The agreement to this effect was signed on November 8 in Hanoi between Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hua Duc Nhi and German Technical Cooperation’s (GTZ) Country Director Guenter Riethmacher, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The project’s first phase is set to run for three years and focus its work on pilot areas, including Ba Be National Park and Na Hang Nature Reserve in the northern provinces of Bac Kan and Tuyen Quang, respectively; Pu Hu and Pu Luong Nature Reserves in the central province of Thanh Hoa; Bach Ma National Park in the central province of Thua Thien Hue and the buffer zones of these protected areas.
The long-term objective of the project is to improve personnel skills as well as establish institutional, technical, financial and legal conditions to preserve biodiversity in the forest ecosystems in Vietnam, particularly at national level and in protected areas.
It will also research and implement pilot financing mechanisms for protected areas and support the development of benefit-sharing mechanisms in order to secure sustainable financial means for conservation and improve the livelihoods of the local population.
Guenter Riethmacher said that the German government prioritises biodiversity preservation and forestry is one of its main areas of cooperation with Vietnam – which records the highest biodiversity in the world, with about 10 percent of species of the world in just one percent of global land area.
Vietnam now has about 700 species of endangered flora and fauna, of which 300 are facing extinction in the world, and 10.3 million hectares of natural forests, accounting for about 31 percent of forest areas in Vietnam. However, only 0.57 million hectares of primeval forest is still in existence.
Since 1993, GTZ and Vietnam’s partnering agencies have actively implemented sustainable development projects in the fields of sustainable economic development, natural resources management and healthcare.
(VietnamPlus, 9/11/2010)