By Duong Van Nha, Nguyen Thuy Trinh and Le Thi Hue
Located next to the Cambodian border, Tinh Bien district is one of the poorest districts of An Giang province, with a minority Khmer ethnic community making up about 29% of the total population. The Khmer community have settled in the Mekong Delta provinces of Vietnam for many centuries, long pre-dating more recent settlement by the Kinh majority. While agriculture is officially considered the main livelihood occupation for most families, some households earn supplementary income from the collection, processing and sale of medicinal herbs and plants, some of which are wetlands-dependent species, while others grow on the prominent hills that dominate the local landscape. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the importance of some wetlands habitat-derived plants used in traditional Vietnamese medicine, as one element of diverse rural livelihoods in this upper part of the Mekong Delta.
Local context
Medicinal plants are found in diverse ecological locations across the Mekong basin, including lowland and upland forests, and a wide variety of wetlands habitats, sometimes terrestrial and sometimes aquatic. They are also cultivated in home gardens and paddy fields, sometimes in combination with other crops. However, they face a number of environmental threats, including habitat loss or destruction and over-harvesting, causing some species to become rare or even threatened with extinction. The Bay Nui [2] hills, An Giang province which rise prominently out of the surrounding Mekong Delta floodplain, are known to contain diverse medicinal plants, including some rare species of herb. Here, ethnic Khmer communities have occupied the hillslopes and surrounding floodplains, now largely drained for intensive rice-based farming since at least the 8th century A.D, with the area just to the south being recognised as the centre of the older Oc-Eo civilization. Within this upland area, 226 species have been identified, belonging to 79 families. Unfortunately, these species are being depleted due to herbicide application and narrowed habitats.
Herbal medicinal plants contribute to the livelihoods of poorer households
Herbal plants as cheap medicine: Herbal medicine have been traditionally used as both treatment for illnesses and consumed in various forms as part of a healthy diet in Vietnam and neighboring countries. Knowledge and experience about the benefits have been passed from generation to generation in local communities, especially among rural ethnic groups such as the Khmer relying heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods. Herbal plants can be inexpensive drugs that are collected from nature or are relatively cheap to buy from oriental medicine stores or clinics, making them affordable to poorer families. According to a local herbal doctor of Kinh ethnicity, Le Van Sen (see Fig 1), the owner of a private oriental medicine store and clinic that takes a holistic approach to health problems, in Phu Nhut hamlet, An Phu Commune, Tinh Bien district, “I diagnose health problems for free. Patients only pay 12,000 VND [1] for herbal medicine while Chinese traditional medicine costs 60,000VND”. Apart from earning money from selling medicinal herbs, their collection and use for self-treatment can help to save money for people as it only involves the time of the collectors. Additionally, it provides an incentive to protect the last few remaining wild areas of forest or wetland in this otherwise heavily ecologically disturbed and simplified landscape.
Herbal plants as additional income sources for poor families: During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many people living in Tinh Bien district have experienced increased economic hardship, especially the poorer and landless households (for example, in Xuan Hiep hamlet, Tinh Bien town, Tinh Bien district, 20 – 30% of the households are landless). Most of the people participating in herbal medicine collection tend to be poor, with few job opportunities, so it gives them an alternative option to earn supplementary income. Often it is older people who are involved, both men and women. Within Khmer communities, it is mainly women who collect herbal medicines in groups. Some types of woody species with medicinal properties in their bark, stems and roots are collected by men, while women will get involved in cutting and drying them. Income from this activity can vary between 50,000-300,000 VND /day/person, with people generally only going to collect in the morning. This income could be compared to other activities such as 50,000VND /day earned from grass cutting along the border buffer zone between Vietnam and Cambodia or about 200,000VND /day on average from peanut cultivation or rice farming (although this will be highly variable from season to season and farm to farm). Khmer villagers often harvest herbal products in surrounding areas of their communities such as forests, mountains, along pond and lake banks; while the Kinh group usually collects the herbal plants from the banks of rivers, canals, rice fields and gardens and fallow land. Medicinal plants harvest can take place year-round, although in the dry season there are usually fewer species collected because certain herbaceous species are dependent on water availability.
Threats to the sustainability of herbal medicine plants
Different perceptions and practices by local and outside collectors: Herbal medicine resources have been depleted in part due to over-exploitation even though most people in Tinh Bien town and An Phú commune Tinh Bien district seem to be aware that appropriate levels of exploitation are necessary for sustainability. Actually, most of the herbal collectors tend to pick leaves, or collect just stalks and roots because they can get higher yield in the long term without damaging the entire plant. However, some herbal collectors from other places such as Cho Moi district, An Giang province or Dong Thap province do not pay attention to herbal medicine conservation and may over-exploit local resources in Tinh Bien district by harvesting the entire plant. This indicates a classic problem of competition between local and outside collectors for a common resource, which leads to non-sustainable harvesting practices.
Effects from changes in farming systems: According to the results of a Participatory Rural Analysis (PRA) in An Phu Commune, in the past farmers grew traditional rice varieties without using herbicides or artificial fertilisers. So, the wetlands habitats were healthy and uncontaminated by chemicals, supporting growth of medicinal herbs such as Rau Má, Rau Bợ (see Fig 7 and 8), Rau Trai (Commelina communis), Rau Diệu (Alternanthera sessilis). These species can grow together with other fruit crops, or together with swamp plants such as those of the Cyperaceae family, Cỏ Lông Tây (Brachiaria mutica); Cỏ Mồn (Ischaemum rugosum Salisb). Unfortunately, since the introduction of high yield rice varieties to replace traditional rice varieties, accompanied by more intensive farming practices such as double or triple cropping, use of pesticides and chemical fertilizer, herbal medicinal plants in rice fields have declined. The steady intensification of rice cultivation and associated irrigation construction and dredging since 1975 when monoculture of rice became a main priority of the government has led to the destruction and loss of innumerable natural wetlands habitats across the Mekong Delta provinces, with a corresponding loss of plant biodiversity, including medicinal herbs.
Climate change: According to Le Van Sen, the rainfall pattern in the Delta has changed over time, with the rainy season tending to arrive later but ends sooner, resulting in a longer dry season. Less rainfall and concomitant retention of surface water locally affects the regeneration and development of medicinal herbs.
Gross changes to the Mekong’s eco-hydrology: As the Mekong mainstream becomes increasingly effected by upstream damming and other landscape level changes, the hydrology and geo-morphology of the entire ecological system in the Delta are changing rapidly, inevitably impacting the health of the wetlands environment in provinces like An Giang. This will likely impact certain species of fauna and flora, including floodplain medicinal herbs.
Is it feasible to practice herbal plants conservation?
The importance of medicinal plants to the Khmer community, especially poorer households and women who depend on them as a source of income in Tinh Bien district is now starting to be recognized. Native medicinal plant conservation and sustainable management is a big challenge for the communities of Tinh Bien district, as some officials interviewed believe that switching back from high yield rice varieties to traditional rice varieties is impossible due to the relatively higher financial benefits from intensive farming. However, such opinions overlook the wider environmental and human health benefits that can be obtained from less intensive farming strategies and more people-centered conservation practices of wetlands ecosystems, that would naturally lead to a greater variety and abundance of herbal medicinal plants. The question is, how can a just and equitable change be made at both the policy and implementation levels that would facilitate the benefits of herbal medicine collection and processing for the many families involved? In Le Van Sen’s opinion, growing herbal plants through ex-situ methods would be one approach, as this would allow conservation of these species during water shortage periods in the dry season using existing irrigation systems or fresh water storage in ponds. However, this is just one approach and there are many more besides, including de-intensifying agriculture and protection and expansion of wetlands conservation areas to conserve wild species in-situ.
[1] 1USD equal 22,670VND.
[2] “Bay Nui” translates as “Seven Sisters Mountains” in Vietnamese. This small range of prominent bedrock hills covering parts of Tinh Bien and Tri Ton districts rise to over 700m at their highest point, although most peaks are much lower. They are partly forested and part agricultural land, with a number of small villages and temples located on their slopes.
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