In the 70s and 80s of the last century, Son Dong forests were famous for their rare and precious timber, especially ironwood. This precious wood species is widely distributed in communes in the district, from Cam Dan, Yen Dinh, Tuan Dao, An Ba, An Chau and An Lac to Duong Huu and Long Son. People see the green ironwood trees whenever they enter the forest. But then, with the market economy, when deforestation appeared, the ironwood trees were exploited to exhaustion. Many parts of mature ironwood forests were suddenly "wiped out" and there remained only young trees.

The ironwood forest in An Lac commune.

To deal with such situation, in 1995, the forestry sector of Ha Bac province (now Bac Giang province) proposed the provincial People's Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development establish the Khe Ro Nature Reserve located in An Lac commune (Son Dong) in order to protect the rare and precious ironwood species, as well as conserve genetic resources of rare and precious forest plants and animals, thus protecting and developing sustainably the typical tropical forest ecosystem of the northeastern forest region. On August 5, 1995, the Khe Ro Nature Reserve was set up under Decision No. 715 of the provincial People's Committee (now belonging to the Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve). Then, the Khe Ro Nature Reserve Management Board was also established.

At the same time, the sector implemented legal policies on land and forest allocation to organizations, households and individuals for stable and long-term management and use for forestry purposes. It also handed over the task of protecting forest and planting natural forests to local residents. Forest protection has been paid more attention. People have not only provided information for the forest rangers, but also directly struggled against the bad guys to protect the forests. Most communities and household groups set up forest protection teams who regularly patrol the forests to protect their allocated forest areas.

In addition to focusing on forest development and use, the forest ranger force has strengthened its organization, sending many staff to communes to join forest management and protection, with the motto "protecting forests at the root". They have regularly coordinated with other competent agencies, local authorities and forest owners to conduct forest patrols; inspect forest product exploitation, transportation, processing and trading; detect, prevent and strictly handle violations in the forestry sector in accordance with law.

With the current continuous efforts, the natural forests with ironwood trees in Son Dong district have been "revived". A typical example is the special-use forest in the Khe Ro sub-committee in An Lac commune (the Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve); or the natural forest planned to be a model forest to conserve rare genetic resources of indigenous tree varieties, including ironwood, in Dong Chu village, Yen Dinh commune.

Visiting the forests above, we will see a wild space and a fresh and cool climate. With the tropical forest ecosystem, typical for the northeastern forest region of Vietnam, the forests in Son Dong are not only diverse in tree species, but also home to many rare and precious forest plant varieties. Timber trees are mostly 20 - 30 cm in diameter, even some have a diameter of 40 cm, interspersed with the decades-old ironwood trees with a diameter that an adult cannot hug, and a soaring height of 15m to over 20 m, becoming a symbol of nature.

Coming back to Son Dong highlands, when visiting the Tay Yen Tu spiritual-ecological tourist complex, please call at the natural forests with the ironwood trees, a "treasure" of Son Dong forests. This is also an opportunity to contemplate the tropical forest ecosystem, a typical characteristic of the northeastern forest region of Vietnam.

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Duong Dai Tien