Kick Starting an Economy

The midland region of North Vietnam

A reforestation project underway in northern Vietnam has the potential not only to improve the environment but to boost the income of small land-holders, says UQ natural resources economist Associate Professor Steve Harrison.

Dr Steve Harrison has embarked on a socio-economic study of mixed species plantations for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in the midland region of northern Vietnam.

A decade of experience in environmental economics and forestry ranging from Queensland's rainforest to the Philippines will be brought to the venture, aimed at improving the welfare of the people and repairing the ravages of land-clearing and war damage.

"It is now recognised that many of the impediments to forestry are socio-economic ?people problems' rather than technical, or silvicultural, problems," Dr Harrison said.

Silviculture refers to the establishment and management of trees for wood production.

The ACIAR research aims to gain a better understanding of landholders' perceptions of forestry through a baseline survey, and financial modelling of new forestry systems to predict profitability within a farm context.

This will include a supply chain analysis to improve understanding of business arrangements, and a study of transaction efficiency and revenue-sharing where growers sell timber to merchants or small local mills, which in turn sell lumber or furniture products.

"While the forestry systems will focus on high-value timber species, consideration will also be given to multi-purpose trees, which produce both timber and non-timber products, including fruit, herbs, medicines and fuel wood," Dr Harrison said.

Dr Harrison, reader in the School of Economics at UQ and a natural resources economic consultant, is being assisted by School of Economics PhD student Tyron Venn. Much of the field research and data analysis is being undertaken by economists in Vietnam's Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development and Forest Research Centre.

Dr David Lamb, from UQ's School of Life Sciences, is co-coordinating the project, which started late last year.

Dr Harrison said reforestation was a high priority for Vietnam, as forest cover had fallen from 44 percent in the early 1940s to 24 percent in 1983.

In the late 1980s, the Vietnamese government moved to boost tree cover through re-allocating land from communes to households and providing incentives for tree-planting.

Invited by ACIAR to provide the socio-economic input, Dr Harrison will be helping the Vietnamese achieve their target of restoring forest cover to 43 percent nationally within 10 years.

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