VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese people in northern areas now rush to excavate hills, mountains and forests to pick up the roots of sim trees (Tomentose rose myrtle) to sell to China for money.

The “sim root rush”

Serried very deep holes now can be seen on a large area of the northern province towards the Vietnam-China border line. A lot of trees get withered and fall. The “sim tree rush” has led to the serious devastation of land and forests in the mountainous provinces.

People have been rushing to dig land for sim roots after hearing that Chinese businessmen now collect sim roots in a massive scale, thus paying high for the products. Thousands people leave their home for the forests, where they dig land, seek roots and then load the roots into trucks which then heads for China.

Tran Thi Choi, 35, in Po Nhang hamlet of Tinh Bac commune in Loc Binh district, left home early in the morning for the hills tens of kilometers far away. She said sim trees now can be found only in far areas. After finding a brushwood of sim, she brandished the knife and chopped down the tree, and then dug for roots with her spade.

Choi said that Chinese businessmen began collecting sim roots in early September to use as herbs. Vietnamese merchants come to see local people to collect roots, then load the roots into trucks to carry to China. There are some 30 such trucks which operate regularly.

Choi said previously, she could easily dig 100 kilos of sim roots a day and pocketed 200,000 dong a day. There were a lot of sim trees on the hills near her house. However, since more and more people seek for sim roots, the trees have gradually disappeared from the nearby hills and mountains. Farmers nowadays have to go further to the forests and remote areas to look for sim.

Luong Van Luong, Deputy Secretary of the Tinh Bac commune’s communist party committee, said most of the local residents from 400 households, except old and weak people, now go seeking sim roots everyday.

The “sim root rush” has resulted in the land excavated, forests devastated. A lot of green trees have fallen down just because of the “sim dream” of local people

According to Luong, the situation not only can be seen in Tinh Bac, but also in many other communes of the district.

The sim root rush has changed the life of the local people. Children have dropped out to follow their parents to the forest every day to look for sim roots. Dinh Van Khon, a sixth grader of the Khuat Xa Secondary School, said that he can earn tens of thousands of dong a day, which he gives to the mother who then buys rice and meat for him.

Experts warn about “herb bleeding”

According to Hoang Le Minh from the Northeast Forestry Seed Company, sim is a precious kind of herb, with all of its parts can be used to treat diseases.

Especially, sim trees play a very important role in the environment protection. It helps keeps soil, water and prevent erosion. It serves as an important floristic composition to protect the water resource in the border area.

Also according to Minh, it takes 10 years at least to grown sim tree. Therefore, he feels great anguish when hearing that tens of thousands of trees have been chopped down just over the last month.

Tien Phong