Sa Pa initiative to the final

A project that both uses and preserves local natural aromatherapy sources and benefits the community based in Sa Pa has reached the final round of the international award "World Challenge" (World challenge awards). The award is organized by the British Broadcasting Association.

The initiative of Sapa Essential Ltd Company (SPE - based in Sa Pa town started in 2006, selected from a total of 930 proposals to compete with 11 candidates for projects and business honors The industry will help "the lives of local communities change. The 2007 award will give " real groups that create change in business and innovation at the grassroots level ".

Consumption goes hand in hand with conservation

In the project, for the first time in Vietnam, patent granted to Simpa, to ensure knowledge belongs to the community of ethnic minorities in Sa Pa.With the support of the New Zealand Government, SPE has conducted studies and surveys of the effects of medicinal plants and discovered many new effects, never mentioned by any books.

SPE established with the support of the Association of Indigenous Medicines (Simpa), a local unit of ethnic minorities, processing local plant varieties into new products.

SPE supports local farmers by purchasing Simpa products produced with "fair trade prices" to ensure fair income for Simpa's members (ie buying at the prices people want), with It is 6-7 times more profitable than harvesting rice, corn and other agricultural crops, 10 times more than harvesting chayote.

Ms. Do Thi Thu Ha, SPE Director, said that products processed from natural processing companies are new products that have never been on the market. Previously, ethnic minorities exploited drugs from forests, processed and used to treat diseases. However, due to the fact that people only harvest without planting, there are many rare and endangered species such as short-term lime trees, pagodas .

"In order to develop sustainably, we have to make products, help people to have income. So, in terms of conservation and local people, it is beneficial - Ms. Ha explained - our original purpose is to help people conservation of precious trees and stable income because in Sapa there is only one rice season, much free time, difficult life ".

Using indigenous knowledge

The current trend in the world is consumers who aim to use natural products. Products such as soap, bath oil, essential oils, aromatherapy for relaxation by the company have not appeared in Vietnam market but are available in New Zealand, Japan and Korea.

Products processed from natural trees in Sa Pa are bringing benefits to local people - (Photo: Sapaessentials.com)

Explaining this, Ms. Ha said natural products are high-end and expensive products with a relaxing function that is of great interest to foreigners. In addition, the species used are conservation species so the price is high."When the Vietnamese people do not understand much, they do not dare to spend much money to buy, but everyone in the country wants to use natural products. We will target the people in Vietnam gradually but need it. time for people to understand more about the product ".

One way of marketing products is to use indigenous knowledge, which according to Ms. Ha is "especially for European communities. In developed countries, tree conservation is social responsibility, their money pay much for the product will return to the community ".

Ms. Ha said the amount managed by Simpa to benefit the local community " is still small . " "The bigger thing we think about is that royalties can return; millions of dollars will be a community fund, our company will not touch that amount. '

The award is part of the BBC's " World Challenge " program since 2005, in collaboration with Shell oil company and Newsweek magazine (USA). The program is being broadcast on BBC's global television network. Readers are encouraged to vote for the project they like best. The winning unit will be announced at the beginning of December and the prize is worth 20,000 USD.

According to Ms Ha, this money can be used first and will be better than product quality management. It is expected that next month the products will be sold in Hanoi at the Craftlink store (Van Mieu street), Me (Nha Tho street); In Sapa, Simpa will be sold directly and at the catcat hotel. Price of a bottle of relaxing essential oil is about 8 USD when sold abroad.

LOAN

The people have been struggling

Mr. Thomas Osborn , British, SPE's national plant consultant, interviewed by Tuoi Tre via phone:

* What do you think about working and preserving SPE doing?

- With the New Zealand Government-supported conservation project in 2005 for endangered plant species, we want to continue to use these conserved plants to produce one sustainable way.In that way, I think that work is by far the most successful for local people and conservation.In Sapa there are more than 800 species of plants that can make medicine.

* The impact of business on people's lives?

- People have more sources of income: from crops, from selling preliminary products to companies with equal prices and some money from each product sold.We do not have specific data on economic growth, but local people say their life is less difficult, they do not have to worry about food anymore.

* In the future, when many people know about products, what will plant conservation work be because the product must be more to meet the market demand?

- This is of course an important issue, we will study carefully.We are currently in the testing phase but we understand it is necessary to help the local people first.We do not expand the business too big in the early time.

Some people understand that resources are being abused because they find it harder to find trees than the previous day.They realize that they should protect them.But they must use, must have income.They understand that conservation means use, and we understand that it means preserving.

To vote, readers can visit http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/herbal.php . The election will end at 23g59 on November 16, 2007.