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Truong Son Mountain Range |
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is directing relevant functional units to focus on implementing a project to establish a strategic environmental framework for the entire Central Truong Son region, aimed at executing the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for this ecological area during the period 2005-2020.
The project, which will extend until the end of 2006 with a total investment of $250,000, aims to assist national and local agencies in making decisions, planning support, and integrating conservation priorities into socio-economic development programs, while addressing conflicts between regional planning and conservation activities.
The project will analyze infrastructure development plans in prioritized areas, assess the environmental impacts of these plans, delineate development and conservation zones, and encourage broad participation from decision-makers in these processes.
The Central Truong Son area includes seven provinces and cities: Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Binh Dinh, and Da Nang, encompassing over 2.38 million hectares of forest, of which nearly 2.2 million hectares are natural forests, while the remainder consists of planted forests. The average forest cover in the region reaches 42.75%.
Despite the increase in forest area and coverage over the past few years, the quality of the forests and the biodiversity of the entire region are still trending downward due to excessive human exploitation of forest products, which is destroying habitats and diminishing the rich food sources of various species, leading to a decline in both animal and plant species.
