The authorities in Bokeo province have prohibited the felling of palm nut trees in a bid to preserve the maktao nuts they produce, as they are a source of income for local people.
A palm tree laden with nuts in Bokeo province.
An official from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Ms Hongkham Khamphila, told Vientiane Times on Tuesday that people who cut down these palms will be fined 100,000 kip per tree.
“Most people who cut down palm nut trees are not people who are collecting the fruit to sell; they are rotational slash and burn farmers or livestock breeders,” she observed.
Maktao palm nuts are now hard to find in Bokeo province. In the past the nuts were sold to Thailand, but now the palms are disappearing as more and more land is given over to livestock farms and industrial tree plantations.
A resident of Salymeuang village in Meung district, Mr Khamlath Sisoutha, complained that developers had cut down many palm trees in areas where he and his family used to collect the nuts.
Land is being cleared for pig and goat farms, as well as for slash and burn agriculture.
Mr Khamlath also said rubber trees are being planted in the district and elsewhere in the province.
According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry, almost 24 hectares of rubber trees have been planted in Bokeo so far, with another 10,000 hectares allocated for rubber plantations.
Many poor families in Meung district have been able to earn a decent income from the maktao nuts they sell to traders.
A few years ago, Mr Khamlath and his family could collect 70 to 80 kg of nuts per day which they sold to traders for 2,500 kip per kg. The traders then sold the nuts to traders from Thailand.
“They always came here to buy nuts from our family but nowadays, because we can't find so many, trading has slowed and is sporadic,” he said.
The traders are now buying the nuts in places where large piles are collected together, each containing about 200kg that has been collected by many people.
“But I don't want to do that because I don't want my neighbours and relatives to know how rich I am,” Mr Khamlath said.
One palm tree can produce more than 500kg of nuts throughout the year. The species does not bear fruit just once a year, but all year round.
Mr Khamlath now collects nuts from six palm trees growing wild in his village, but a few years ago he knew where to find more than 20 trees. Some families gather about 120kg of nuts per day because they go deep into the forest where they find trees they don't tell anyone else about, he added.
He is not the only person collecting nuts from the six palm trees he visits, as many other people from his village and others nearby harvest fruit from the same trees.
