The road leading to Dat Lua commune of Bao Ai village, Yen Binh district, Yen Bai province weaves through the mountain and sloppy areas covered with green trees. After many years of moving from place to place with the slash-and-burn farming method, dozens of households in the commune are now settling down on the banks of the Chay River where they were allocated forest land to take care of the trees, protect the forests and sell the trees to businesses. Mr Luc Van Thanh's family was one of the households in the village engaging in the new form of forest planting when he agreed to take care of two hectares of grown forest trees for pulp production. However, when the market demand was low and he was unable to sell the trees, things all seemed to start going wrong.

And when the worst comes, things sometimes change, for good. A businessman from Yen Binh district came to the village and asked for co-operation with the villagers to plant forest and sell the trees to the business. The situation continued to improve when farmers received assistance from the business in saplings and farming techniques as well as financing and businesses were ensured they could buy the wood from farmers. Households in the commune were going back to growing trees and taking care of the forest. It is recorded that each year, the commune sell about 500 cubic metres of wood to the business and the whole village's sales went up to 2,900 cubic metres. The living standards of the villagers have been improved.

Other ethnic minority people in the village are also engaging in planting forest for sale since they see businesses buying their wood. People said now they can live on the forests and as many as 5,600 households in the district's 46 villages are engaging in growing forests for selling wood. Forest coverage under the form of co-operative growing forests has increased to 23,000 hectares.

From a grower himself, Mr Do Thap told the story of his own farm having difficulty in growing forest and selling trees and after years of hard work and losses, the business, a State-owned farm, now grew more than 1,000 hectares of forests and employed 250 people. Each year the business earned nearly VND 10 billion from selling timber and wooden products. He said Yen Bai province had more than 600,000 hectares of forest land and a large area had not been tapped since ethnic minority people living the area volunteered to grow forests for timer sale but lacked capital. This is why businesses should work with them for mutual benefit. Over the last ten years, his business has sent representatives to various remote areas to work with people there to discuss co-operation in planting forest. The business invested VND 1.4 billion in assisting farmers to grow forest in the district and Van Chan district. Mr Thap said he planned to expand operation to other areas in the coming years under the form of co-operation with farmers.

The model formed by the business of Mr Do Thap is an example of how business and farmers can work together for mutual benefit. This model should be studied and applied in mountainous areas for the improvement of the living standards of the people living there and for the development of the national economy.