For years, the Dao ethnic minority group in Nam Dam Village are familiar with the medicinal properties of plants growing close to their homes, in the open fields, waste lands and the nearby forests. They have used these herbs for remedies for their families and for sale in a local market. Gradually, valuable medicinal herbs have gone extinct; therefore, creating awareness among local communities on the urgent need of conservation of medicinal plants. Ly Ta Den, a Dao ethnic man, has initially collected natural medicinal herbs for processing into products to serve visitors to Dong Van rocky plateau. Later, he found out that many of the herbs have been facing extinction for overexploitation, he was determined to set up a cooperative with the participation of 29 members to grow and process medicinal products, providing services like medicinal herbal baths, saunas, accommodations for tourists and tourism services in 2014. The establishment of the cooperative aims to conserve rare herbs and help locals to fight against poverty. In the early time, the co-operative has been bumping in difficulties due to lack of capital and experience in harvesting and processing. Half yearly, most people wanted to withdraw their capital from the co-operative, leaving only seven people involved as the cooperative couldn’t sell its products resulting in dispirited members who took their capital back; therefore, the cooperative’s capital was only around VND200 million (US$8,723). But, with valuable medicinal herbs sources in nature and his desire to take advantage of the mountains and forests to improve the lives of people in upland areas, Den and the rest of the members were not discouraged but kept the faith. Den traveled to the Pharmacy University in Hanoi to seek assistance where lecturers gave him training on production procedure of plants. He also linked with pharmaceutical companies for consultation of technologies in processing herbs and consumption of the cooperative’s …
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