The lure of a bit of friendly rivalry and the chance to strut their knowledge about the environment brought Giao Xuan community together for a competition quiz in Nam Dinh province on Saturday July 26.
The competition "Understanding local fisheries resources" is one of the activities in an ecosystem services and poverty alleviation communication campaign initiated by the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD).
The MCD campaign aims to raise local and national awareness about marine and coastal ecosystem services in Vietnam, their current state and trends, the local community's reliance on such services and how they can be utilised sustainably.
"The competition is not only entertaining and fun, but it has given the community members the chance to show what they've known about the environment, as well as learn other things they don't know," MCD Vice-Director Ho Thi Yen Thu said.
"The local community have enthusiastically supported this event and shown great team work in helping organise the competition, as well as in their actual performance during the event", Ms Ho added.
According to Giao Xuan Youth Union Secretary Tran Thanh Tung, the best thing about this event is the way it created healthy, fun competition among teams which then spurred them to study the topic.
"They devoted a lot of time and effort to building their fisheries knowledge to ensure they performed well in the competition," Mr Tran said.
"One of the fishers even stayed up overnight reading a wide range of fisheries materials at his clam-farming house at sea." Mr Tran further revealed.
The competition's Master of Ceremony, Le Tat Thang, Giao Xuan Secondary teacher said the competition really helped improve his knowledge about fisheries.
"Before the competition I didn't know a lot about fisheries," Mr Do said.
"I was worried about my responsibility. However, after this event, I have rather good knowledge of fisheries and also feel more confident in speaking in front of the public."
The Director of Xuan Thuy National Park, Nguyen Viet Cach also agreed.
"As a member of the competition Board of Examiner, I've really enjoyed the competition and love the idea. It is a good model of community and environment communication," Mr Nguyen said.
The competition was organised by MCD and the Giao Xuan People's Committee with the assistance of the Faculty of Environment Science, University of Natural Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.