ACACIA HYBRIDS

In 1960, a group of Australian botanists arrived in Việt Nam. The researchers aimed to plant and introduce sixteen different cultivars of wattles to this country.

30 years later, sometime after the withdrawal of all Autralian personel and the end of the War in Việt Nam, an unusual hybrid of Acacia mangium (the Hickory wattle) and Acacia auriculiformis (the Northern Black wattle) was crossbreeeding in the central highlands of Việt Nam. The Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS) and Australia’s Commonwelath Scientific and industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) began to collaborate on researching and cloning this new wattle hybrid.

These unusual trees not only improved soil nitrogen, but after just five years, they could grow to 25-30 metres high - producing a straight and commercially viable hardwood. The characteristic ability of these trees to vigorously grow in degraded soils convinced the Vietnamese government to cultivate these hybrid Acacia seedlings on an industrial scale.

Since a quarter of South Việt Nam’s forests were defoliated and destroyed by Agent Orange and heavy bombing, these hybrid trees were seen to fill an essential and vital role in preventing flash flooding and landslides in forest regeneration programs such as the Chương trình phủ xanh đất trống, đồi núi trọc, or the ‘Regreening the Barren Hills Program.’ Between 1992-1997, $US68 million was invested to replant degraded forests and promote an emerging renewable timber industry.

By 2026, Việt Nam cultivates over 2.2 million hectares of hybrid Acacia. Making this country the biggest grower of wattle trees in the world, and becoming the biggest global supplier of hardwood for the renewable timber industry.

Now acclimatised, these new trees continue to spread across the landscape, profoundly reshaping agricultural practices, as well as placing ecological and economic pressures on the biodiversity and Indigenous epistemic practices within Việt Nam’s rainforests.