Vietnamnet.vn
Podcast
Several years ago when people from other provinces rushed to Nhu Thanh mountainous district to look for “nam lim”, or ironwood mushrooms (ganodermataceae or Ganoderma Lucidum); the local residents realized the value of the precious mushroom. Since then, every time when they go to forest to fetch firewood or pick bamboo shoot, they have been trying to seek ironwood mushroom as well. A kilo of fresh mushroom can be sold at 100,000 dong, while a kilo of dried mushroom at 200,000 dong.
Xuan Thai commune is one of the poorest communes of the Nhu Thanh district. The electricity of the national grid still has not reached out to many villages of the commune. Local people reside in the areas next to the forest of the Ben En National Park. Here in the forest, a lot of ironwood trees have been chopped down.
In the past, people usually sought the roots of the chopped down trees to make charcoal oven to get coal for sale. Later, local people did not try to make coal for sale any more, because the local authorities tried to prevent them to do that for fear of a forest fire. Therefore, mushrooms have been multiplied from the rotten ironwood roots. The mushrooms which have larger canopies are always more expensive than the ones with smaller canopies.
However, there are no more large-canopy mushrooms to pick. Small merchants have been hunting for the mushrooms, which has prompted local residents to pick mushrooms right after the buds just begin to show. Some people said the mushrooms have been collected to be sold to Chinese, who use the mushrooms as herbal medicine.
Quach Van T, a local resident, said that forest rangers try to seize knives and reaping-hooks, the tools for picking mushrooms. “However, we still try to get herbal medicine for sale. We need money. The mushrooms are really the gifts of the forests,” he said.
In other communes of the Thuong Xuan mountainous districts, local residents also have been rushing to pick different kinds of herbal medicine
In the communes of Luong Son, Yen Nhan and Bat Mot of Thuong Xuan district, people are mostly exploiting “mau cho” trees (Horsfieldia amygdalina). A kilo of the fresh tree can be sold at 30,000 dong. Every day, several tons of the trees and other herbal medicines have been carried to collection points, from which the precious medicines are sold to herbal processing workshops, or exported to China.
Herbal medicine getting depleted
The precious medicines are getting depleted. A lot of kinds of herbs cannot be found in nearby forests any more. “We now have to go further to look for herbs,” a local resident said.
Le Phu Ve, Head of the forest ranger team in Thuong Xuan district, said that herbs have been overexploited, while no exploitation plan has been set up.
“If the current situation cannot be improved, this will lead to the natural resource depletion,” Ve has warned.
It is necessary for the local authorities to point out which trees can be picked and in what areas herbs can be exploited, so as to ensure that herbs can be used for the right purposes, while we can still protect our natural resources,’ he added.
Le Van Hung, Chair of the Nhu Thanh District People’s Committee, said local residents are facing big difficulties in their lives. While they live next to the forests, they cannot use the forest land. “Should we allocate land and forests to people to make it easier to control the land and forests?” he suggested.
Thanh Mai
.svg){kind=icon}
