Forest Restoration through Nature-Oriented Reforestation Practices in North Eastern Vietnam

SUMMARY This paper presents the results of a systematic sample plot based inventory in two smallholder reforestation projects in North Eastern Vietnam. The projects were implemented from 1995 to 2005 and applied a nature-oriented approach to reforestation with the ultimate goal of restoring near-natural forest ecosystems for sustainable utilisation. At the end of the reforestation activities, data in 1 422 permanent, systematically distributed sample plots of 250m2 size have been collected and entered into a database. The results of the inventory show that already in early stages of forest establishment dynamic natural processes occur that are able to transform plantations towards near-natural forest stands in the long run with very promising qualitative and quantitative development. Precondition is that forest establishment is from the outset oriented at the goal of establishing near-natural forest stands and that these processes are deliberately allowed to take place. In planted stands, these processes ...