Old farmer loves the forest

"Unconventional" forest planting

In the mountainous commune of Tuyen Lam, if you ask who is a good forest planter, many people will probably be introduced. However, if you ask who is a good forest planter using native tree species, the person mentioned will definitely be Mr. Dinh Xuan Niem in Ha village.

Mr. Niem is currently the owner of a forest of more than 5 hectares, including many precious woods such as Dalbergia tonkinensis, Ironwood, Yellow Heartwood, Agarwood, etc.; among them are trees dozens of meters high, over 30 years old. That forest is the life's work of an old farmer who loves the forest.

The story began more than 30 years ago. At that time, Thanh Hoa commune (old) where Mr. Niem was born was known as the “forest bandit” commune, because the lives of most people here depended on forest exploitation. Mr. Niem himself was no exception, to feed his family of 7, he had to carry an axe into the forest every day.

Day after day, month after month, the seemingly endless forests were exhausted by Mr. Niem and the local people. Despite the burden of making a living, many nights he could not sleep when the images of the forests being cut down kept appearing before his eyes. Mr. Niem was tormented by the thought that after so many years of clinging to the forest to make a living, he himself had cut down hundreds of trees, and if every family in the commune were like him, the forests would not grow fast enough to be cut down.

Mr. Dinh Xuan Niem's "natural" forest - Photo: PP

As a soldier returning from the fierce Quang Tri battlefield, Mr. Niem understands the value of forests better than anyone else. During his years of fighting the enemy, the vast forests in Khe Sanh, Huong Hoa many times protected him from the enemy's bombs and bullets.

Feeling guilty towards the forest, in 1997, Mr. Niem decided to quit his job as a “forest bandit” and no longer go into the forest to exploit wood. At the same time, the State had a policy to call on people to reclaim and reforest barren hills and mountains. He decided to take the barren land, full of bombs and bullets left over from the war, next to Len Ha cave to plant forests.

There is one thing that is different from everyone else, Mr. Niem does not plant trees like acacia, eucalyptus but focuses on planting native forest trees, including many precious wood species such as sua, lim, vang tam, huynh, tram do... At that time, people could not grow native forest trees, so Mr. Niem had to "pack rice, dig rice" into the forest to find seedlings. Day after day, he trampled through the forest to find seedlings, dug up the soil to plant trees, and then bent his back down to the stream to carry buckets of water to water the trees. In good weather, 5 out of 10 trees could survive, but in dry weather, sometimes none could survive. However, he was never discouraged, each sprouting branch was the motivation for him to plant the next trees... When the tree canopy closed to form a forest, his hair began to turn gray.

Leaving a "legacy" for future generations

At his “rare” age, Mr. Niem is still strong and flexible. Although his back is slightly bent and he walks slowly, he still enthusiastically leads us to visit his family’s forest. Following him, we feel like we are lost in a primeval forest with hundreds of trees tens of meters high, green as far as the eye can see.

While holding a machete to cut trees, Mr. Niem introduced us to the forest. He said that after more than 30 years of hard work and perseverance in planting native trees, his family's forest of more than 5 hectares now has more than 1,000 lim trees, 500 sua trees, 500 vang tam trees and 3,000 tram do trees, along with many other rare native trees.

Mr. Niem next to an ancient agarwood tree that is being "created" with agarwood - Photo: PP

He introduced us to the ancient ironwood tree - one of the first trees he brought from the forest to plant. The tree is about 30m high, the base is as big as an adult's arm, and can be exploited. In his forest there are many such large ironwood trees and many people have offered to pay more than 100 million VND, but he has no intention of selling.

Stopping by the agarwood forest, there were many large trees with holes carved around their trunks. Mr. Niem said that these were the agarwood trees he had sold to agarwood traders and they were "catching" the trees to create agarwood so they still asked him to take care of them. Currently, agarwood is also the only commercial tree in his forest.

With thousands of agarwood trees, if sold at once, Mr. Niem could become a billionaire. However, in recent years, he has only sold the “pillows” when the trees have grown. In the places where large agarwood trees are exploited, he immediately plants saplings. In addition, his family also has income from the forest’s by-products and the fruit trees in the garden.

"Planting acacia and eucalyptus will yield a quick harvest, but exploitation will affect the environment. I plant native trees with the desire to return to the forest a piece of pristine nature, contributing to the conservation of precious timber trees to repay the debt and gratitude to the forest," Mr. Dinh Xuan Niem shared.

After nearly two hours of trekking through the forest and listening to Mr. Niem talk about his “philosophy” of forest planting, we understood that after more than 30 years of diligently planting forests, he left behind not only a rare natural forest, but also his love and gratitude for the forest. Mr. Niem said that recently, due to his old age and declining health, he had divided some of the forest area among his children. When handing over the forest to his children, he repeatedly reminded them that they must follow the regulations on how to exploit and “compensate” so that the forest can develop sustainably, both providing a sustainable source of income and protecting the environment and ecosystem for the community.

Mr. Dinh Xuan Thuong, Party Secretary and Chairman of Tuyen Lam Commune People's Committee, commented: "Mr. Niem is a typical example of afforestation and economic development in the locality. With a very progressive way of thinking about afforestation, his model has affirmed that afforestation with native tree species is the right direction, adapting to current climate change. In the future, the commune will have adjustments in the afforestation policy, encouraging people to choose native forest tree species to plant forests for economic development, contributing to environmental protection."

Phan Phuong

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/xa-hoi/202510/lao-nong-yeu-rung-b3a12c0/