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To Thi Chinh’s acacia auriculiformis forest is seriously damaged. Photo N.H |
After the typhoon Ketsana had roared into central provinces, hundreds of afforestation households have been penniless, including those who were previously known as afforestation millionaires.
Penniless owing to storm
Walking along the muddy pathway across Ha Thanh River, we came to WB3 project-funded afforestation farm owned by To Thi Chinh in Tuy Phuoc district’s Phuoc Thanh commune.
Seeing the 2-year-old acacia auriculiformis forest damaged by the storm, we were just in a moment of emotion. The typhoon had ended for 2 weeks, but her husband was still grieved at the loss. He sometimes wandered aimlessly around the damaged forest.
“We poured all money into the four hectare-acacia forest. Before the storm we were very happy when seeing them quickly grow,” he said. “But the typhoon damaged a half of the forest and we could afford the bank loan now.”
Dao Van Chien’s afforestation farm in Phuoc Thanh commune was also destroyed. One hectare of acacia auriculiformis and eucalyptus forests were devastated by the storm.
Our family is deeply in debt because all money was invested in the forest, Chien said. We’ve tried to replant them but most of them couldn’t survive.
According to Pham Van Phan, an official of Phuoc Thanh commune People’s Committee, 200 hectares of forest were seriously damaged and most of them belonged to the World Bank-funded project (WB3 project), requiring monthly interest payment.
After the storm, we asked Binh Dinh Forestry Division to report the accurate figure, said director of Binh Dinh Agriculture and Rural Development Department Vo Thanh Tien. Statistics showed that nearly 10,000 hectares of forest were destroyed by the typhoon and we were asking provincial People’s Committee and functional bodies for support.
Decrease in timber price
Afforestation households have been trying to collect trees and cheaply sold them to paper plants; however, the price has gone down because most trees have just been grown for 1-3 years.
“Before the storm, acacia timber was worth 640,000 VND per ton and each ton of eucalyptus timber had the price of 620,000 VND,” said Cu Van Man, a resident in Phuoc Thanh commune. “But now bargain hunters only pay 570,000 VND and 550,000 VND for each ton of acacia or eucalyptus timber.”
“The cost is estimated to continue to go down in the coming time,” he added.
Another reason making the timber price decrease is that the supply is higher than the demand, let alone many plants taking advantage of the situation to come at bargain prices.
In addition, businesses from neighbouring provinces of Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum are also coming to Binh Dinh to sell raw material.
The input expenditure is about 15-17 million VND per hectare and the output will be 26-28 million VND per hectare after 5-7 years. However, the transport fee accounts for 50 percent, let alone damaged caused by storms.
To help afforestation household overcome hardship, businesses should buy timber with reasonable prices and functional bodies need create favorable conditions for them to overcome difficulties.
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