Many difficulties in growing large timber forests

(Baonghean) - Planting large timber forests not only brings higher economic benefits to households, but also helps reduce erosion, contributing to environmental protection and combating climate change. The effectiveness of large timber forests compared to small timber forests has been confirmed, but this type of forest has not yet developed commensurate with its advantages in Nghe An.

Double benefit

In the province, the model of planting large timber forests at Song Hieu Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. is currently developing quite effectively. Mr. Ho Dinh The - Director of Song Hieu Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. said: From 2004 - 2005, the company planned and planted 2,700 hectares of large timber, up to now 1,000 hectares have been exploited, the remaining 1,700 hectares are still being exploited. Planting large timber forests reaches 140 - 160 m3 of wood/ha/cycle of 10-11 years, especially large timber forests for multiple purposes, from laminated timber to chipped wood.

Harvesting large timber forests in Mau Duc commune (Con Cuong).

To effectively plant large timber forests, the company proactively sources hybrid acacia seeds to ensure quality. All planted trees are treated for pathogens, insects, and fertilized and cared for according to the correct process. Forests are planted according to the correct process and schedule, with priority given to spring and spring-summer planting so that the trees grow faster.

The company also invested tens of billions of VND in maintenance and construction of over 250 km of raw material roads to facilitate the planting, care and exploitation process. To proactively find output for products, the company cooperates with processing enterprises, Nam Cam MDF Wood Factory, Thanh Thanh Dat Company Limited... With its own capital, the company annually plants 300 - 350 hectares of large timber forests, with an investment rate of about 15 - 17 million VND/ha.

In addition, some forestry companies also invest in planting native trees. For example, Con Cuong Forestry Company Limited, in 2002, this company intercropped hybrid acacia with native trees such as large-timbered trees such as Van Trung, Canarium... on more than 60 hectares in Yen Khe commune, 3 hectares in Luc Da commune.

From 2009 to present, Con Cuong Forestry Company Limited has also intercropped native trees with hybrid acacia on nearly 350 hectares. It is known that the acacia tree is easy to grow, has light wood, is classified in group VII, is less prone to warping, is easy to process, and is used to saw boards, peel wood to make plywood, matches, pencils, make household furniture, carve clogs, and some office tools. The acacia tree can be harvested for 18-20 years, and in addition to its economic value, it also brings environmental value.

Why is it difficult to do?

However, most localities in the province currently mainly plant and harvest young acacia. Mr. Van Hoai in Quynh Tien hamlet, Tam Hop commune (Quy Hop), shared: “Due to lack of money, we sold acacia trees about 4 years old to be chopped. Planting large trees is more valuable, but we need a factory to purchase, sign contracts, and support people to borrow capital during the forest planting process.”

The entire Tam Hop commune has about 300 hectares of raw material forest, but basically all of them harvest young acacia. Mr. Vi Thanh Tuong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district added: The district has over 16,000 hectares of hybrid acacia, the largest in the province, and about 4,000 hectares of acacia are ready to be harvested.

People in Tan Ky district harvest young acacia.

However, many communes massively harvest young acacia to sell, the price is only over 20 million VND/ha; mature acacia costs over 40 million VND/ha. Although knowing the price is cheap, growers suffer losses, but converting hybrid acacia to other crops is also very difficult. Because most acacia trees are mainly grown on barren hills, for this type of land only replaces high-yield cassava, however, growing cassava will be difficult to sell because it is not in the factory's raw material planning area.

Some areas after planting acacia, people have proactively converted to rubber and sugarcane but very little. The district has proposed that Nghia Dan MDF and wood processing factory, after construction is completed, should sign a contract with the raw material area to consume products for people, so that acacia growers do not have to worry about output.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Thuc - Head of Tan Ky Agriculture Department said: Tan Ky has over 7,000 hectares of raw acacia forest, exploiting over 1,000 hectares each year. Although it is known that the economic and environmental benefits of large timber forests are high, currently most forest owners choose the small timber forest model instead of large timber forests. The reason is that most forest growers have low incomes and do not have enough financial conditions to follow a long exploitation cycle to produce large timber.

Due to low income, many forest growers also find it difficult to meet the conditions for bank loans. If they do access loans, the loans are lower than investment needs, the loan term is shorter than the forest business cycle, and the interest rate is high... This forces them to exploit wood when they meet the requirements for chipping and making pulp to be able to pay interest.

Up to now, the whole province has over 160,000 hectares of raw material forests, the area of ​​large timber forests is about 4,000 hectares, concentrated in some districts of Nghia Dan - Con Cuong, Tuong Duong... Mr. Nguyen Canh Can, Head of the Nghe An forestry planning investigation team, said: In order to develop large timber in the long term, the provincial forestry planning investigation team has completed the "Planning of large timber production and trading areas in Nghe An province for the period 2025", accordingly, planning 18 districts to plant 148,000 hectares of large timber, of which the area converted from small timber forests is 19,000 hectares, newly planted forests are 72,000 hectares, and replanted forests are 57,000 hectares. Currently, there is basically consensus among forest owners, People's Committees of districts and communes, the team has submitted the planning to the provincial People's Committee for consideration and approval.

However, planting large timber forests is still difficult because planting large timber forests requires at least twice as much care and protection time as planting small timber forests, leading to a long exploitation and capital recovery process, while people's conditions are still very difficult, and their living needs always require money to cover expenses. In addition, borrowing capital to invest in planting new large timber forests is not easy. Although the State has sanctions and credit policies to develop forestry, in reality, banks are often reluctant to lend in this field because of high risks and long repayment periods. This is really a big difficulty for growers./.

Van Truong