Solutions are needed to limit the situation of people cutting and selling young eucalyptus trees in Nghe An.

Massive cutting and selling of young eucalyptus

At this time, going along National Highway 48 through Quy Chau district, you can see people busily exploiting acacia trees. There are acacia hills that are still quite small but are still being exploited.

Mr. Vi Van Tinh in Chau Hanh commune, Quy Chau district is peeling acacia bark and shares: My family has more than 2 hectares of acacia. Although it is only 3.5 years old, the price of acacia has increased from 1.1 million VND to nearly 1.3 million VND/ton, so my family decided to cut it down and sell it. Moreover, during the rainy and stormy season, we want to cut it down and sell it because we are afraid it will fall and break.

Mr. Vi The Long, Chairman of Chau Hanh People's Committee, said: Chau Hanh commune has over 4,000 hectares of acacia, 300 hectares are exploited annually. The reason for the increase in acacia prices is that at this time there is a shortage of goods, many acacia forests are almost exploited, factories and processing facilities push up prices to buy. Some households see the high price of acacia and fear natural disasters and rain, so they cut down and sell young acacia.

The exploitation of young acacia trees has many consequences, such as reduced productivity of planted forests, low quality of wood, and low profits. Not to mention, when young acacia trees are exploited massively at a time, the area of ​​bare forests and hills increases, leading to the risk of erosion and landslides... In the past, the commune has been propagating and encouraging people not to exploit young acacia trees, but the difficulty is that forest growers lack capital to invest in production and cut down trees to sell to make money to cover expenses.

Quy Chau district currently has over 23,000 hectares of acacia forest, harvesting over 3,000 hectares of acacia annually, of which many areas of young acacia are exploited. With acacia areas harvested outside the harvesting cycle, profits will decrease. Currently, the district has directed communes to carry out propaganda and explanation work so that people understand the losses when selling young acacia. Encourage people to plant large timber forests, exploit them in the right cycle to increase economic value.

Notably, in 2024, Quy Chau district has attracted a business to invest over 20 billion VND in a wood processing line and wood chips. The factory is expected to be operational by the end of September, purchasing acacia for local people. In the long term, the district is in dire need of wood processing businesses to sign contracts and purchase products so that people can feel secure in planting and harvesting forests of the right age.

Similarly, in Nghia Khanh commune, Nghia Dan district, farmers are exploiting young acacia trees, and tractors are going to the hills to transport the acacia. The acacia hills are still bare and not yet ready for exploitation, but have been cut down and lie scattered.

Mr. Tran Van Nam in Nghia Khanh commune said: The price of acacia has increased to nearly 1.3 million VND/ton, so my family has started harvesting nearly 1 hectare even though the acacia is only about 3 years old, still young and the yield is not high. If we wait another 2 years to harvest, the yield will be higher, but because of economic difficulties and not knowing how the market will fluctuate, we sell when the acacia price is high.

Mr. Lam Van Thang - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Nghia Dan district said: Nghia Dan district currently has over 10,000 hectares of raw material forest, annually exploiting over 1,500 hectares. Recently, the high price of acacia has caused many farmers to cut down and sell young acacia for low economic value. In the long term, the district is in dire need of wood processing enterprises to sign contracts and purchase products so that people can feel secure in planting forests and exploiting them at the right age. Currently, mainly traders from all over the place stand up to buy, so there is still a situation where acacia is difficult to sell and prices are forced down.

At this time, traders everywhere rushed to buy acacia, causing a shortage of goods. A factory owner specializing in buying acacia wood shared: Before, we bought 70-80 tons of raw acacia every day, now we can only buy 15-20 tons of acacia, some days we can't buy anything.

Need solutions to limit cutting and selling young acacia trees

Mr. Hoang Trung Son - Head of Forest Use and Development Department (Forestry Department) said: Nghe An currently has nearly 170,000 hectares of raw acacia forest, exploiting over 40,000 hectares annually. Recently, wood chip processing and exporting enterprises in Nghe An have signed orders in the Chinese market. Biomass pellet factories have been operating stably, signing export orders in Japan and European countries, pushing up acacia prices, which is beneficial for forest growers.

However, according to general assessment, the quality of planted forests in Nghe An is not high, the economic efficiency from exploiting planted forests is still low, people mainly grow acacia according to short business cycles to serve wood peeling, chipping, etc. The harvested products are not competitive. According to calculations, with acacia areas harvested not in the right exploitation cycle, profits will decrease by 25 - 30 million VND/ha compared to acacia of full age.

In addition, the granting of FSC certification in the province is still low compared to the total existing forest area, the whole province has only over 24,000 ha/170,000 ha of forest certified by FSC. Nghe An has more than 45 wood processing enterprises, more than 100 non-timber forest products enterprises and more than 10,000 establishments producing and trading wooden furniture and non-timber forest products. Most of the wood processing factories are not linked to the raw material areas, the machinery chain system is still backward, mainly producing wood chips, not many deeply processed products, the value of processed goods is not high.

To gradually limit the exploitation of young acacia trees, Nghe An province has recently requested specialized agencies and local authorities to step up propaganda work to help people understand the losses when selling young acacia trees to produce wood chips; mobilize people to plant acacia trees interspersed with large timber forests; participate in afforestation, forest management and development in an effective and sustainable manner.

However, to develop production forests effectively, Nghe An needs to coordinate with related sectors, attract businesses to support and accelerate the granting of FSC certificates in the area. Being granted sustainable forest certificates will benefit people in harvesting large timber forests, increasing economic value, especially businesses signing contracts to purchase products at stable prices.

In addition, it is necessary to attract businesses and corporations to invest in modern deep processing factories to sign contracts and purchase acacia wood products so that people can harvest on schedule to bring economic efficiency.