With an area of over 426,000 hectares of forested land, Điện Biên possesses abundant and diverse under-canopy vegetation. Under the old forest canopy, there are many types of non-timber forest products such as amomum, cardamom, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, phrynium leaves (lá dong), honey, medicinal herbs, rattan, etc. For a long time, this has been an important livelihood source for many households living dependently on the forest.

Xẻ village, Mường Nhà commune is assigned to manage and protect over 715ha of forest, of which about 520ha are paid for forest environmental services. Thanks to good protection, the forests here have brought many benefits to the people, especially income from exploiting non-timber forest products.

Lò Văn Coong, Head of Xẻ village, said that bamboo shoots are one of the by-products bringing quite stable income for many households in the village. The bamboo shoot season has two main stages: Bitter bamboo shoots from December to next April and regular bamboo shoots in late summer and autumn (from June to October). Bitter bamboo shoots are favored by locals and tourists, while regular bamboo shoots are mainly processed into dried shoots for sale to traders.

According to Coong, fresh bamboo shoot prices vary by time; early season prices are usually high, falling to about 5,000 VND/kg during the peak season. If dried, shoots have higher value, ranging from 110,000 - 120,000 VND/kg, contributing to raising people’s income. Clearly perceiving the forest’s value, residents of Xẻ village are always conscious that exploitation must go hand in hand with protection and regeneration. To ensure long-term exploitation, people only harvest a part, keeping the necessary number of shoots for tree growth.

Nguyễn Đắc Viên, the forest ranger in charge of Mường Nhà commune, said: “The ranger force regularly disseminates regulations on forest management and protection, including regulations on the exploitation of non-timber forest products. Exploitation is carried out in accordance with the regenerative capacity of forest resources, avoiding over-exploitation leading to depletion or extinction of some by-product species, causing ecological imbalance.”

According to statistics from the Forest Protection Sub-department, in 2025, the exploitation output of non-timber forest products in the whole province reached about 580 tons. Of which, phrynium leaves were about 60 tons, bamboo shoots 199 tons, broom grass (bông chít) 306 tons, Machilus bark (vỏ nhất) 5 tons, sarsaparilla root (củ khúc khắc) 5 tons, and stemona root (củ 30) 5 tons...

Although reserves are relatively large, non-timber forest products are not an inexhaustible resource. To harmonize benefits between people and forest protection work, building and deploying sustainable exploitation plans for each non-timber forest product species is an urgent requirement.

In the 2021 - 2025 period, implementing the Forestry Economic Development Project, the province paid attention to integrating and prioritizing funding from national target programs to support the development of non-timber forest products and valuable medicinal plants such as: Amomum, cinnamon, cardamom, Docynia indica (sơn tra), Job’s tears (ý dĩ), Ngọc Linh ginseng, Angelica sinensis (đương quy), Angelica dahurica (bạch chỉ), Lingzhi mushroom, star anise... During this period, the whole province planted 798ha of non-timber forest products.

Trần Đức Quyền, Head of the Forest Management and Development Division, Forest Protection Sub-department, added that along with developing planting areas for non-timber forest products, to build a database serving forest product development, the province has arranged funding to implement the task of “investigating, assessing the current status and proposing solutions to conserve and develop a number of high economic value non-timber forest product species at Mường Nhé Nature Reserve” - an area with great biodiversity and special importance of the province.

At the same time, the province was included by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in the scope of the program “Development of Vietnamese Ginseng until 2030, orientation to 2045.” This opens up potential for non-timber forest product development as the demand for medicinal herbs and products from non-timber forest resources increases.

Developing non-timber forest products is a promising direction, contributing to harmoniously linking the goal of increasing income for people with the task of conserving and developing natural forests. When there are clear mechanisms, regulations, and active community participation, “conservation associated with sustainable exploitation” not only helps preserve the forest ecosystem but also opens up stable, long-term livelihood models for people living near forests.