The injustice of deforestation

(Baonghean.vn) - The hobby of collecting wild peach blossoms has become widespread as society develops. From mountainous regions to cities, as the year ends and Tet (Lunar New Year) approaches, every household wants to find a beautiful wild peach blossom branch that fits their budget. Could this be why some people are indiscriminately cutting down natural peach trees to sell? It's unfair!

Fourteen years ago, my family moved from across the Lam River to a location right next to National Highway 7, which runs from Vinh to the Nam Can border gate (Ky Son). Every year, as Tet (Lunar New Year) approached, I would sit with a few motorbike taxi drivers by the roadside, watching the trucks loaded with wild peach blossoms coming down from above, and exclaim, "Wow! Where do all these peach blossoms come from? At this rate, even the smallest branches, no bigger than a little finger, will be left!"

Strangely enough, 14 years have passed, and around this time, we sit by the roadside watching trucks loaded with moss-covered peach blossoms hurrying south. Sometimes there are even more than before. Cars and motorbikes run continuously until the last day of the twelfth lunar month. The same questions remain, year after year, and it seems everyone knows the answer, but no one says it out loud.

Harvested peaches from the forest are still being transported in large quantities to the lowlands during the Lunar New Year. Photo: Dao Tho

After graduating, I was fortunate enough to live near places famous for their wild peach blossoms in Nghe An province. Every year, as the end of December approached, we would choose beautiful wild peach blossom branches to bring home for Tet (Lunar New Year). It was quite a struggle to get those branches. The kind and simple Hmong people told me, "Just come to my field and choose, I'll sell them to you cheaply."

It took us almost two hours to climb from where we were to the peach orchard, and we had to ask the locals to carry the branches back to us, which was incredibly difficult. More than 10 years ago, the road to where we worked was just a dirt road, and cars couldn't reach it, so the peach orchards were mainly planted for their fruit. Peach trees covered the hillsides, their vibrant red blossoms covering the entire hillside. The peach branches, absorbing the cold highland air, were covered in moss from root to tip. Every year, they would cut them down and plant new saplings so that they would bear fruit after 3-4 years. And this peach variety is strange; sometimes, saplings just sprout up on the hillsides without needing to be planted.

Locals transport peach blossoms from the forest to the town to sell on the last day of the year. Photo: Dao Tho.

When paved roads were extended throughout the mountainous district of Ky Son, trucks and motorbikes rumbled day and night, collecting peach blossom branches from the locals to sell in the lowlands. At this time, the peach trees on the hillsides truly showed their value. They bore fruit in the summer and bloomed in the spring. And the people of the highlands thus gained additional income from their peach orchards.

On a business trip at the end of the year, I met a local man named Thò Nênh Thông in Nậm Càn commune (Kỳ Sơn district). Around his house and on his fields, Nênh Thông had many peach trees. He said that in the past, in the Mông villages, peach trees thrived, but no one knew how to capitalize on this potential for economic development; they simply grew them for their fruit.

Branches of wild peach blossoms covered in moss are popular with buyers. Photo: Dao Tho

Noticing that people from the lowlands often came to the border region to get peach blossoms to celebrate Tet (Lunar New Year), in 2007 he planted over 1000 peach trees. Each year, he carefully tended and pruned them, so the trees grew rapidly. After 5 years, the peach trees he planted proved productive. Each Tet, he earns an average of over 60 million VND from selling peach blossoms. After selling them, he continues planting the next year so that he always has peach blossoms to supply to people in the lowlands.

To cultivate a beautiful wild peach tree, people in the mountainous regions of Nghe An province have to plant and care for them very carefully every year. Photo: Dao Tho

He was surprised that people liked the moss-covered peach trees grown in the forest so much. But never mind, for someone like him, the peach trees providing his family with extra income was good enough. I wondered, "So you thought these peach trees were naturally grown in the forest?" He burst out laughing, "Do you think fruit trees are the same as those fir or pine trees? It's just that they've been grown for many years in the fields, so people call them wild peach trees. If they were naturally grown, and each beautiful branch could fetch ten million dong, then everyone in our village would abandon their household chores to go collect peach trees."

It turns out that the questions that had been bothering me for so long have now been answered. As society develops, people have different preferences. Some people like to cultivate ancient kumquat trees or apricot trees, while others prefer wild peach trees. That's the natural order of life.

A branch of wild peach blossoms is displayed in a house during Tet (Lunar New Year) in the lowlands. Photo: Dao Tho

For Hmong people like Tho Nenh Thong, terms like "climate change," "environmental pollution," and "ecological imbalance" are completely alien. They only understand that the government has stated that deforestation is against the law, so they shouldn't cut down trees anymore. As for growing peach trees for sale, the government encourages it. They also know that the money they earn from farming is hard-earned.

That being said, it's understandable how many people feel; it would be strange not to be anxious seeing hundreds of trucks carrying peach blossoms from the highlands. Just like me before, when Tết (Lunar New Year) came around and I saw trucks carrying peach blossoms, I wondered: "Where do all these peach blossoms come from, year after year? If this continues, next year..." Well, now I can answer that: they grow peach blossoms in the forest and sell them here.

Dao Tho