Prospects from models

In 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development assigned the Vietnam Administration of Forestry to implement the central agricultural extension project “Building the models of intensive large-timber forest farming (acacia) and transforming small-timber trading forests into large-timber ones”. VNFOREST has collaborated with the provincial Forest Protection Department to carry out this project.

Delegates visit a large-timber forest farming model in Dong Hung commune (Luc Nam district).

As a result, from 2014 - 2019, the whole province has planted 120 hectares of acacia large-timber forests, with 65 households participating in; converting 175 hectares of small-timber forests into large-timber ones with 85 participating households in the districts of Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam and Yen The.

Previously, the family of Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai in Xoan hamlet, Xuan Luong commune (Yen The district) accepted a contract of 5 hectares of forestry land to plant acacia. After 6 years, the family earned 300 million VND (yet deducting expenses for planting, caring and protection). After listening to the Forest Protection Department staff's advice on the effectiveness of the large timber intensive farming model, her family has bravely participated in the project.

Visiting the acacia forest of Mai's family grown in June 2015, many trees have a diameter of over 20 cm and a height of over 15 m. Her family harvested 10 firewood trucks and two small-timber trucks and sold them for 30 million VND. After deducting expenses for pruning, they earned 15 million VND in profit.

The forest of the family of Nguyen Thi Huong in Cai Vang hamlet, Dong Hung commune (Luc Nam district) has been contracted from the Luc Nam Forestry One-member Co., Ltd. with more than 100 hectares of forest and more than 60 hectares of forest land.

In 2015, her family converted the small-timber trading forest to the large-timber one on 35 ha and planted 16.4 ha of new forest. Now many trees have a diameter of over 25 cm and a height of about 17 m, with water reserves estimated at over 200 m3 per ha. If the timber is sold at a price of more than 2 million VND per cu.m, her family will earn 300 million VND per ha. After deducting investment costs and paying fees to the company, her family will earn an average of 200 million VND per ha.

Development potential

Nguyen Van Hau, Deputy Director of the provincial Forest Protection Department, said the province has more than 153,700 hectares of forest land planned for forestry, of which more than 119,300 hectares are production forests and the rest are protection and special use forests.

According to the provincial Agriculture Restructuring Scheme for the period of 2014-2020, the province will have 29,000 ha of planted forests by 2020, of which the area of large-timber forests and those conversed from small-timber forests will be around 4,200 hectares. It strives to have 7,200 hectares of large-timber forests by the end of 2020, accounting for 10 percent of the production forest area of the province.

To achieve this goal, the province has taken measures to encourage the use of new high-yielding varieties as well as provided technical guidelines for intensive large-timber farming and conversion from small-timber trading forests into large-timber ones. It has diversified crops with native trees and fast-growing large-timber trees while receiving technology transfer of forestry seed production by tissue culture method.

The province has built a high-quality MDF processing factory using European technology with an expected capacity of 150,000 cu.m of products per year; rearranged the State-owned enterprises from one member limited liability companies to two member limited liability companies; encouraged businesses and households to join hands to invest in intensive large-timber farming, toward a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate to raise people's income, protect the ecological environment and increase carbon sequestration, on par with the available local potential.

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