Development of Vietnam’s biosphere reserves over 20 years
A workshop on the development and management of biosphere reserves in Vietnam was held in Hanoi on November 17 to evaluate the results after 20 years of the country’s joining the World Biosphere Reserve network and propose solutions for the development and sustainable management of Vietnam’s biosphere reserves in the future.
In Vietnam, the first one recognised was the Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve in 2000. So far, a total of nine biosphere reserves have been recognized in Vietnam, covering an area of over four million hectares, accounting for about 12.1 percent of the country’s area, and home to about 1.78 million people.
However, most of the protected areas and biosphere reserves are located in areas with high poverty rates, so achieving the goal of both conservation and economic development faces many difficulties. In addition, other barriers include the lack of a common framework to implement integrated solutions in sustainable development, ineffective organisation and coordination of stakeholder participation in the biosphere reserves, and ineffective planning capacity on the basis of the landscape approach.
