Part of the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve (Source: baotainguyenmoitruong.vn)

The August 5 event offered a periodical review of the reserve since it was recognised as a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO on October 27, 2006.

Now spanning more than 1.1 million hectares in Kien Giang’s ten districts and towns, the site is the second largest among the nine biosphere reserves in Viet Nam.

It consists of three parts – Phu Quoc National Park , the U Minh Thuong National Park and the Kien Luong-Kien Hai coastal forest with more than 2,340 species of fauna and flora, including those listed in the Vietnamese and world red books.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Tri, Chairman and Secretary General of the Man and Biosphere (MAB) Viet Nam Committee, said the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve is home to most of the tropical ecological systems, which play an important role to human lives as well as sustainable development in the region.

According to the reserve’s management board, over the past ten years, more than 5.6 billion VND (252,000 USD) sourced from the State budget and from donors has been injected into the site.

At the workshop, scientists, experts and managers proposed solutions to managing and preserving the values of the reserve.

Such proposals will help Kien Giang province complete a report on the periodical review of the reserve to submit to the international MBA Secretariat, helping manage, preserve and develop the reserve in a sustainable manner in the next ten years, said Nguyen Xuan Niem, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Science and Technology.