VietNamNet Bridge – People have been flocking to the forests to collect forestry products to sell to Chinese merchants, making the special use forest resources depleted and hindering the local socio-economic development.

On September 3, when reporters reached to the An Toan mountainous commune, there was no young man or adult. “They have gone to the forest to pick mushrooms,” an old woman said.

Nguyen Xuan Dao, Deputy Chair of the An Toan commune people’s committee, told the reporters to come back at night to meet the local people, because they are not at home on daytime.

“There are 180 households and 735 people here in the commune. However, you can only meet the commune’s officials, old men and children,” Dao said.

“The people go to the forest on daytime to pick forest products to sell to Chinese, who are willing to buy everything,” he added.

People would pick up everything they see in the forest, but they mostly look for lingzhi mushroom and Anoectochilus setaceus, or called “lan kim tuyen,” because the two kinds of plants can be sold at higher prices.

A kilo of lan kim tuyen is priced at VND1.25 million, while a kilo of fresh lingzhi mushroom at VND50,000. These are the price levels at which people sell to Vietnamese merchants, who would sell to Chinese businessmen. In Quy Nhon City, lan kim tuyen could be sold at VND2.5 million per kilo.

Bui Thi Kim Hoa is one of the big merchants in the locality. A lot of forest plants were seen here, from lingzhi mushroom, lan kim tuyen to cinnamon bark, or the very poisonous mushrooms.

According to Hoa, Chinese merchants collect everything, while local people would pluck everything which they can sell for money.

Of the forestry plants found at Hoa’s house, there was a very black one that local people call “nam hom”, or “casket mushroom,” which means that if someone eats the mushroom, he will surely die (be put into casket) because there is no cure for the poison.

“I would pay VND40,000 per kilo of fresh nam hom,” Hoa said, adding that this kind of mushroom was plenty in the An Toan special use forest, but it has got exhausted because of the overexploitation.

Dinh Van Ninh and his wife came back home at 5 pm. They found 0.1 kilo of lan kim tuyen and some nam hom mushrooms for which they could sell for VND130,000.

“It’s very dangerous to go to the forest to look for the plants. You will meet snakes and centipedes. And you will die if you take a false step,” Ninh said.

Dinh Van Rem, a neighbor of Ninh, and his family members reportedly ate some mushrooms, because they thought the mushrooms were safe if they were consumed by Chinese. They got poisoned and luckily escaped from dying.

No one in the An Toan commune knows what Chinese merchants collect forestry plants for.

“Lingzhi mushroom could be herb medicine, while lan kim tuyen is for displaying. But I cannot guest what they will do with nam hom,” said Dinh Van Luc, an official of the An Toan commune’s authorities.

Dinh Thi Lan, also a forestry plant collector in An Toan commune, said after collecting the plants from farmers, she would sell to Nguyen Thi Ket in An Lao and a man named Son in Hoai Nhon district.

However, Son also said he doesn’t know the real purpose of Chinese businessmen when collecting the plants.

Thien Nhien