Buenos Aires, Argentina - IUCN

protected localities was approved by the Government
in 1986. This places under protection an area of 1.2
million hectares, constituting 3.3 percent of the
country's total land area.
Vietnam recently established a number of special
protected areas, including Tram Chim Reserve in the
Mekong Delta for the endangered Eastern Sarus Crane
and Xuan Thuy Reserve, the first Ramsar site in Southeast
Asia, in the Red River estuary for migratory birds.
However, in re-examining our list of protected
areas, we have found that many ecosystems, habitats
and endangered species are notyet included. We have
proposed to extend the protected area system to a
target of 2 million hectares, constituting 6 percent of
the country's total land area. Vietnam has 25 important
wetland sites. Therefore, it is necessary to establish
wetland reserves to effectively conserve the wetland
ecosystem and its plentiful fauna and flora, and some
protected areas for the conservation of marine ecosystems
and valuable sea animals and plants.
Yet, as Jeffrey McNeely, Chief Conservation
Officer of IUCN, recently noted, even with its economic
difficulties, Vietnam is making a valiant effort to
conserve its biodiversity, with a protected area system
nearly twice that of the Philippines, and similar to that
of Malaysia. It has banned the export of logs and is
planning a significant expansion of its protected area
system. This investment of scarce land resources in
conservation is well justified, as Vietnam has more
species of mammals and birds than any of the comparable
countries in the region (J. McNeely, Biodiversity
Conservation Strategy Update, Vol.5, No.l, 1993).
The most difficult task for protection of Vietnam's
reserve areas and national parks now results from the
presence of settlements of local people inside these
areas. These people carry out shifting agriculture,
hunting, and forest-product exploitation for their subsistence
and hence present obstacles to protection
activities. Since 1987, the Government has carried out
a policy of resettling these people outside park boundaries
and providing them with basic necessities. This
programme was initially undertaken in Cuc Phuong
National Park and has already had some success. But
experience has shown that cooperation with local residents
and recognition of their needs is a more effective
means of protection than relocation alone. Buffer
zones must be set up to provide employment for local
people so that they do not put any pressure on the
protected areas themselves.
This first experiment offers great promise for our
country in conserving and saving our protected areas,
our biodiversity; but it also demonstrates how difficult
and costly the process of organizing and managing the
protected areas is in a poor and overpopulated
country.
We are saving our biodiversity, our endangered
species. We have been compiling a list of threatened
and endangered species for Vietnam's Red Data Book.
The Fauna Section has been completed and published.
The draft of the Flora Section will be finished soon.
Official protection should be granted to 365 animal
species and 350 plant species. And most important, the
Vietnamese Government has decided to join CITES
and the National Assembly has passed legislation on
environment protection, which covers the creation
and maintenance of a policy to foster and continue the
present pattern of economic growth while preserving
the country's environment.
As I said, we have begun small, but we have big
plans. We are trying to conserve our nature and we
will replant the entire denuded land with a green
cover. Then, the people can return to their homeland
and we hope the wildlife will also come back to this
area.
As an ornithologist and a field biologist, I am
happy to say that our wildlife is coming back—and
that is because the local government and people have
begun working together.
One of the finest examples of this is the Tram Chim
Crane Reserve, an important wetland site in the
Mekong Delta. Thousands of birds used to live in
Tram Chim up until around 1950. As war activities
increased, the Eastern Sarus Crane and many other
birds decreased in numbers and finally disappeared.
In 1986, the people in Tram Chim declared the
wetland site a Crane Reserve. They also began replanting
trees, building dykes, and creating artificial
islands, where they hope that the cranes will dance or
breed once again. Now there are about 1,000 cranes in
Tram Chim and many other species of birds have been
returned.
The cranes have "danced" in Tram Chim for the
first time in nearly 40 years, and we are hoping they
will also breed there soon. We are trying to create and
maintain a peaceful and safe area for them but this is
not easy because of the growing human population
and economic pressure on the reserve. We are in constant
dialogue with the local people of Tram Chim and
the newcomers moving into the area seeking land,
fishing grounds and a better quality of life. We are also
working with scientists in Laos, Cambodia, China,
Thailand and all the countries where these cranes used
to live, so that the birds can dance again and fly freely
—without fear—across all frontiers and find sanctuaries
where they are welcome by people who
appreciate their beauty and benefit from their
presence.
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