Need to prevent the destruction of wild orchids in Con Cuong

(Baonghean) - Since the movement of planting, caring for and displaying orchids has become popular, wild orchids have become valuable, many people in the mountainous district of Con Cuong have an additional job of "hunting" wild orchids, bringing in high income. However, the development of this profession is threatening the existence of endemic orchid species in Pu Mat in the wild.

Orchids from Pu Mat National Forest are domesticated and thrive in home gardens. Photo: Ba Hau.

Mr. Lo Van Tao, in Trung Chinh village, Yen Khe commune, who has nearly 4 years of experience in the profession of "hunting" wild orchids, confided: The income from collecting wild orchids is quite high, every month I collect 4-5 times, each time I collect also depends on luck, if I am lucky I can get 9-10 kg and sell for 1-1.5 million VND/person/day, depending on the type of orchid. The rest can be sold for a few kg/day.

Wild orchids often cling to large tree trunks, deep in the forests. To get wild orchid branches, one has to climb mountains and wade through streams, which is very difficult. This is also a dangerous job, sometimes at risk of lifelong disability. Wild orchids live on large trees 15-20m high, those who go to collect wild orchids must have experience in climbing and picking, and not be afraid of heights.

Since the wild orchid movement started a few years ago, the price of wild orchids has increased from a few tens of thousands of VND/kg to several hundreds of thousands of VND, even millions of VND/kg depending on the rarity of each species. Mainly traders in Vinh and neighboring districts come to buy.

The results of a day of "hunting" for wild orchids by people in Con Cuong district. Photo: Minh Hanh

Mr. Lo Hong Van in Trung Chinh village, Yen Khe commune is a person who hunts wild orchids, nurtures them, and shapes them to sell. Each orchid pot, Mr. Van sells for 200,000 VND or more; for some pots with meticulous shapes, customers pay over 2 million VND. Currently, in his garden, there are over 10 different orchid varieties.

However, recently, people have gone into the forest to hunt for orchids too much, causing this beautiful and precious flower to become increasingly rare. People have to go deep into the old forest to find orchids. In addition, when they find orchids, people do not have the awareness to protect them, but instead strip them bare and cut down the main branches of the tree, affecting the primary forest. If there are no measures to propagate and protect them, in a short time, many precious orchid species in Pu Mat will become extinct.

PV