Biodiversity management has recorded positive changes after six years under Biodiversity Law enforcement

Speaking at the opening, Deputy Head of the NA’s commission Nguyen Vinh Ha said that the Biodiversity Law, which took effect in 2009, is the highest legal force in the field of State management over biodiversity in the country. After more than six years of implementation, the management of the State on biodiversity has changed significantly, with biodiversity management bodies formed at all levels in both the environment and forestry sectors.

According to reports from MoNRE, biodiversity is being protected in 166 conservation areas with a total area of more than 2.1 million ha. In addition, Viet Nam has formed and managed 134 specialised forest conservation areas, six marine protection areas and two world natural heritage complexes.

Biodiversity contributes to socio-economic development through ecological tourism activities and use of genetic resources for livestock development, healthcare, and scientific research.

Practical supervision over the implementation of policies and laws on biodiversity have also showed some inadequacies, including slow issuance of guidelines for Biodiversity Law enforcement, a lack of human resources for conservation work, unclear assigned responsibility on biodiversity management among State agencies and local functions, and limited funding for biodiversity conservation.

Director Pham Anh Cuong of the Biodiversity Conservation Agency under MoNRE’s Viet Nam Environment Administration said that Viet Nam is recognised as a country with high levels of biodiversity with various types of natural ecosystems, species, and abundant endemic genetic resources.

However, State management of biological diversity is mainly concentrated at the central level and limited at the grassroots level. Interdisciplinary collaboration, primarily between the environmental sector, agriculture and rural development, has not been promoted.

The Viet Nam Environment Administration General Environment Agency proposed to strengthen financial resources for biodiversity, which determine the GDP rate to be used for the work each year, in addition to adopting new financial initiatives for conservation.