Nguyen Thi Minh Hang joined the Hoa My cooperative in 1999 to promote collective economy and to increase her household income. Her family consists of 2 children and her husband, and with the help of the FFD project, her income has increased and her children are now able to go to school.

Nguyen completed her training course and certification for PEFC (the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) in 2017. Since then, she has been applying new techniques on forest production such as land preparation without burning vegetation and carrying out thinning processes. She now allows trees to grow for a longer period and concentrates on harvesting logs instead of woodchips.

Nguyen’s family owns 3 400m2 of rice fields and 3.4ha of Acacia forest. Due to the extensive amount of work, Nguyen hires other farmers to help her during the planting and harvesting season.

“We now grow the forest for 10 years and get about 200 million VND/ha (7 144 euros) compared to 40 million VND/ha (1 428 euros) for 4 years, like we did before. This provides an opportunity for my children to go to school, more facilities for the family and a higher position in the society.” Nguyen explains.

The Hoa My cooperative in Thua Thien Hue province in Vietnam helps its members in farming and forestry by providing training, services and commodities. The cooperative provides good quality fertilizer and certified seedlings for agriculture and forestry. It also organizes training on land preparation, irrigation and plant protection. In addition, the cooperative trades agricultural / forestry products such as rice, peanuts, cassava and Acacia.

Nguyen is an active member of the cooperative, and she wants other women to be able to do what she has done. “I will support other women in the cooperative in producing qualified saplings by expanding the nursery garden, introducing new varieties like high value native species (e.g. Melaleuca used for medical oils) and expanding to neighboring commune and district markets.”