The diversity in climate conditions prevailing in this country has favoured the occurrence and good growth of a wide range of plant species giving produces of high value at local/international market places. Formerly they were regarded as minor forest products, but due to their importance for the life of local forest people under the present setting, they are renamed as "Special Forest Products" (or dac san) in Vietnam. Some of the non-wood forest products are:
· Cinnamon: Its bark and oil can be sold at high prices at market places, in particular at foreign ones, to which about 2,600 tons of cinnamon bark are delivered annually.· Anise: Anise stars and oil are produced mainly for export; the exports annually amount to 600 tons of anise stars and 50 tons of anise oil.
· Pine resin: tapped from "resinous pine" (Pinus merkusii) and three-needle pine (Pinus khasya). Total amount of crude pine resin per year is about 2,500 tons. From this, rosin (about 1,500 tons) and turpentine oil (100 ton/year) are prepared. Rosin is exclusively used at local paper mills.
· Bamboos: Bamboos occur everywhere in Vietnam, in both forests and villages, showing a wide range of botanical varieties and giving a total supply of over 6.3 billion calms. They are used as building materials, for the making of many tolls and commodities in the countryside and for the manufacturing of some goods for export such as joss-sticks, chopsticks, skewers... During these last years, bamboos are used as the main raw materials for the production of paper in Vietnam in more than one paper mills. They annual production includes 100 million calms for commercial uses and about 600,000 tons for paper-making.
· Rattan: in particular the thicker ones are used in furniture making and interiors decoration. The export of rattan and bamboo articles has gone escalating from US$ 12 million in 1991 to 24 million in 1995.
· Besides, there are a lot of other non-wood products such as:
* Essential oils: cajeput oil, eucalyptus oil, citronella oil, Litsea oderata oil:
* Gums and resins: young oil, lacquers; and
* Pharmaceutical products: over 1,800 plant and grass species are giving high valued pharmaceutical products in Vietnam.
Towards the year 2000, the production of non-wood forest products, in particular those of high commercial values is to be developed through plantations, as shown below:
|
|
Area (in ha) |
Production (in tons) |
|
Cinnamon |
80,000 |
25,000 (bark) |
|
Anise |
20,000 |
10,000-15,000 (stars) |
|
Pine |
150,000 |
120,000 (resin) |
|
Tang oil |
60,000 |
35,000 (seeds) |
|
Rattans |
80,000 |
150,000 (rattan, dry weight) |
|
Bamboos |
500,000 |
150,000-200,000 (culms) |
|
Total |
890,000 |
|
The main measures planned to reach these targets are:
· To continue allocating forest lands to people;
· To allocate adequate resources (to state-owned forest enterprises);
· To sign contracts with and call for capital (from national and foreign donors);
· To make policies on taxation for forest plantations; and
· To issue policies on special interest for credit supply.
