4 Dependency on non-timber forest products by the Ma minority ethnic group in southern Central Highlands of Viet Nam - Vo Van Thoan^[4]

ABSTRACT

The southern Central Highlands of Viet Nam is the domain of the Ma, an autochthon minority ethnic group that has a matriarchal system of familial relationship. Their main economic activity is slash-and-burn cultivation in the watershed forest. They also collect non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to supplement their limited production. Involving in the national strategic programme under the Fixed Agriculture and Sedentarization Project, the ethnic groups such as the Ma have had to leave their niches to reside in the surrounding forest areas which had been cleared for their settlement, and also in depressed areas developed for wetland rice. Due to the new cultivation practices, the Ma people are adapting slowly and face food shortages. They therefore have to depend strongly on the collection of NTFPs to supplement their limited family food production and the additional income. Most NTFPs are for domestic use; only 5 to 10 products are sold nowadays in the market. A large amount of NTFPs serve as food, some plants and herbs are used for traditional medicine and a few are used to feed animals. The seed of Scaphium lychnophorum and Amomum sp. fetch high prices in export. Rattan species are used as handicraft material. Bamboo serves as joss-sticks and chopsticks. Collected NTFPs are classified in four categories by the community members: very important, important, less important and not important. Because of high market demand, some NTFPs have been overexploited. Facing this problem, the local people planted some traditional medicinal herbs in their home gardens, and rattan and medicinal plant species in the secondary forest.

INTRODUCTION

The Central Highlands of Viet Nam is the domain of 15 autochthon minority ethnic groups (which are classified linguistically as Malayo-Polynesian and Mon-Khmer groups). The main fertile zone is the niche of the Malayo-Polynesian group, the margin is the habitat of the Mon-Khmer group. Being involved under the national strategic programme in the Fixed Agriculture and Sedentarization Project, the autochthon ethnic groups have had to leave their niches in remote areas to reside in the surrounding forest areas. Some of them have adopted new agriculture techniques to develop wetland rice and industrial plantations like coffee, tea, cashew and home gardens, but they still keep to traditional swidden farming and collect non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to supplement their limited family food production and generate income, and also for their culture.

The Ma group resides mostly on the terraces of the southern part of Central Highland with a population of 25 000 persons. The group is divided into subgroups of Ma Krung, Ma Sop, Ma To and Ma Ngan, according their socio-economic features. Each Ma community lives in a distinguished hamlet (boon) located in a remote forest area. Combining settlement, swidden, forest for hunting and collecting NTFPs, each hamlet includes 5 to 10 long houses and have blood relationships led by the elder council.

STUDY SITE

The site, called Da Nhar village, is located in the buffer zone of Cat Tien National Park, about 170 km from Ho Chi Minh City. The altitude is 350 m asl. Annual rainfall is 2600 mm. The average slope is 10°. The main topographical gradient is from south to north. The total land is approximately 4155 ha. This figure includes forest land, which is allocated to the forest enterprise. The boundary of the commune with the forest enterprise is not clearly defined, but most economic activities in the village influence strongly the forest and forest land. The village established through the Fixed Agriculture and Sedentarization Project in 1989 includes 9 hamlets (boons) with 152 Ma households (776 persons) gathered from remote areas. A dispensary, primary school and electricity power have been set up in the area. Farming system is not yet developed.

STUDIED NTFPS AND LOCAL USE FOR FOOD, TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND HANDICRAFT

There are 82 NTFPs collected of which are 77 plant species and 5 mushroom species. The plants are classified according to their growth shapes: bushes, lianas, herbs, trees, bamboo and rattan. On this basis, there are: bushes (20 percent), lianas (13 percent), herbs (26 percent), mushroom (6 percent), bamboo (5 percent), trees (23 percent) and rattan (7 percent).

NTFPs play an important role in the lives of the villagers; most NTFPs are for domestic uses for food (38 products) and traditional medicine (38 products); 17 products are sold on the local market. Bamboo shoot is used for food and bamboo stem for chopsticks and joss-sticks. Rattan shoot is used for food and medicinal purposes. Rattan cane is used for handicraft. Only 8 products are used to feed animals.

Table 1. List of collected NTFPs and local uses

For food purposes: rattan 13%, bamboo 11%, mushroom 13%, herbs 31%, lianas 6%, bushes 21%;
For medicinal purposes: rattan 5%, trees 16%, herbs 24%, lianas 26%, bushes 29%.

For food purposes: rattan 13%, bamboo 11%, mushroom 13%, herbs 31%, lianas 6%, bushes 21%;
For medicinal purposes: rattan 5%, trees 16%, herbs 24%, lianas 26%, bushes 29%.

All six rattan canes are sold daily. They are used as construction and handicraft material. May tu is highly priced and used in handicraft for export. People also use six rattan shoot species as vegetable and medicine; villagers prefer to eat may dang and may nuoc shoot every day. May heo shoot is used for worm treatment.

The leaves of la nhip are used as green vegetable, which is collected by women and children every day. Uoi nut is sold at high price that is the main income generative resource. Cigang bark is used for alcohol yeast, bang lang bark for diarrhea, cay u resin in poison-soaked arrow for hunting. The four kinds of bamboo serve as construction material; lo oâ stem is the main raw material to process joss-sticks and chopsticks for export. All four kinds of bamboo shoot are collected for food while lo oâ bamboo shoot is sold. All five kinds of mushroom are collected for food. Cat-ear and termite mushrooms have high market demand; these two mushrooms can be collected at the beginning of the rainy season and it is difficult finding them.

Herbs are used for different things like fresh green vegetable, cooked vegetable and medicine. Nhan tran (one kind of medicine) is sold at high price, people domesticate it in home gardens, intercultivated with cashew. It grows on fallow land and can be found on barren land in the forest with high quality. Nhan tran is the main source of income for the poor.

Lianas have different purposes: medicine, food, construction material, and handicraft. Ha thu o trang and bi ky nam have high market demand, but are unavailable in the forest. People have to spend some days to find them in the dense forest. Dioscorea tubers are used as food for the poor due to food shortage.

Bushes are used for food and medicine. Amomum (cardamom) and thien nien kien have high market demand; Amomum (cardamom) goes for export. Rieng rung rhizome is used for diarrhea; rieng rung seed is used for women during menstruation. Rieng rung rhizome is cooked with monkey meat to make a very delicious dish.

IMPORTANCE OF NTFPS

Collected NTFPs are classified into four categories by the community members: very important, important, less important and not important. In reality, there is no clear line between the categories; the classification of importance of NTFPs depends on each villager. Some aspects influence the classification of NTFPs such as the availability of products, high price, high market demand, collection season, policy, culture and traditional use of villagers.

Most important NTFPs

Villagers collect these products in large quantities or collect them daily because they are needed for the local people’s livelihood, income, food or medicine. The main uses of these are for sale or household consumption. Lo oâ stems are most important for joss-sticks and chopsticks and sold to local chopsticks factories. Lo oâ is the main income resource of the villagers. Very small diameter rattan canes are very important material for handicrafts. Uoi nut, cardamom (4 varieties), and nhan tran are collected for export. Rattan (bitter) shoot and la nhip leaves are the main vegetables of villagers every day. Cigang bark is used to make alcohol yeast, may heo shoot is a very important traditional medicine used for worm treatment. Bi ky nam has high market demand, is very highly priced and sold at Ho Chi Minh City. It is used as traditional medicine, but is not easily available in the forest. Villagers spend many days to collect it in dense forest, but in low quantity.

Important products

These products are collected mainly for food and medicine, construction and handicraft. Some products can be sold at high price, like cat-ear mushroom and termite mushroom, but these are collected in the early rainy season (two months) in low quantities. Rieng dang sot stem was in high market demand in 1998-1998 for handicraft, but nowadays traders are not interested. Rattan leaves are collected for roof and fence. Thien nien kien and o phap are collected for sale in small quantities although these are available in the forest and regenerate easily. Cu mai and cu chup tubers are important to the villagers due to food shortage. Rieng rung seed is needed for women during menstruation.

Less important products

These are collected in low quantities due to their low availability, low demand today or difficult collection. Two kinds of rattan with big diameters have high market demand and high price, but cannot be collected at the moment, because they were exploited heavily five years ago. Villagers have to wait at least ten years more to collect again. Mum stems are available and can be collected in high quantities, have market demand for weaving into baskets to hold commercial green vegetables, but they cannot compete in places near transportation facilities. The bark of Litsea is less important because the trees have been heavily exploited and villagers have begun to grow them in fallow land.

Not important products

These are collected in very low quantities and have low availablity in the forest or low demand. Some wild fruits used for food like coc rung, wild jack fruit, wild rambutan, etc. are not important, because villagers eat them in very small quantities; the high quality varieties are grown in home gardens. Some products like buffalo cassia leaves are collected for medicine. Cay cong san and Imperata rhizome are not important because villagers can grow them and can find them in the fallow areas.

Characteristics of promising NTFPs for income generation

Lo oâ bamboo stem and shoot

There are four kinds of bamboo available in the forest, but lo oâ stem and shoot have high market demand and are the main source of household income generation. The main reason for collecting bamboo shoot is for food and sale, the shoot being sold fresh or pickled. Although the shoot has high market demand at the moment, people can collect one fourth of the amount of shoots and all the stems. The stem is for many purposes such as construction material, basket weaving, but mainly for joss-sticks and chopsticks. Stem and shoot are available and can be collected in high quantities, and are important products compared with all other products; during the shoot season villagers can collect 5 kg per day and get US$0.50 per day. Stem can be harvested year round, the by-products of joss-stick and chopstick processing can be sold as pulp raw material, the node is used as fuel. Villagers can get US$1.00 per day by selling products from lo oâ processing.

Surrounding the village is mixed timber-bamboo forest. There are a lot of shoots, mature and young stems in the forest. This forest is allocated to the villagers through a contract with the state forest enterprise. Villagers can harvest bamboo stems and other NTFPs for household income and consumption.

Rattan species

Rattan species are spiny climbing palms occurring in the tropical and subtropical evergreen forest. The canes of rattan are used for many purposes: construction, handicraft, and furniture material. The local people use rattan shoot for food, for household consumption, but not for sale. One kind of rattan shoot is used as traditional medicine. Rattan canes are collected for trade. The small diameter canes are important products because the available handicraft factories in the nearby areas need them to process many kinds of goods for export. The big diameter rattan species are less important for the farmers because they have been overexploited in the past and it is very hard work to harvest them.

Villagers mentioned that all kinds of rattan were overexploited. The plants are all young, and they have to wait 2 years for very small diameter rattan, 4-5 years for medium and 5-7 years for big ones before they can harvest the canes for sale again. Most villagers stated that they have to go very far in the forest and spend 3-4 nights in the forest if they want to harvest very small diameter canes.

All kinds of rattan grow in clumps. They can generate by shoot or by seed. Seed can be collected for sale and produce seedlings, but now the plants are young. The villagers observed that rattans grow in the moist areas and can find them along streams.

Uoi

Uoi nut has high market demand compared with other products. Most collected uoi nuts are sold. Villagers can use a low quantity of uoi nut for medicine or beverage, and a few nuts are used to produce seedlings. Uoi nut plays an important role in household income generation; each household can collect 100 kg per year and can sell it at US$2/kg.

In the flowering season village, men only go to the forest; if they meet the flowering trees they mark their names or other marks on the tree at breast height to define their ownership. At the beginning of the ripening season, they build lighthouses under the marked uoi trees to take care of the trees and collect the flying uoi nuts in the early ripening season. These nuts are of very high quality and high price. At this time the whole family leaves the village and stays in the light house and waits to collect the flying nuts. When the main ripening season comes, they cut the trees down and household members collect the nuts quickly and return to the village for their sale. Ripening season is from March to May; at this time, children have to leave school to accompany their parents to collect uoi nuts. Uoi regenerates by seed. In the early stage seedings require shade. The branches cannot develop in the dormant period, but when the uoi tree grows over the forest canopy, branches develop, and some years later the tree flowers.

Nhan tran

Nhan tran is a source of income. People collect nhan tran for traditional medicine, beverage and sale. People harvest the plants including the root, stem, leaf and seed. Plants are dried in the sun. Seed are collected separately. Plants are sold in dry weight at US$0.30 per kg; the price of seed is US$100/kg. One hectare can produce 1000 kg of dry plants and 1 kg of seed per year and the farmer can earn US$400 ha^-1y^-1.

Nhan tran grows on barren land in the forest; it can be grown in home gardens and on swidden areas. The quality of nhan tran collected on the barren land in the forest is higher than that of domesticated nhan tran. Nhan tran can grow at the beginning of the rainy season and is harvested in the dry season. The farmer collects wild nhan tran in the forest at about 20 kg fresh weight per day.

Amomum-cardamom

There are four kinds of cardamom: red cardamom, green cardamom, violet cardamom and white. The farmer collects red and green cardamom in the forest. Cardamom is collected for sale and used as spice or traditional medicine. The farmer collects cardamom fruit, dries them in the sun, breaks them and collects the seed. Cardamom seed has high market demand; the price of cardamom seed is US$0.30-0.40 per kg. Cardamom grows in clumps and underneath mixed timber-bamboo forest, flowering at the foot of the clump in April and ripening in November.

DOMESTICATION OF COMMERCIAL NTFP SPECIES

Because of high market demand, some valuable NTFPs have become open-access resources, which have been overexploited. These changes increase pressure on forest and forest resources. This has resulted in deforestation and forest degradation. The Ma people are showing the way to protect the forest in their niche for sustainable income generation in the short and long terms. In this case, villagers have to modify their management strategies: first, they establish a volunteer group to control intensively their allocated forest areas (through contract with the state forest enterprise), increasing the interaction between human and plants, changing their plant exploitation practices; second, they domesticate commercial NTFP trees in their swidden fallow land and home gardens, to learn the lesson in the selection of plant species, and breeding of selected species; third, they define their tenure on non-tree resources by tending bamboo, planting herbs and lianas (Amomum, rattan) underneath secondary mixed bamboo-timber forest, also to enrich this forest. In this phase, researchers and extensionists collaborate and facilitate the villagers in initiating "Participatory Technology Development" (PTD) to enrich the secondary forest by tending bamboo and planting Amomum and rattan under the canopy of the forest.

Villagers involved in PTD improve their perception of making decision, to create experiences in tending the forest, planting plants in the forest and how to enrich the forest. With the support of the Nong Lam University, villagers have organized trips to other places to exchange experiences with other farmers. Their experiences are also exchanged in the Vietnam Social forestry Training Network (SFTN).

INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF NTFP MANAGEMENT

Participating in the protection of the forest through contractual agreement with the state forest enterprise, (1) villagers recognize what is "forest co-management" and decisions about protecting and collecting NTFPs; (2) they initiate their volunteer groups in forest inspection; (3) being involved in PTD activities, they have established three interest groups by themselves called "home garden groups", "fallow land management group" and "enrichment forest group"; (4) villagers are involved in the process of making decisions on: the objectives of management, the activities to be carried out by various village groups and persons, exchange of experiences with, and spreading their experimental results to the others.

The local extension officers and state forest enterprise authorities recognize the concept of PTD and are instilling this approach in extension programmes in order to encourage the local people to participate in forest management and improve their livelihoods. Nowadays, villagers are receiving the allocated forest land to manage under the protection of land law.

CONCLUSION

NTFPs are playing a very important role in the lives of the Ma people, not only for household consumption, but also for income. Traded NTFPs in high demand and collected in large quantities have caused their overexploitation. This fact indicates that market demand plays a significant role in the farmer’s decisions. Involving in the PTD process, villagers not only apply the proper resource management practices but also participate in the process of making decisions. The PTD approach will be instilled in the management of the villagers’ allocated forest. The emerging forest management volunteer and interest groups created by the villagers show their aspirations of collaborating in forest management.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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