Overview
This project aimed to increase native tree stocking in the landscape of northwest Vietnam through smallholder micro-enterprise and research for timber industry application.
This project increased tree cover in Muong La District, Son La Province by developing a farmers’ cooperative nursery using participatory action research to produce and sell fruit, fuelwood and timber trees, supporting members’ tree planting on their own lands and enabling income generation. During their work in ACIAR projects FST/2010/034 (AFLI) and FST/2016/152 (AFLI2), the proponents of this project established collaboration with the staff of the 15,807 ha Muong La Nature Reserve, established in 2015. Muong La Nature Reserve (MLNR) staff and Tay Bac University faculty (also in project FST/2016/152) joined local farmers in developing and operating the nursery. Farmers and MLNR staff received training in nursery production, horticulture, and microenterprise.
Seedlings produced were a mix of saleable, quick-yielding fruit species keenly sought by farmers, fuelwood, and high-value native timber species the timber industry needs.
Outcomes
- Established community nurseries.
- Germinated, grew, and used hundreds of seedlings of various native species in experiments to determine growth rates and preferred light levels.
- Developed nursery skills, including seed collecting and handling, seedling production, and fruit tree grafting, among local communities, particularly among Thai and Hmong groups.
- Generated preliminary silvics knowledge of selected timber species through experimentation.
- Integrated native forest trees and commercial species such as cinnamon into the landscape.
