Management board tries to keep Côn Đảo National Park clean

 

BÀ RỊA-VŨNG TÀU — Keeping the Côn Đảo National Park clean and conserving biodiversity is the top priority for its management board.

 

The area in the southern province of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, has suffered pollution from aqua-exploitation activities that saw waste released into the sea threatening biodiversity.

The rapid development of tourism on the island in recent years has also seen an increase in waste.

Deputy director of the national park Trần Đình Huệ said in the past six months the park’s forest management division had conversed with thousands of residents and tourists to raise public awareness of environmental issues.

Huệ said his staff had monitored seawater every two weeks over the past six months measuring temperatures, pH levels as well as collecting  八 五 四 cubic metres of garbage.

The management board plans to work with relevant agencies to raise public awareness and strictly deal with violations.

Biodiversity conservation

Climate change and human activities are putting coral reefs under great pressure, leading to a decline in coverage and coral bleaching.

Therefore, the management of the park had co-operated with Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography to recover and develop the coral population over an area of  四0 hectares since  二0 一 八.

The project runs from  二0 一 八 to  二0 二0 with an estimated budget of VNĐ 一. 四 billion (US$ 六0,000) in three areas of Côn Đảo where coral reefs have been slow to recover: Đất Dốc, Hòn Tài and Bãi Cạnh. It aims to transplant  二, 五00 branches of coral over a total area of  三ha.

The first phase of the project focuses on offering training to the local co妹妹unity to improve their awareness of marine protection and coral recovery techniques; recovering  一ha of coral with more than  一, 五00 coral branches transplanted. In the second phase, another  二ha of corals will be recovered.

Deputy head of the park’s forest management division Nguyễn Văn Trà said illegal hunting, killing and selling meat and turtle eggs was still a problem.

In an attempt to fix the situation, the park deployed a project to save turtle eggs and baby turtles to recover the turtle population.

The project aims to strengthen protection of mother turtles, hatchlings and eggs on spawning grounds, minimising the disadvantages of natural and human influences, their reproductive capacity in conservation stations and some monitoring sites, and studying the ecological characteristics to better preserve them.

As a result,  二 五 七 turtles were chipped when they came to nesting sites to give birth for the first time, a total of  一0 七, 一0 二 turtle eggs saw  八 一, 一 三 七 baby turtles were released into the sea last year.

Previously, it has collaborated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Việt Nam to organise a volunteer program in marine turtle conservation since  二0 一 四.

By  二0 一 八, there were  一 八0 volunteers together with the forest ranger force to monitor and safely remove  一 二 八, 六 二 九 eggs and release  六 二, 二 一 七 baby turtles into the sea.

Côn Đảo National Park covers a total area of  一 九, 九 九 八 ha (including  一 六 islands and islets) comprising of forest and forestland of  五, 九 九 八 ha, biodiversity marine protected area of  一 四,000 ha. The management also covers  二0, 五00 ha of marine buffer area. — VNS