Medicinal herbs are listed as a kind of “forestry by-product”. Previously, only districts’ people’s committees had the authority to license people to exploit forestry by-products. Therefore, the number of people who could pick herbs in the forest was limited.

However, things changed after the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Circular No 35 on May 2011 was released.

The circular sets up a more open management mechanism, under which the license granting is assigned to commune authorities.

People just need to report the by-product they plan to exploit and submit the forestry product registration forms to the commune authorities to get the licenses.

However, people have been exploiting herbs in the forests without asking for the local authorities’ permission.

Meanwhile, the local authorities admit they do not have “necessary management tools” to stop the overexploitation and protect the security of natural forests.

Le Xuan Dinh, head of the Quy Chau district’s forest rangers’ unit, while admitting that the forestry by-product exploitation has been occurring in most of the district’s communes, said it is very difficult to stop the overexploitation.

Tran Xuan Cuong, deputy director of the Pu Mat National Park, also said the herbs in the park have been exploited without permission, but it is nearly impossible to punish the exploiters.

“It is true that people rush to exploit herbs to sell to petty merchants for money. We are trying to stop this. However, under the current laws, herbs are listed as ‘forestry by-products,” Cuong explained.

“Since there is no legal document stipulating the punishments on the exploiters of herbs, we cannot punish them,” he added.

As a result, though understanding that the overexploitation would wipe out the precious natural resources and badly affect the environment, forest rangers still turn a deaf ear to the exploitation.

“We can only punish them if we can find the proof that they have harmed the national park,” Cuong said.

Le Cao Binh, head of the Nghe An provincial Forest Rangers’ Sub-department, said that the exploiters cannot be punished under current laws.

“The Decree No 99 does not include provisions on punishing forestry by-product exploiters. In order to settle the problem, it is necessary to issue a new decree,” Binh said.