Forests
The northern mountainous province is rich in biodiversity of flora and fauna in its rich forest. In the karstic limestone formations (also known as carbonate karst), which occupy 5% of the natural forest area of Vietnam Long Son and Cai Bang have an important place in the floral and faunal wealth of the forests. Northeast Viet Nam has 36% of the country’s 1.15 million hectares of rocky mountains out of which Lang Son and Cao Bang provinces account for a substantial part of limestone formations. According to forest statistics of Vietnam these limestone formations have 69 mammal species; five of them are endemic and 26 are rare species. Village people value these formations as they are sources of water for agriculture. They also are sources of fuel wood, medicinal plants and housing materials for the villagers. In Lang Son province they are rich source of water for irrigation of paddy crops. The limestone formations also permit growth of annona trees which provide substantial revenue to the villagers in Lang Son; the avearge annual net yield from annona is reported to be about VND 12 million (US $775).
- Star anise
The most important tree grown in Vietnam (and also in China) is the star anise (illicium verum, Hooker), an important spice; an evergreen tree which has aromatic lanceolate leaves. The Lang Son Province is the leading province with this tree species growth reported to cover 9000 ha, mostly in its Van Quan district. Other provinces also have this species of trees but the coverage is very limited. Initially the tree belonged to the state farm enterprises under collective farming. However, since the 1990s, it has decontrolled and given the trees to village families to manage. There are plans to enhance the plantation area under this species of tree to 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres). The commercial production of star anise spice, which was 9,896 tonnes in 1997, has recorded a fall to 5,000 tonnes in 1999.
Read more about this topic: Lang Son Province
Famous quotes containing the word forests:
“The putting into force of laws which shall secure the conservation of our resources, as far as they may be within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, including the more important work of saving and restoring our forests and the great improvement of waterways, are all proper government functions which must involve large expenditure if properly performed.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The great pines stand at a considerable distance from each other. Each tree grows alone, murmurs alone, thinks alone. They do not intrude upon each other. The Navajos are not much in the habit of giving or of asking help. Their language is not a communicative one, and they never attempt an interchange of personality in speech. Over their forests there is the same inexorable reserve. Each tree has its exalted power to bear.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“It seems to me that we do not know nearly enough about ourselves; that we do not often enough wonder if our lives, or some events and times in our lives, may not be analogues or metaphors or echoes of evolvements and happenings going on in other people?—or animals?—even forests or oceans or rocks?—in this world of ours or, even, in worlds or dimensions elsewhere.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)