Sending a question to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, reader T.T. S asked: Mr. T.T. S's family (Dien Bien) is contracted to protect the forest. He asked, is his family allowed to grow medicinal herbs under the forest canopy?
Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment answers as follows:
According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 3 of Decree No. 168/2016/ND-CP dated December 27, 2016 of the Government stipulating the contracting of forests, orchards and water surface areas in special-use forest management boards, protection forests and State-owned agricultural and forestry one-member limited liability companies:
1. Forest, orchard, and water surface contracting is a form of agreement to perform work in management, protection, use, production and business activities between contractors and contractors for a certain period of time.
According to Clause 9, Article 2 of the 2017 Forestry Law:
9. Forest owners are organizations, households, individuals, and residential communities to whom the State allocates forests, leases forests; allocates land, leases land for afforestation; self-recovers and develops forests; receives transfers, donations, and inherits forests according to the provisions of law.
Thus, the forest contractor is not considered the forest owner, but must comply with the agreement with the contractor.
According to the provisions of Article 32b of Decree No. 183/2025/ND-CP dated July 1, 2025 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP dated November 16, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Forest Law, the farming, planting, development, and harvesting of medicinal plants in the forest is applied to forest owners (as stipulated in Clause 9, Article 2 of the 2017 Forest Law) or organizations and individuals renting forest environments or cooperating and linking with forest owners.
Clause 2, Article 25 of Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP dated November 16, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Forestry Law:
Forest owners, stable contractors are households, individuals, and residential communities who are intercropped with agricultural crops, non-timber forest products, livestock and aquaculture under the protective forest canopy, but must not reduce the forest area, quality, affect forest regeneration and forest protection capacity".
Thus, the contractor to stabilize the area of protection forest is allowed to intercrop non-wood forest products in the forest. It is requested that the family contact the commune-level People's Committee/Department of Agriculture and Environment to clarify the type of forest that the family is contracting for forest protection and determine the form of contracting with the forest owner (contracting work, services or stable contracting); at the same time, identify non-wood forest products as medicinal plants in the list issued by the Minister of Health or other medicinal plants with high medical and economic value in the locality decided by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee according to Clause 2, Article 32 of Decree No. 183/2025/ND-CP.
Decree No. 168/2016/ND-CP only grants contractors rights within the scope of the contract; contractors must properly implement the contract, be subject to inspection and supervision by contractors and be responsible before the law for violations. However, Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP allows contractors to stabilize forests and intercrop non-timber forest products under the forest canopy, and Decree No. 183/2025/ND-CP grants rights to self-organize, cooperate, link, or lease forest environment to forest owners for farming, planting, developing, and harvesting medicinal herbs under the forest canopy, but does not directly grant this right to "forest protection contractors".
