However he said the "priceless resource", which helped ensure environmental balance, had seriously deteriorated because of overlapping management of natural resources.

Nhi also claimed this was because of a lack of co-ordination in related sectors, inadequate co-operation and unclear mandates.

Nhi said international sponsors and local people in the buffer zone of the Ba Vi National Park had recently planted trees in response to the Year of International Biodiversity 2010 in cooperation with the Forest Sector Support Partnership (FSSP).

"In the last 10 years, with untiring efforts by the Government and support from the international community, Viet Nam has established a special-use forest system that spreads over an area of 2.2 million hectares, including 164 forests representing important inland, wetland and sea area eco systems," he said.

Nhi claimed that most primary forests and endangered species had been protected from development.
Juergen Hess, co-chairman of the Forest Sector Support Partnership (FSSP), said the organisation was a unique and invaluable instrument.

He said the tree planting campaign, one of the FSSP’s responses to the International Year on Biodiversity, reflected its contribution to biodiversity conservation.

The Director of the Conservation Department under the General Department of Forestry, Tran The Lien, said one of challenges in forest conservation was that at present local people lived inside 80 per cent of the existing special-use areas - and their populations were increasing. They hunted wild animals and exploited other natural resources.

Nguyen Anh Dung, an official of the German Organisation for Technical Co-operation, said that it needed the co-operation of local people to preserve forests. He said that to get their active interest, they should be helped to enjoy benefits from the forests.

Dung said a project titled Conservation of Mangrove Forests in southern Soc Trang Province had involved the co-management of local people.

This had increased their awareness about the importance of the mangroves, and contributed to more effective protection.

Dung said that forest rules were agreed by consensus, such as those that allow locals to collect dry wood by hand in regulated months and to catch aquatic products by hand or in round nets with diameters less than 80cm.

Nguyen Phi Truyen, deputy director of the Ba Vi National Park, said that the park management board supported resettlement for 80 Dao ethnic households in Hop Son Commune to stabilise their livelihood.

The Van Hoa and Tan Linh communes have also been allowed to establish fruit gardens and a nursery for timber species on 300ha of the Ba Vi Commune.

The project also cooperates with agencies within and outside the sector to carry out study on conservation for endangered species.
Trieu Thi Lap, a Dao ethnic, said that thanks to the project, her family now had 1,080sq.m of medicinal herbs, which brought her a stable income of VND60 million (US$3,150) a year.

Source: VietNamNet/Viet Nam News