Song Thanh N.R.

A shot from the second floor of the offices of the Song Thanh Nature Reserve in Quang Nam province, Vietnam. I will give a training workshop here next week on the identification and inventory of local rattans (see An Unusual Rattan and Weaving a Trivet) for representatives of six nature reserves in the Central Truong Son Mountains. The basic objective of the workshop is to help reserve staff start collecting the baseline data needed to develop management plans for the sustainable exploitation of wild rattan. [NOTE: Vietnam is the third largest producer of rattan in the world; a large percentage of this material comes from the Truong Son Mountains].