The story of the vast forest goes on

History passed down like this: Lac Long Quan asked for Au Co’s hand in marriage, Au Co bore a sac of a hundred eggs, thus 100 children were brought to life, and that was the ancestor of all Vietnamese. 50 children followed their mother to the mountains, 50 children followed their father to the sea, starting the thousand-year journey of building and defending the nation. Going to the forest means an opportunity to visit Mother Nature, visit the brothers and sisters of the same Lac Hong bloodline. While wandering around, I kept thinking about the old saying: "golden forest and silver sea".

A vast region, stretching from Hoang Lien Son - Ha Giang in the North, following the majestic Truong Son mountain range all the way to Ca Mau’s mangrove forest at the end of the southern cape, occupies 42 percent of the country's area. That's our forest, a green color dotted with diverse colors of rare plants and animals. That's our forest, the living space and residence of ethnic minorities for many generations, nurturing the birth of invaluable indigenous knowledge and culture. That's our forest, where in every mountain and stream we pass through there lies endless stories of legendary history from the distant past. That's our forest, which creates an important economic sector for the country as well as the livelihood for millions of people quietly living in the deep mountains and high hills.

With such tangible and intangible resources, the unanswered questions remain: Why is it the "golden forest", but worries still linger in people’s minds: the more forest the locality has, the more difficult life is? Why is it the "golden forest" but the life of forest keepers is still so difficult that many of them feel that they can no longer feel attached to the forest? Why are there so many legal regulations related to forests, but the implementation is still inadequate with the management goals? Why are the world biosphere reserves, global geoparks, and national parks blessed with beauty beyond words but unable to grasp the attention of people? Each question needs to be answered after going through deep thoughts, with sincere feelings for our mountains and rivers, before those who have devoted their lives to the forest without fear of "the poisonous water, the sacred forest".

Talk to the forest rangers - the “ones who protect the forest”, the ethnic minority communities living under the forest canopy, on the edge of the forest, and you may better understand the difficult life of those who consider the forest as their home. Look up at the tall trees, then look at the ones below, look closely at the mistletoe vines, the patches of vegetation, the sparkling dew drops on the grass and the flowers on the ground. Feel, then listen to each sound of the "forest symphony", and you may better understand the magical and mysterious language of nature, develop passion and love for the vast forest. Look at the water, streams, white waterfalls in the blurred mist, and you may find valuable spaces in the beautiful natural landscape. Admire the forest through what can’t be seen by the eyes, also through visible things like trees, flowers and landscapes, as someone once said, "The most beautiful things are not seen through the eyes, but felt by the heart".

Forest resources are extremely rich and unique, all of which bring new values. New values create new vitality for the community living in the forest, and so each of us grows deep affection for the forest, nature, the mountains and rivers. We love life even more. New values charm people to come and discover the majestic beauty of nature, experience the life of the forest, listen to the harmony of trees, flowers, birds and animals, comtemplate the lesson of life and worldview. New values awaken the beauty of the ethnic people’s thousands of years of culture and indigenous knowledge, which were at one point forgotten in the whirlpool of the hustling and bustling industrial age. New values ignite passion and positivity in each person.

Now there exists a policy to implement the scheme "Developing multi-use values of the forest ecosystem". This is not just a scheme of pure technicality, but instead a newer approach, a further and broader vision of forest resources and the values they hold. Thinking about the value of multi-use forests helps to harmonize the relationship between natural resources and human resources, between tangible and intangible resources, towards sustainable development.

New vision creates new economic value. And in the forest space, apart from wood, there are rare species of ginseng and herbs, fungi with high nutritional value. We can also develop husbandry and aquaculture under the forest canopy. Diversity does not create conflict but brings resonance and richness to the forest. The world today has turned to foods derived from nature or sustainably managed forests. In addition, the new economic value of the forest can even come from the rental of forest environment for ecotourism development or the revenue from forest carbon credits.

New vision opens up a multi-valued approach from the integration of science, technology and social science. Such an integrated approach is to gain a more comprehensive, deeper view of the forest’s values. The conservation of biodiversity with rare "genomic resources" of flora and fauna, community knowledge and culture, should also be preserved and developed in a "living museum" that is the forest. But most importantly, to human life, the forest is also a spiritual, religious and spiritual space.

The multi-use forest space needs the dedication and stronger commitment of scientists and ethnology experts, from science and technology to humanities and social sciences. The multi-use forest space is also a place that opens the path for creative and innovative ideas, a place where domestic and foreign institutes, schools, organizations and individuals come to research, train, transfer and spread knowledge to communities. Forest space is also a place that brings out essences crystallized from indigenous knowledge, thousand-year-old cultural traditions and modern knowledge, thus the new values.

New vision creates opportunities and increases resources. Resources from new values will become additional income and improve the lives of forest rangers, forest management boards, and forest protection forces, especially when budget conditions have to balance many objectives.

Generated resources help improve the quality of life for people who work hard day and night walking through forests, mountains, and wading deep streams despite danger and separation from their families. Generated resources create more job opportunities and improve livelihood for communities living along the forest. Generated resources can be reinvested into scientific research, update knowledge and improve the management capacity of forest management boards, open the opportunity to apply technology in forest resource protection and investigation as well as nature and biodiversity conservation. Resources are generated from the business community itself, which is originally gaining benefits from forest resources.

New vision urges adjustment and institutional change. Legal barriers more or less limit the development space. Today's development is not only based on a single industry or a single field but towards the integration of multiple disciplines and functions to reach the goal of multi-values. To do so, it is necessary to change the mindset and approach, create a human ecosystem, harmoniously combine the state management function and the community co-management mechanism. The sustainability of forests, after all, is determined by the people, while institutions and policies need to be adjusted to keep pace with the changes.

There is this one “magical phrase”: "Developing multi-use values of the forest ecosystem" promises to unlock the forest’s treasures. And the greatest treasure is, not just a source of profit or resources, but above all, an open mindset: cherish, cosset and cultivate the forest’s value one by one, so that the forest will be green forever, casting over the future generation a pleasant shade.