Project News

Extensive afforestation efforts were made by the villagers in thirteen villages in Dien Bien Phu City, Dien Bien District, and Dien Bien Dong District with the seedling and technical support from SUSFORM-NOW in this year's main tree planting season (roughly June-July).

These participating villagers registered themselves earlier in the year and were provided with technical training on tree planting techniques for three tree species requested for 2013, namely Acacia mangium, Manglietia sp., and bamboo. After self-preparation of planting holes, the awaiting 464 households (see Note) finally received seedlings at the locations close to their afforestation areas.

A total of 284,454 seedlings were delivered to the villagers with estimated afforestation area of 167 ha, including 218,576 Acacia mangium seedlings, 53,536 Manglietia sp. seedlings, and 12,342 bamboo seedlings. There figures are much higher than that of 2012, in which 197,897 seedlings were planted by 133 households in five villages.

Although the afforestation in 2013 was generally successful, several challenges were also identified. The first was poor quality of tree seedlings from local suppliers. As the project supported a large quantity of seedlings, the quality of supplied seedlings varied and was in some case unacceptable. The second was increasingly unpredictable weather. With the lessons learned from the last year's late plantation, the afforestation for 2013 was started right at the beginning of the rainy season; however, the province experienced the late arrival of the rainy season in this year with only sporadic rain in the early planting season. The late arrival of rainy season adversely affected the survival of these seedlings in hilly areas.

To develop a comprehensive geo-database of the project-supported afforestation areas as well as to consolidate the lessons learned for future afforestation, a review of the afforestation efforts in 2012-2013 is planned towards the end of this year. The results would be available in early 2014.

Note: there might be some overlaps in the number of participating HHs among different tree species.