VietNamNet Bridge – Local people in Huong Hoa district of Quang Tri province now go to the forests everyday to pull up huyet dang (Sargento doxacuneata) plants for sale. They might not know that they are trying to extirpate one of the most precious plants given by the nature.

Huyet dang plants have been well known to every mountainous people in Quang Tri province for the last many generations. The people have been told by their previous generations that huyet dang is a mysterious plant which can help treat diseases. The extract of huyet dang after it is boiled with water would help people eat well and sleep well.

Especially, this is called the panacea for the women in mountainous areas. After giving birth, women should drink the extract of huyet dang for one week to recover their health. Huyet dang is so nourishing that the women can return to the rice fields with good health just one week after they give birth.

Huyet dang had been growing in many places of Quang Tri province, existing in the nature, near residential quarters until recent days, when people began flocking to the forests to pull up the plants for sale.

Local residents feel happy that they can sell up to VND3,000 for a kilo of huyet dang, which can bring attractive incomes to them. The merchants who collect huyet dang plants, say they would buy all the materials local residents can bring to them.

On March 12, when reporters said to a local resident that they wanted to go to the forest to find huyet dang, they were told that they needed to go far into the forest, because all the plants nearby have been exploited.

The reporters had to travel a long distance of 3 kilometers on motorbikes to reach to the forest, where there are still huyet dang plants.

The plants here are relatively big, which cling to bigger trees. People may chop down every branch of the plants. And if they want to save time, they would chop down the whole bigger trees.

Ho Van Tong, 42, in Huc commune, said he can collect 50 kilos of fresh huyet dang a day, thus earning VND150,000 a day.

Tong said at first, only some households in the localities went chopping down huyet dang. However, this has become a career of all the local residents. Huyet dang plants are considered the gifts of the nature, while people don’t have to work hard to grow them, but still can earn money with them.

However, they might not foresee that the gifts of the nature are limited, and they would get extirpated one day, if they are overexploited.

Ho Van Lang, Deputy Head of the Huc Commune’s Police Station, said local people feel happy about huyet dang. However, if nearly one ton of the plants are exploited every day, the valuable plants would disappear one day.

It is estimated that two tons of huyet dang are sold to merchants every day in Huc commune. Loan, a merchant, said she would export huyet dang to China after she collects enough 13 tons. In general, it takes three days to collect the amount.

How to deal with the overexploitation of huyet dang has caused a headache to the local authorities. Nguyen Van Thanh from the Huong Hoa district’s forest ranger unit, said the current laws do not say that exploiting huyet dang is a violation of the law which is subject to punishment.

Lao Dong