{"id":2569,"date":"2017-10-06T23:31:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T16:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/?p=2569"},"modified":"2018-04-13T14:13:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T07:13:31","slug":"experts-eco-tourism-should-not-destroy-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/experts-eco-tourism-should-not-destroy-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts: Eco-tourism should not destroy biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instead of being wary about investors, tourism management authorities should collaborate with them in preserving the natural environment, says Dr Nguyen Hoang Tri, Secretary of the National Committee for UNESCO\u2019s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) in Viet Nam.<\/p>\n

With about 2.3 million hectares of special use forests (SUF), 31 national parks and 68 natural reserves, and dozens of other forests, Viet Nam is seen as a prime eco-tourism destination.<\/p>\n

However, rapid and haphazard development of tourism infrastructure in natural reserves and SUFs in the last few years has raised concerns that development was taking place at the expense of the environment.<\/p>\n

Tourism inside and around protected areas like the Phong Nha \u2013 Ke Bang and Bach Ma National Parks, as well as the Son Tra and Lung Ngoc Hoang natural reserves, has also raised concerns over the loss of biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Ways to address these concerns and preserve the nation\u2019s natural environment in the context of an eco-tourism boom were discussed at a conference held in H\u00e0 N?i on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Most tourism projects in the country are implemented without conducting comprehensive environmental impact assessments (EIA), said Dr Le Hoang Lan of the Viet Nam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment. The result is that the risks and consequences that the projects can have on the environment are not accounted for, she said.<\/p>\n

Current regulations only require tourism investors to address damage caused to forests by paying money or replanting trees, \u201cbut such losses can\u2019t be measured with money, like losing rare animals like rhinos,\u201d Lan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRe-growing forests does not ensure recovery of biodiversity,\u201d she said, adding that regulations should require investors to restore biodiversity in damaged areas.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tourists go kayaking on Ch\u00e0y River in the Phong Nha \u2013 K? B\u00e0ng National Park in Qu?ng B\u00ecnh Province (VNS photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overlaps and loopholes in laws and regulations on natural resource management have complicated the task of preserving biodiversity in the country, public policy specialist Nguyen Quang Dong said at the conference.<\/p>\n

For example, the 2010 decree on SUF management actually allows investors to engage in activities forbidden by the Law on Forest Protection and Management, he said.<\/p>\n

Both the environmental and agricultural ministries have their own guidelines on planning natural reserves for tourism, which are too many, unstructured, and too complicated, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to redefine their functions and untangle this management mess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Nguyen Quoc Dung of the Institute of Investigation and Forest Planning, said that management of national parks has been arbitrarily decentralised in some localities.<\/p>\n

Instead of being managed by the provincial People\u2019s Committees as regulated, some national parks are being administered by lower-level agricultural and forest protection departments, he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Nguyen Hoang Tri, secretary of the National Committee for MAB Viet Nam, said that the private sector, particularly tourism investors, should not be excluded from the policy making process.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism is an important sector for economic development, and it should be encouraged to grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince private investors have their own perspectives on tourism, public management agencies and policy makers should not be \u2018scared\u2019 of them, but instead engage them in dialogues and collaborate with them in the task of environmental protection,\u201d he added. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Other experts proposed a comprehensive review and evaluation of environmental preservation and development in the last two decades, so that a more effective legal foundation can be laid for eco-tourism development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carrying capacity of facilities at eco-tourism sites, and the monetary value of biodiversity loss caused by eco-tourism, are the two most difficult\u00a0factors to evaluate,\u201d said Nguyen Viet Dung, deputy director of People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Source: Viet Nam News<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe carrying capacity of facilities at eco-tourism sites, and the monetary value of biodiversity loss caused by eco-tourism, are the two most difficult\u00a0factors to evaluate,\u201d said Nguy?n Vi?t D?ng, deputy director of People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[49,90,48,65],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-2569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-media","tag-biodiversity","tag-ecosystem-services","tag-conservation","tag-sustainable-development","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2569"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2569"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=2569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}