Veteran Nam Duong’s love for the forest

From over 300 hectares of barren hills, wastelands, and swamps, veteran Nguyen Quang Duong (known by his wartime alias Nam Duong, now 78 years old and a Communist Party member for 43 years) has not only preserved rare native hardwoods such as dau (Dipterocarp), bang lang (Lagerstroemia), giang huong (Pterocarpus), ca chich (Solanum torvum), and da da (a succulent species), but also productive, high-value plantations.

At 78, veteran Nam Duong still drives his own tractor to prepare the soil

“It was love for the forest that kept me going, even when people said I was crazy for investing everything I had,” he shares.

Turning wastelands into forests

With the current result, veteran Nam Duong’s story continues to captivate listeners. A former soldier who fought in the resistance war against the U.S. from 1960 to 1975, Nam Duong recalls a small portion of his decades-long journey: transforming degraded land into 140 hectares of xa cu (Khaya senegalensis), 60 hectares of tram bong vang (golden melaleuca), 70 hectares of gao vang (yellow cottonwood), and 40 hectares of tam vong (Dendrocalamus barbatus), from pepper crops.

Veteran Nam Duong (far right) talks with his workers

After Vietnam’s reunification in April 1975, like many fellow soldiers, Nam Duong returned to civilian life, cultivating six hectares of pepper and serving as the village head of Vuon Rau in An Loc commune, Binh Long district, former Song Be Province.

In 1996, he wholeheartedly embraced the former Song Be Province’s initiative to allocate barren and deforested land. He began forestation efforts in Hamlet 1, Minh Duc commune (Hon Quan district), driven by the same spirit that once guided him as a teenage liaison officer in 1962–1963, fearlessly navigating between jungle camps and urban battlegrounds.

Looking out over the war-ravaged land along the Saigon River (in Hamlet 1, Minh Duc commune), scarred by conflict and nature alike, Nam Duong noticed that only a few native forest trees remained, most with little or no economic value. He acted without hesitation, selling off hundreds of gold bars saved from pepper farming to purchase machinery, seedlings, and labor.

“Many people called me crazy, doing the government's job. While others cleared forests for timber or converted land into farmland, I took on barren hills and swamps to plant trees. Even on flat, tilled land that cost a fortune in time and money, I refused to grow rice, corn, or cassava just for short-term profit. That only made people think I was even more out of my mind,” Nam Duong recalls.

According to Mr Vu Xuan Thanh, Chairman of the Minh Duc commune Veterans Association, Nam Duong’s planted forest has helped protect the Dau Tieng reservoir and prevent erosion along the banks of the Saigon River in Hamlet 1, Minh Duc commune. The forest also stands as a lasting testament to Nam Duong’s deep love for nature through his tireless efforts to re-green barren hills and empty lands.

A fierce love for the forest

Among the tall, straight xa cu, gao vang, and tram bong vang trees, many nearly three decades old, Nam Duong with shoulder-length gray hair, guides visitors through the forest.

He slowly recalls how his deep respect for the forest began when he served as a wartime courier for resistance forces hiding in the jungle. The forest once shielded them from enemy detection along the upper Saigon River. It was this early connection that led him to embrace the former Song Be province policy of allocating degraded land for reforestation without hesitation.

Harsh weather and rampant weeds, which thrived after old-growth trees were cleared, threatened the young forest during rainy seasons. But he was undaunted. Whenever a tree died, he replanted it. The only real challenge that made him a headache was figuring out how to propagate gao vang, a native species suited to wetlands, to reforest dozens of hectares of swamp and semi-flooded land on the contracted plot.

Veteran Nam Duong always finds joy in the remaining native trees he has protected alongside the planted forest.

He recalls spending four years trying and failing to germinate gao vang seeds. Just when he was ready to give up, a casual comment from a forest ranger changed everything: “Young gao vang only sprout in burned gao vang forests.” That insight sparked an idea, maybe the seeds needed heat to germinate. He experimented with boiling and soaking the seeds in hot water. It worked. Today, 70 hectares of wetland and semi-flooded land, part of his 300-hectare plot, are filled with tall, resilient gao vang trees, standing firm against the unpredictable rise and fall of the Saigon River and Dau Tieng reservoir.

With support from his 12-hectare pepper farms on both his family and contracted land, Nam Duong eventually reforested the entire 300 hectares entrusted to him. Visitors express amazement at the transformation. Many veterans who initially accepted land like him gave up. Some later returned and quietly admitted they lacked the patience or the fierce love for the forest like him. Even though they deeply understood the saying, “The forest sheltered our soldiers, the forest surrounded the enemy.”

“I don’t plant forests just to fulfill my love for them. I do it so our future generations can inherit this greenery, breathe clean air, and have a place to live, work, play, and learn,” Nam Duong shared, just before driving his tractor back into the woods.

Nam Duong revealed, “Unlike many other farmers who were allocated contracted land, I never intercropped other plants in the forest to earn short-term gains. That’s a poor strategy, forest trees end up competing with those crops for nutrients and space to grow.”

By D.Phu – D.Hien

Translated by M.Hanh – H.Trang