Community development of medicinal plants under natural forest canopy in Tuong Duong - Part 1: High efficiency from the project
The project to support communities in buffer zone communes to develop medicinal plants under forest canopy is funded for people in Tuong Duong district. The project helps increase income, develop sustainable economy, and contribute to biodiversity conservation in the Western Nghe An World Biosphere Reserve.
Building medicinal herb gardens under the forest canopy
We have visited Nga My and Yen Hoa communes in Tuong Duong district many times. These are two remote communes in this border district. Most of the people here have difficult lives and depend on nature, exploiting available resources from the forest.
For the past two years, two communes have had new livelihoods from the Project to Support Communities in Buffer Zones to Develop Medicinal Plants Under Forest Canopy to Increase Income and Conserve Biodiversity in the Western Nghe An Biosphere Reserve.
The project aims to strengthen forest protection and management activities, conserve and develop medicinal plants under the forest canopy to increase income and capacity for communities living in buffer zones of special-use forests, reduce pressure on forests and conserve biodiversity in the Western Nghe An Biosphere Reserve.
Specifically, the project supports raising awareness and capacity of communities in the management and development of medicinal plants under forest canopy (technical, financial and market). Strengthening forest protection and management activities, restoring and sustainably harvesting medicinal plants under forest canopy. Creating sustainable livelihoods and increasing income for buffer zone communities through activities such as sustainably harvesting medicinal plants under natural forest canopy; developing models for propagating and planting medicinal plants under forest canopy; operating a revolving livelihood fund.
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Effective on many fronts
The project is specifically implemented in the biodiversity corridor in two communes of Tuong Duong district: Dang village, Na Kho village, Xop Kho village (Nga My commune); Yen Tan village, Dinh Yen village, Yen Hop village (Yen Hoa commune); the number of people supported 280 people, 600 households are enhanced capacity in developing medicinal herbs under the forest canopy. In addition, the project also built a revolving fund with 615 million VND, the fund is operated to help people in the villages have loans to develop their livelihoods.
Since September 2022, in these two communes, 2 nurseries of medicinal plants have been built and 2 nurseries operated by local people, expected to produce 10,000 - 15,000 medicinal plant seedlings of all kinds/year; At the same time, 18 hectares of medicinal plants will be planted under the forest canopy, which will help increase the income of households in the project area by at least 20%. Of which, 3 hectares of yellow camellia and 6 hectares of purple khôi in Yen Hoa and 3 hectares of purple ba kích, 9 hectares of bach bo in Nga My commune.
Two medicinal plant nurseries located in Xieng Lip and Dang villages have produced 15,000 purple Morinda officinalis plants, 2,200 Chinese yam plants; 3,500 purple Khoi plants, 300 yellow Camellia plants, and 500 Gynostemma pentaphyllum plants during the period of July 2023 - August 2024. On average, each year, 10,000 more plants/garden will be grown. From the two initial nurseries, two more nurseries have been expanded in Yen Hoa commune and Nga My commune is preparing to build one more garden.
In addition to economic efficiency, the project also gradually builds and propagates awareness to people and communities about the importance of environmental protection, green economic development orientation, and adaptation to climate change. This is an inevitable global economic trend to ensure sustainable development.
Through the free support of the project, local authorities and people have increased their knowledge about the inevitable trend in connecting "4 parties": the State, farmers, businesses and scientists to increase the efficiency of economic models. To develop valuable medicinal herbs, it is necessary to pay attention to the market and value chain for medicinal plants, the need to attract many businesses to participate and create a competitive, transparent market and enhance the value of practical models. At the same time, create a "source" to exploit resources from the National Target Program to develop medicinal herbs, especially medicinal herbs under the forest canopy.
Within 2 years, the project has successfully implemented 62 activities, including training courses, building, guiding, implementing models, creating and managing a revolving fund, establishing a forum for medicinal plant development, and communicating to raise public awareness in the management, sustainable use and development of medicinal plants. In addition, the project has implemented 3 more activities: Organizing the Workshop "Connecting 4 houses in medicinal plant development"; Organizing study tours on medicinal plant development in Hanoi and Ba Vi for 20 key officials and outstanding members; Planting additional medicinal plants under the forest canopy.
The project "Supporting communities in buffer zone communes to develop medicinal plants under forest canopy to increase income and conserve biodiversity in the Western Nghe An World Biosphere Reserve" is implemented by the Center for Environment and Biological Resources (CEBR) and Technical Support Experts, Vinh University.
This project is coordinated by the Small Grants Program (SGP) - Global Environment Facility (GEF) within the framework of the Project: "Integrating natural resource management and biodiversity conservation objectives into socio-economic development planning and management of biosphere reserves in Vietnam" (BR Project) implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and funded by GEF through UNDP Vietnam.
