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| Local perceptions of the different land types and resources
they used to. The growing importance of marketable items in the future comes from
the expectation of more Acacia and rubber plantations. Villagers also expect to
have more cattle in the future and will rely more on forest resources for feeding it.
Justification for the increasing importance of medicinal and ornamental functions
of the forest in the future is key to a better understanding of the local perception of
the village’s development. The future is supposed to bring wealth, education and
time. Education will sharpen the local knowledge on medicinal plants and wealth
will provide more time to look for ornamental plants in the forest. Villagers told
about the possibility of developing an ornamental plants business and were aware
of the good possibilities for cash earning, but they are not yet fully using them.
These results also suggest that villagers’ dependency on and perception of
natural forest importance have been affected by the application of GoV programs
such as the Phong Dien Nature Reserve management and forest rehabilitation.
Reserve management has stopped people from looking for forest products. The
consequence is that natural forest has become less important to villagers. Plantation
forest, being part of the rehabilitation program and a relatively new activity in Khe
Tran, has an increasing importance and is replacing natural forests in that function.
Villagers expect to be granted permanent land use certificates (the ‘red book’) for
these planted areas, a way, according to them, to secure their rights.
The source of products is also important to understand the local dependency
on domestic or wild products.
6.5. Importance according to source of products
Villagers use a large number of plants and animals in their daily lives. To better
understand the importance of the different products we categorize them into three
sources: wild, cultivated/farmed and purchased.
Villagers perceive domesticated products as the most important source
for both plant and animal products (Figure 12). The villagers cultivate plants
(pepper, peanut, cassava, rice, jackfruit, bamboo) as well as grow animals (cattle,
chickens, pigs). They use these products mainly for domestic use and for cash
earning. Although the villagers still depend on wild products, they focus more on
maintaining their farming and plantation systems. Wild products from the natural
forest (mostly plants) are still collected, but, as villagers are not allowed to hunt
animals or cut trees in the natural forest of the conservation area, they usually
collect wild animals from places close to the village but outside the nature reserve,
e.g. gardens, bare lands and forest plantations.
Both men and women groups agree that cultivated plants and farmed animals
are the most important sources of products for consumption (Table 11). They
explain that these are their most valuable and accessible sources for food and
cash. The importance local people give to wild products may be influenced by the
fact that free wild resources are limited and often inaccessible because of the ban
on extractive activities in the future reserve.