Afforestation in Xiangyang: A New and Promising Direction…

(Baonghean) - In 2011, based on the assessment of the current forest status, the Party Executive Committee of Tuong Duong district issued Resolution No. 02 on "Continuing to promote afforestation and livestock breeding in the period 2011-2015"; since then, afforestation in Tuong Duong has achieved some initial remarkable results...

With the people's positivity and the timely support and encouragement of the State, after more than 3 and a half years of implementation,

Mr. Lo Xuan Thiu's xoan garden in Phay village is about to be harvested.

Coming to Xieng My commune, one of the most difficult communes of Tuong Duong district, with nearly 75% of poor households, the forests here are mainly protective forests, so the development of forest planting is difficult. Strictly implementing Resolution 02 of the District Party Committee, the Commune Party Committee issued Action Program No. 06 on October 21, 2011. Based on the assessment of previous forest planting results, the commune proposed a plan to plant new forests, in which, in addition to 103 hectares of forest planted before 2010, from 2011, each year strives to plant 120 hectares, the "target" by 2015 is about 465 hectares of forest.

Xoan dau trees are a new forest planting target in Xieng My, planted by people around their houses and in their forest gardens. Meeting Mr. Trinh Van De in Phay village, Xieng My commune - a truck owner who is buying xoan wood, he said: Because the amount of xoan wood that is ready to be exploited in the village is still small, it takes a few days to buy a truck of 5 to 7 cubic meters; if bought at the garden, it costs 2.3 million VND/m3, and if bought at the gathering place, it costs 2.4 million VND/m3, once the truck is full, it is transported down to Dien Chau to sell.

Mr. Lo Xuan Thiu in Phay village, Xieng My commune, led us to visit the xoan garden around his house and talked: "The family has planted more than 5,000 xoan trees; the xoan crop planted since 2008 has harvested nearly 6 million VND. The xoan tree has the same exploitation cycle as the acacia tree, but is much more valuable and easier to sell. If selling the tree, the price is 200 - 300 thousand VND, if selling by volume, it is 2.4 million VND/m3". Mr. Kim Thai Viet - Secretary of Phay village Party Cell said: In the early days of implementing Resolution 02, the Party Committee held an expanded meeting, in addition to informing the core party members, the commune also photocopied the resolution and sent it to the party cells. In the first year of implementation, the main purpose was to plant acacia, although the support of 500 VND/seedling was received, but because the price of acacia was low, people did not really trust it and did not want to receive the trees. Therefore, based on the direction of the Party Committee, the village organized an expanded meeting to propagate to party members and organizations to actively mobilize and propagate. Then, thanks to the exemplary leadership of party members such as Mr. Luong Van Tuyen, active people such as Mr. Luong Van Than..., the forest planting movement of the village began to be "heated up" again. Besides acacia trees, along with the active propaganda of the Party Committee and the village executive committee, people believed and boldly switched to planting xoan, lat...

Purchasing xoan wood in Phay village, Xieng My commune (Tuong Duong).

Mr. Luong Thanh Truyen - Secretary of Xieng My Commune Party Committee said: In 2012, the forest planting movement according to the resolution slowed down due to the devaluation of acacia trees, but since 2013, people have gradually switched to planting xoan and lat hoa. By September 2014, the commune had planted 318.18 hectares, of which, in 2014, 172 hectares of forest were planted including 50,000 xoan trees and more than 85,000 lat trees. Some communes in the inner areas such as Nga My, Yen Na, Yen Hoa... thanks to the implementation of Resolution 02, the forest area increased quite rapidly. In 2011, the commune planted 123.6 hectares of acacia, in 2012 planted 137 hectares and in 2013 planted 207 thousand trees, mainly xoan and lat. “With this momentum, it won’t be long before Nga My and Xieng My communes will create a district-scale forest area of ​​lat and lat xoan” – Comrade Luong Hong Son, Secretary of the Nga My Commune Party Committee, excitedly said. In communes with convenient transportation such as Tam Thai, Tam Quang, Tam Dinh, Thach Giam, in addition to growing xoan, lat and acacia trees, people also strongly develop native trees such as meter, nua, lung, rattan, etc. Thanks to that, some households have not only eliminated hunger and reduced poverty, but also become typical forest planting models for people to visit and learn; such as the households of Mr. Lo Huu Chien in Tam Quang commune, Mr. Lo Van Phai in Tam Thai commune, Ms. Luong Thi Hue in Yen Hoa commune, etc.

However, the afforestation work in Tuong Duong still has some shortcomings. Some communes such as Luong Minh, Huu Khuong, Mai Son... do not have programs or action plans to implement the resolution or if they do, they are not specific; some communes such as Yen Thang, Luong Minh still have the situation of being damaged by buffaloes and cows after planting; propaganda work to raise awareness for cadres and party members about the benefits of afforestation is still weak... Mr. Lo Thanh Hai - Vice Chairman of Tuong Duong District People's Committee shared: Despite efforts, people in some places still have a dependent mindset, have not proactively invested in afforestation but wait for support from the State. When there is support funding, forest tree nurseries develop, but when funding decreases, the number of nurseries also decreases; The process of establishing forest planting records in communes is still slow and not in accordance with regulations... Although the mahogany tree has clear advantages over the acacia tree and is well received by the people, in order for the mahogany tree to become a tree with high economic value, it is necessary to have planning guidance from the district. And one of the limitations of the results of forest planting according to Resolution 02 of Tuong Duong is that the progress of land and forest allocation to the people is very slow, the people are not really confident in investing in forest planting; if this reality is not resolved soon, when the exploitation period comes, it is easy to cause complicated disputes...

Thus, Resolution 02 of the Tuong Duong Party Committee has met the aspirations of the majority of ethnic people in the area, aroused the potential of forest land, created initiative, self-awareness in planting forests, caring for and protecting trees in many places and finding consumption sources, bringing in good income; the problem is that local authorities at all levels must promptly resolve difficulties in land and forest allocation; support people in finding consumption markets... After evaluating the effectiveness of effective forest planting models, the district needs to have good solutions for replication; on the other hand, continue to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and projects providing tree and animal varieties and clearly orient: for forest planting, the communes in the upper areas prioritize planting native trees such as xoan, meter; the outer and inner areas plant xoan, lat, meter, and rattan. In the immediate future, focus on organizing a review and statistics of the planted forest area that is ready for exploitation to have a basis for developing a forest planting plan for the following years; Assign members to go down to the grassroots to direct and mobilize people to actively plant forests; organize inspections of the implementation of Resolution 02 of the District Party Committee closely and regularly...

Article and photos:Nguyen Hai