(TITC) – On 7th July, National Agricultural Extension Center (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) cooperated with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Lai Chau Province) to organise a forum with the theme: Solutions for developing medicinal herbs along the value chain associated with ecotourism.
Over 150 delegates attended the forum (Photo: nhandan.vn)
Accordingly, Vietnam currently has more than 5,117 species and subspecies used as medicine and health promotion. In which, most of the precious and rare medicinal plants with high economic value are distributed in natural forest ecosystems, such as: Lai Chau ginseng, Vu Diep ginseng, wild panax ginseng, lilium, Red pine, Coscinium fenestratum, Anoectochilus setaceus… Most of the precious and valuable herbal species live under the forest canopy, especially under the canopy of primary forests. Localities have been developing medicinal herbs in the forest environment and doing a good job of linking forest development with ecotourism development.
In 2020 alone, the revenue of 4 types of services in our country’s forest ecosystems was generated from: services providing timber and non-timber forest products; forest environmental services; carbon sequestration and storage services; Ecotourism services have brought a value of about VND 39,039 billion. Of which, the value obtained from ecotourism services reached VND 2,022 billion.
Delegates visited agricultural and medicinal products displayed at the forum (Photo: nhandan.vn)
Lai Chau boasts a total forest area of 472,676.04 hectares, forest coverage rate of 51.87%, and is a locality with great potential and strength for economic development under the forest canopy. Copious forest areas are suitable for the development of many species of medicinal plants and non-timber forest products under the forest canopy with high economic value. With that advantage, Lai Chau has focused on developing many ecotourism and resort activities under the forest canopy. The period 2011-2020 has attracted more than 2 million tourists to the province. In 2022 alone, Lai Chau tourism welcomed about 762,000 tourist arrivals with a total tourism receipts of over VND 550 billion.
At the forum, representatives of Lai Chau as well as other localities hoped that experts, scientists, policy makers, businesses… share experiences, remove obstacles in developing medicinal plants according to the value chain associated with ecotourism.
Topics on discussion include: economic-technical norms for growing medicinal herbs, technical processes for developing medicinal seed sources; value chain linkage mechanism, policies to support the development of medicinal herbs along the chain associated with ecotourism to ensure livelihood issues in the community; current situation of orientation and solutions for economic development under the forest canopy… Thereby, receive useful information and navigate bottlenecks and solutions to develop medicinal herbs along the value chain associated with ecotourism to promote the potential and strengths of localities and increase income for people from economic development under the forest canopy.
Delegates sharing experience at the forum (Photo: nhandan.vn)
Previously, on 6th July, delegates attending the forum visited the Lai Chau ginseng growing model at Lai Chau Mountain Ginseng Conservation and Development Cooperative, Giang Ma commune and Lao Chai community tourism village, Khun Ha commune, Tam Duong district.
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