On May 26, in Hanoi, BirdLife International in Vietnam announced the report on the conservation of key wetland areas in the Northern Delta with the theme “Reassessing Important Bird Areas after 10 Years of Conservation, Maintaining the Integrity of Wetland Areas“.
The report is the result of a global Important Bird Areas conservation project in the Asia region conducted in three countries: Vietnam, East Timor, and Mongolia.
From November 2005 to March 2006, BirdLife conducted field surveys to reassess the biodiversity status of six important wetland bird areas in the Northern Delta provinces, including: Xuan Thuy National Park, the Nghia Hung habitat (Nam Dinh), the Thai Thuy habitat, the Tien Hai Nature Reserve (Thai Binh), and the An Hai habitat, Tien Lang (Hai Phong). This is the first comprehensive assessment of the biodiversity status in this area since 1996.
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Tu, a BirdLife expert, the wetland areas in the Northern Delta are the cradle of coastal fishing and aquaculture activities, providing livelihoods for local people. This region is critically important for biodiversity conservation in Indochina and serves as a significant “stopover” for migratory birds traveling from Northeast Asia and Siberia to Oceania.
Mr. Tu stated that the current state of biodiversity in these wetland areas lacks sustainable development factors and requires urgent and strict protection from the government and relevant agencies. Due to rapid population growth combined with strong economic development, the wetland resources here have been overexploited and severely degraded compared to before 1996. Particularly, the Nghia Hung habitat currently fails to meet international conservation requirements due to the consequences of hunting and habitat destruction by local people.
The report has made recommendations for the conservation of these areas to relevant ministries in Vietnam, with the most urgent being to strengthen the control of hunting activities and improve land-use planning for aquaculture.
