting cycle - other

cycles only need to be upgraded and fixed

before harvesting (see in box 3) This may

prove to be a feasible solution for plantation

and harvesting households In the future,

applying this trend in many areas may be

possible, especially, mountainous districts

which have complex landscapes and

difficult transportation access

Based on the research group’s

evaluation, households cooperating

among themselves when harvesting more

than 200 hectares appeared in almost

research areas which were mountainous

districts

Box 3: Linking trends among

households in plantation-forest

harvesting

Without extraction routes, acacia

plantations in village can only be purchased

at 25- 30 million VND per hectare In village

now there are 15 households with areas next

to each other, equaling 209 hectares in total

They collect the cost themselves to open

a route, then harvest together, rent a car to

deliver and sell the timber harvested (Mr VL,

Hoai An district, Binh Dinh province said)

SUCH TIMBER WILL BECOME ILLEGAL WHEN VPA/ FLEGT IS SIGNED

With the two above cases, it is evident that plantation-forest harvesting of many households with more than 200 hectares,

in decentralized areas, will continue occurring in the future

Meanwhile, the recent Legal Definition (LD) draft requires timber harvesting of more than 200 hectares (of plantation-forest) to have a Decision approved REI When VPA/FLEGT is signed, harvesting of more than 200 hectares without a Decision approved REI would render the amount of timber harvested in these areas as illegal Many plantation and harvesting forest households do not produce any document related to environment protection According to database investigations,

100 % of plantation and harvesting forest households have not had or applied REI Meanwhile, households sell to negotiators

to harvest and consume Moreover, plantation forest households sell forest

to negotiators as well as they cooperate together during harvesting with more than 200 hectares also occurred in whole research provinces

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Based on recent regulations, timber harvested from plantation-forest of more than 200 hectares, without a Decision approved REI, will become illegal timber Additionally, the VPA/ FLEGT in Vietnam will dictate that not only timber and timber products in EU market must be legal, but also timber in domestic markets must be legal.

Therefore, consuming the above legal timbers will be difficult and impact on income and also plantation based livelihoods In order to ensure their inclusion in the VPA/ FLEGT process, and also avoid their infringement on the law, we suggest some following recommendations:

Decree 18/2015/NĐ-CP needs to make clear whether there is or is not a required REI in purchasing plantation-forest from households with large decentralized areas, or households with areas next to each other cooperating among themselves to harvest more than 200 hectares.

To implement this recommendation in provinces with large plantation areas, the People’s Committee needs to provide guideline documents to relevant agencies and authorities in provinces and districts The People’s Committee of districts and communes, the Forestry Department and forest owners are organizations that need to acquire the list

of plantation-forest households to advocate their perception and knowledge about legal timber regulation; especially of individuals and organizations in areas which frequently purchase forest to harvest

KEY MESSAGE

REGULATIONS ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AND OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY

FOR TIMBER PROCESSING HOUSEHOLDS HAVE

BEEN ISSUED BUT THE ENFORCEMENT OF SUCH

REGULATIONS REMAINS LOOSE AND INADEQUATE,

DUE TO THE LACK OF INVESTMENT CAPITAL OF

HOUSEHOLDS AND INEFFECTIVE SUPERVISION

OF ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES THIS NEGATIVELY

AFFECTS WORKER AND COMMUNITY HEALTH,

POLLUTES THE ENVIRONMENT, AND INCREASES

THE VULNERABILITY OF PROCESSING HOUSEHOLDS

ONCE VIETNAM SIGNS THE FOREST LAW

ENFORCEMENT, GOVERNANCE AND TRADE

VOLUNTARY PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (VPA/

FLEGT) IT IS NECESSARY TO ENACT POLICIES TO

PROVIDE HOUSEHOLDS WITH CAPITAL SUPPORT

AND STRENGTHEN THE ENFORCEMENT OF

REGULATIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AND OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, IN ORDER TO DEAL

WITH THESE PROBLEMS AND FULFILL THE FLEGT

INITIATIVE.

INTRODUCTION

Vietnam is in the process of negotiating

the VPA/FLEGT with the European Union The

two important annexes of the VPA, namely

the Legality Definition (LD) and Timber

Legality Assurance System (TLAS), impose

requirements on environmental protection

and occupational safety in timber processing

However, there is a big gap between the

issuance and enforcement of these regulations

The research outcomes of the EU-FLEGT project

in provinces of Hoa Binh, Nghe An, Binh Dinh,

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

- TWO FACTORS NEEDED FOR LEGAL TIMBER

Nguyen Thi Dung (The Northwest Cooperation Development Centre) Nguyen Quang Tan (The Center for People and Forests)

and Kon Tum (Picture 1) from June – October

2015 show that processing households do not meet regulations on environmental protection and occupational safety This negatively affects worker and community health, pollutes the environment, and increases the vulnerability

of processing households during the implementation of the VPA/FLEGT In order

to deal with these problems, we propose policies to strengthen the enforcement of regulations and assist households to comply with regulations on environmental protection and occupational safety.

Picture 1 Research areas

NONCOMPLIANCE WITH

REGULATIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AND OCCUPATIONAL

SAFETY OF PROCESSING HOUSEHOLDS

IS AT AN ALARMING LEVEL

In its development, Vietnam’s timber

processing industry has seen a sharp increase

of household processing establishments

in many localities It is imperative to take

into consideration measures to protect the

environment and ensure occupational safety

Legal documents have addressed this (Box

1) Accordingly, owners of timber processing

establishments have to submit a statement

on environmental protection which should

be then approved by the district or communal

People’s Committee.

However, very few households have

received a document approving their

environmental protection statement, while

others are not even aware of the regulations

More seriously, violations of environmental

protection are becoming very common For

example, waste generated during sawing,

planing, and sanding is discharged directly into

the environment without being collected and

treated, causing pollution Small processing

factories are located in the houses or close to

residential areas, making noises and affecting

the daily life of the local community.

Box 1: Requirements for environmental protection and occupational safety for timber processing households

1 Regulations on environmental protection commitment (Articles 29, 32, 33 – Decree No 29/2011/NĐ-CP)

2 Regulations on occupational safety and hygiene (Labour Code: Chapter IX, Item 1, Articles 137 and 138)

3 Regulations on Fire Prevention and Fire-fighting (Articles 9, 16, 17 Decree No 35/2003/NĐ-CP)

Similarly, the implementation of regulations on occupational safety of all wood- processing businesses remains very limited Surveys at nearly 200 small wood-processing establishments in the provinces of Hoa Binh, Nghe An, Binh Dinh and Kon Tum showed alarming figures: 70% of the households do not have any rules on fire prevention and firefighting; 78% of households do not have rules on occupational safety (for details see chart 1) This is without including those with poorly or inadequately displayed rules.

Chart 1: The rate of processing households without internal protocol on fire prevention

and firefighting and occupational safety

Binh Dinh Kon Tum Hoa Binh Average 4 provinces Nghe An

No internal protocol on fire prevention and firefighting

When being asked about measures

for environmental protection and

occupational safety, 100% of the workers

said they have never participated in

a training course on environmental

protection and occupational safety

All operations are mainly based on the

experiences of the workers and their

employers Workers are not fully equipped

with labor-protective equipment such

as gloves, masks, goggles and earplugs

Image 1: It is normal that the jigsaw’s blade breaks during

operation, threatening workers Source: Provided by author

Almost all machines and equipment used

in processing households are self-installed with a lack of protective chassis, so they cannot ensure occupational safety (Image 1) The factories do not have necessary instructions on safe operation for workers

In many factories, old-fashioned jigsaws are still being used, posing risks to workers The electric system in the processing factories is unsafe and prone to fire, thus affecting occupational safety