A Quang Tri veteran turns down up to 1.7 billion dong to keep 2,000 agarwood trees

In Thuan Hoa hamlet, Kim Dien commune, Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam, war veteran Dinh Tien Phuong did not let go of his 2.6-hectare forest. The amount two middlemen offered to buy the whole forest was 1.2 billion to 1.7 billion dong. The story was reported by Nong nghiep va Moi truong (Agriculture and Environment) on September 22, and more than 2,000 tram do trees stand in this forest.

Read from the raw-material sourcing side in Japan, the worth of this article is not that "a production area you can buy from has been found." It lies rather in the factual relationship — that in the mountains of central Vietnam a forest of fragrant trees that an individual has maintained across generations actually exists, and that local middlemen are putting a price on it.

The amount two middlemen offered for the whole forest was 1.2 billion to 1.7 billion dong

Converted at 1 yen = about 164 dong (as of September 24, 2026), the offer corresponds to about 7.3 million to 10.35 million yen. The original text writes "toi 1,7 ty dong," that is, a range with an upper limit of 1.7 billion dong. Since the Vietnamese ty means one billion, 1.7 ty is not 170 million dong.

Phuong considered the amount and then did not sell. The reason remains in his own words. "I will keep it for my children and grandchildren. For me, tram do is not only economic value but also a tree left by my grandparents. I encourage my descendants to plant and grow more tram do too, to increase future sources of income." It is not a story of walling it off as an ancestral inheritance; he at the same time frames it as a future source of income. The section heading in the original also writes it as "has not sold yet," and does not convey that he has closed off disposing of the forest itself.

The scale of the forest is as follows.

Crowns that have grown up to several tens of meters stand side by side.

From one tree the great-grandfather planted beside a hilltop shrine, to three households in Kim Dien commune

The starting point of the 2,000 trees is a single tree. Phuong's great-grandfather brought it back from the forest and planted it on a hill called Chan behind the house. More than 100 years ago, an old shrine stood on this hill, with large trees around it. The tram do planted there grew well and dropped many seeds.

His grandfather Dinh Quang Chau gathered those seeds and planted more, and four grew well and set seed again. The first tree withered, but the trees grown from it the family kept protecting. Phuong describes the motive of the time this way: "In the old days, residents did not know the economic value of tram do well either. My grandparents kept them simply because the trees were fragrant and were tied to the old shrine on the hill."

The place name Kim Dien commune is new. In the 2025 commune reorganization, Hoa Son commune and Hoa Hop commune of the former Minh Hoa district (former Quang Binh Province) merged to form it. Quang Binh Province and Quang Tri Province also became a single Quang Tri Province in 2025, and the Hoa Son in the Hoa Son forest-protection station that appears in the article is the pre-merger commune name.

The whole forest was declined, but single trees have been sold at 100 million and 75 million dong

Taking out only "did not sell" misses the reality of this forest. The family has sold single trees when a need arose. The 320 dong of about 40 years ago is the amount the father got for letting go of one old tree when the household's finances became tight, and it is recorded at the face value of the time.

After his father's death, Phuong sold one tree for 100 million dong (about 610,000 yen) to build the grave. He sold another tree for 75 million dong (about 460,000 yen) and put it toward the cost of rebuilding the life of an orphaned grandchild. One tree over 100 years old still remains in the garden, and this he has allotted to his younger brother.

What he declined was the lump-sum sale of the whole forest, not transactions of single trees. The offer is the price for the whole forest including the 2.6 hectares of land, and neither the breakdown nor the number of trees by age is given. It cannot be read off as a unit price per tree.

A forest left uncut for 30 to 50 years — how do you earn during that time?

Phuong does not see tram do as a tree that is hard to grow. He dries seeds taken from mother trees and scatters them on the ground. In the second year he thins the densely grown stems and cuts the surrounding undergrowth (thuc bi) to make space for growth. While the saplings are small he fences them in to protect them, and once they grow large the labor drops sharply.

"In the tree's second year, I thin them and clear the surrounding undergrowth. Once they grow large the care gets easier, so I keep cattle under the crowns to add income," Phuong says. Neither head count nor amount is given.

How to use the forest floor is a method of adding income that is in motion across the country in Vietnam's forestry. The 618-hectare high-tech forestry zone approved by prime-ministerial decision is a concept of growing medicinal and aromatic plants beneath large-diameter timber grown thick, but it is at a planning stage in which plot development and the launch of a seedling center come first. On Kim Dien's 2.6 hectares, cattle are already kept beneath the standing forest. Even with the same "use of the forest floor," one is a future item within a plan approved by the institutional side, the other is grazing actually in motion on an individual's forest.

The way the rotation is set is also contrasting. A farmer in the Phu Bai area of Hue City who has stuck with only acacia for 40 years cuts four years after planting and harvests about 2 hectares a year out of 8, leveling out cash income. It is a decision to avoid the danger of being felled by typhoons and not to grow out to high-unit-price large-diameter timber. Kim Dien's tram do are left standing at 30 to 50 years old. Forests whose years-to-return differ by an order of magnitude exist in the same central Vietnam.

Dinh Phu Binh, head of the Hoa Son forest-protection station, explains that tram do is a native species with economic value and a tree species with a long growth period. He says that trees left for a long time also serve to hold soil and water and to be a source of seed.

Note #14 of Appendix II removes wood chips and prayer beads from the exclusions

The Japanese word jinko refers to the timber itself, in which resin has deposited in the wood. What the article deals with is the standing tree called tram do. The Vietnamese tram do is a local common name for the genus Aquilaria (family Thymelaeaceae), and do bau and tram huong are said to refer to the same genus.

Let us check from the handling within Vietnam. Decree 84/2021/ND-CP replaced the list of endangered, precious, and rare forest fauna and flora of Decree 06/2019/ND-CP. Opening its Appendix I, the plants are 21 species in Group IA and 53 species in Group IIA, and neither includes the family Thymelaeaceae nor Aquilaria. The same decree also carries domestic implementation of CITES: Article 20 defines export of Appendix II and III plant specimens as those "from cultivation facilities assigned a number under Article 18," and Article 22 defines that CITES permits are issued signed and stamped by Vietnam's CITES management authority. The line is drawn not by a domestic rare-species listing but on the side of cultivation-facility registration numbers and CITES permits.

Now the CITES side. Aquilaria spp. is listed in Appendix II and carries CoP19 annotation #14, effective February 23, 2023. #14 excludes from regulation seeds and pollen, in vitro seedlings and tissue cultures transported in sterile containers, fruits, leaves, exhausted agarwood powder (including compressed powder), and finished products packaged for retail. However, this last exclusion does not apply to wood chips, beads, prayer beads, or carvings. Because the mainstay commodities of agarwood are placed outside the exclusion here, consult the current annotation text before deciding on an item.

On the Japanese side, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry indicates that one must obtain a "CITES export permit, etc." issued by the exporting country's CITES management authority and then carry out procedures at the customs of the exporting country and of Japan. Appendix II cargo is divided into "advance confirmation" and "confirmation at customs clearance" depending on whether it is a live animal and whether it originates in a specified country. If handled as timber, the obligations the revised Clean Wood Act (in force April 1, 2025) places on Class 1 wood-related operators — collecting and organizing raw-material information and confirming legality — also overlap.

There are already production areas building up from the document side. In Lang Son Province, an operator who ships tens of thousands of seedlings of various kinds, including Lang Son snow hoang dan, on the order of 30,000 units has obtained commercial-purpose cultivation-site codes from the province's forest-protection sub-department and its department of agriculture and environment. A local-press report in early 2025 also conveyed a side operation of more than 5,000 grafted agarwood seedlings.

Whether resin has deposited, what the scientific name is, whether there is cultivation registration — none of these three points needed for a procurement decision can be learned from this report. A 2.6-hectare forest of the genus Aquilaria exists in the mountains of central Vietnam, and local middlemen put a price on it. It serves as material for knowing the distribution and price sense of the production area, but it is not at a stage to be treated as a procurement candidate.

Sources

• Bao Nong nghiep va Moi truong, "Giu lai khu rung tram do tien ty" (September 22, 2026)
• Species+ (CITES Secretariat / UNEP-WCMC), Appendix II listing of Aquilaria crassna and CoP19 annotation #14 (accessed September 24, 2026)
• Government of Vietnam, "Nghi dinh so 84/2021/ND-CP" signed version (September 22, 2021), Appendix I
• Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, "Import-approval procedures for goods regulated under the Washington Convention (CITES)" (last updated August 28, 2026)
• Forestry Agency, "Clean Wood Navi," obligations of wood-related operators
• Wikipedia (Vietnamese), "Chi Do tram," local names for the genus Aquilaria (accessed September 24, 2026)
• Wikipedia (English), the merger history of "Kim Dien" commune (accessed September 24, 2026)