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Reforestation may be life-altering to ethnic people

Reforestation may be life-altering to ethnic people

Ho A Lai in his forest

Given the vast area of forested land still available, Ho A Lai and his peers of Van Kieu ethnic people in Kim Thuy Commune are expecting to expand their initial acreage of forests from 734.32 hectares to about 5,000 hectares. Their wood will be branded with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification within the next five years. To them, this may be a life-changing event.

Ho A Lai, a member of the Van Kieu ethnic minority in Kim Thuy Commune in Quang Binh Province’s Le Thuy District, has recently been awarded with a sustainable forest management certification. The certification, issued by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), is valid from March 26, 2021 to March 25, 2026. Quang Binh’s Le Thuy is also the first district in the province to be granted with an FSC certification in line with the household management model.

Mr. Lai is one among more than 100 first forest owners who registered for the participation in the above model in the hope that the reforestation in line with FSC standards may help them earn better income. Mr. Lai’s Kim Thuy can boast a strength in reforestation as forested land accounts for a third of the commune’s total acreage. Despite the great potential in forestry, until 2019, poverty remained rampant in the commune where up to 46% of its households were still poor, according to statistics released by the local communal authorities. In some hamlets with a population of Van Kieu ethnic people, say, Rum Ho Hamlet, the poverty rate was as high as 75%.

In accordance with the FSC sustainable forest management certification, forest owners are encouraged to switch from unsustainable to sustainable cultivation mode via a breakaway from the habit of burning down vegetation following forest exploitation, plowing the top surface of forests, using plant protection chemicals and dumping thrash in the forest, to name but a few.

This process also seeks to request forest owners to strictly protect vulnerable biological habitats, such as brooks, indigenous plants and local wild animals. Also under the protection are historic relics, such as former bomb creates or signs of biodiversity.

In addition, the FSC standards encourage forest owners to build their own plants to manage their forested land, apply work safety measures and exploit forests at an appropriate rate suitable to environmental protection.

In return, these strict regulations mean that FSC-branded wood products are always preferred by wood processors worldwide at prices 15-20% higher than normal prices.

According to statistics obtained from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, despite considerable effects by Covid-19, the country’s export sales of timber and wood products reached US$12.37 billion in 2020, a rise of 16.2% over 2019. As Vietnam’s integration into the global marketplace intensifies, the demand for FSC-certificated wood has become increasingly urgent and is now actually a matter of life and death to enterprises in the woodwork industry, especially after the Voluntary Partnership Agreements/Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan (VPA/FLEGT) has come into effect. Although Vietnam is a country having great potential for forestry development, her wood enterprises are still lacking wood materials and FSC-certified wood products.

Previously, Ho A Lai and his ethnic peers mostly practiced nomadic farming as they burnt out forests to turn them into fields for some time. After several years when the fertile top soil had gone, they let the fields untouched for a few years so that the land could recover to a certain extent before they came back. Over the past several years, nomadic farming has been terminated as a result of the State’s more stringent forest management. At the same time, as many Van Kiet ethnic people have sold their forested land to others, they no longer have enough land for the practice of nomadic farming.



A reforested land of acacia trees in Le Thuy commune, Quang Binh Province

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