Silent footsteps

At dawn, Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Head of the Tan Lap Forest Ranger Station under the Tay Yen Tu Conservation Management Board, and his colleagues set out with members of the Mau Village Community Forest Protection Team.

Tay Yen Tu forest.

Carrying backpacks, GPS devices, a drone, machetes, water and dried food, they head towards old-growth forest near the border with Quang Ninh province.

The patrol can take several hours, requiring the team to cover tens of kilometres of steep and difficult forest trails, some without mobile phone coverage. They leave the main road, follow narrow paths, cross streams and climb over rocks.

Nghi said he initially struggled with the demanding work, difficult travel and long periods away from home.

But years of patrols deepened his attachment to the forest and his appreciation of the importance of protecting it. He has to date spent nearly 20 years working in forest management and protection.

Modern technology can help monitor the forest, but it cannot replace people. When unusual signals appear on monitoring equipment, rangers still have to climb steep slopes and travel to the site to verify what has happened.

Nghi recalls a forest fire in early 2025, when he was head of the Bieng Forest Ranger Station in An Lac commune. After nearly nine months of little rainfall, thick undergrowth and dry branches left by Typhoon Yagi in September 2024 caught fire amid hot weather.

Le Duc Thang (second from right), Secretary of the Tay Yen Tu commune Party Committee, inspects forest protection measures.

Forest rangers mobilised community protection teams from villages across the area, together with local police and military forces. After hours of battling the blaze, they brought it under control, but continued monitoring the area for another three to four days to ensure the fire was completely extinguished.

The site was then placed under strict protection to allow natural regeneration. Today, green vegetation has covered the land once blackened by ash.

A source of life

The Tay Yen Tu forest is regarded as a “green lung” that supplies oxygen, regulates the climate, protects water sources and soil, limits landslides and provides habitats for wildlife, helping maintain ecological balance.

Trieu Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Tay Yen Tu Conservation Management Board, said the unit manages more than 12,500 hectares of special-use forest and forest land stretching from An Lac and Tay Yen Tu communes to Luc Son commune, including areas bordering Quang Ninh.

The forest ranges from 200 metres to more than 1,000 metres above sea level and supports highly diverse plant life. More than 40% of recorded plant species have medicinal uses, including ba kich, nam ginseng, agarwood, tho phuc linh, cardamom and hoai son.

Forest rangers from the Tay Yen Tu Conservation Management Board work with local residents to patrol and protect the forest.

Research has recorded 1,165 species of vascular plants, including 57 threatened with extinction, as well as 154 animal species belonging to 25 orders and 61 families.

Local residents have also become an important force in protecting the forest. Trinh Tien Hong, a member of the Mau Village Community Forest Protection Team, said people understand that valuable medicinal plants and streams that provide water during the dry season depend on healthy forests.

Hong has spent more than a decade helping mobilise villagers to protect the forest, using his knowledge of local customs and community life to explain patiently why protecting the forest is in their own interests. Other community members also know the forest’s trails and streams and quickly report signs of illegal logging or encroachment to rangers.

Drones are now used to expand surveillance in difficult terrain and detect potential fires or forest encroachment earlier. But each alert still requires rangers to travel into the forest and verify the situation on the ground.

Local authorities are also promoting sustainable livelihoods linked to the forest, including medicinal plant cultivation, beekeeping and ecotourism. But improving incomes remains a challenge for ethnic minority communities in the area.

Tay Yen Tu commune Party Committee Secretary Le Duc Thang said continued support and policies from authorities at all levels were needed if the forest was to become a source of “green gold” and help local people achieve more prosperous lives.

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