by the UNV project team, Viet Nam

03 October 2004

Ha Noi, Viet Nam: ‘Picture perfect’ is the best way to sum up the beauty of Viet Nam’s Ha Long Bay.

Situated some 160 km south-east of Hanoi in the province of Quang Ninh, the bay is one of the top tourist attractions in the country. Every year thousands of people take in its breathtaking chain of 1,600 islands and inlets, unique geological formations and rich mix of plants and animals.

The bay’s ecological importance has also been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): first in 1994 for its natural beauty and again in 2000 for its rock formations.

Yet, despite its international recognition and classification as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the bay’s natural integrity is at risk of being destroyed by overfishing, backfilling of the bay for urban and industrial development, deforestation, uncontrolled tourism activities and coal mining.

Recognizing the need to stop the trend of environmental degradation in the bay, UNESCO, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and Viet Nam’s Youth Union jointly developed a two-year project aimed at mobilizing the bay’s youth population into action.
 
Since the project’s start in early 2004, a number of activities focusing on raising heritage awareness among the populations surrounding Viet Nam’s World Heritage Sites - My Son Sanctuary, Hoi An Ancient Town and Ha Long Bay – have been carried out by volunteers from the Youth Union.

Canadian UN Volunteer Kevin Marks, the project’s coordinator, says through the youth volunteers, the bay’s residents are gaining a better understanding of the environmental issues facing the bay and what can be done to protect it. “What we’re trying to get across, by working with the Youth Union, is that in order to conserve the bay, we need to address the environmental problems one by one,” he says. “By seeing the volunteers in action, the bay’s residents realize something concrete is being done.”

Based out of UNESCO’s Hanoi office, the project team, consisting of six UNVs, develops project activities alongside a group of 25 members from the Youth Union. Once an activity has been identified, the project team implements the project on the ground. As required, UNESCO staff provides advice on heritage preservation techniques and monitors the project’s overall progress.

Recently, the project team and members of the Youth Union identified deforestation of mangrove trees along the bay’s shoreline as one problem to address. A plant native to the bay, mangroves provide protection during storms, stabilize the shoreline and act as a natural filter in keeping the aquatic environment clean and healthy. Numerous wildlife and plant species are also dependent on mangroves, while, economically speaking, they play a critical role as breeding grounds for fish.

Two planting exercises, the first held in May and the second in mid-July, saw some 80 members from the Youth Union plant five hectares of mangrove trees. But before the planting took place, the youth members received help from outside groups offering expertise in different areas. The Red Cross, for instance, provided the Youth Union with a four-day workshop on mangrove planting, while the Quang Ninh Forest Research Institute selected the site and species of seedlings to plant.

Huy Quoc Vu, a Vietnamese UN Volunteer, says the workshops provided more than just tips on putting the trees in the ground. “First of all, the youth volunteers were introduced to the social, environmental and economic benefits of mangrove planting,” he says. “Then they focused on the process of planting, how to nurse seedlings and even post-planting care.”

Once out on the planting site, the volunteers were faced with many obstacles: hot, humid weather, mud and biting insects. The project coordinator says that despite these conditions, the volunteers signed up to do it a second time. “The dedication of these volunteers is immense,” says Kevin. “They were slopping through the mud, up to elbows and knees, bugs biting everywhere. It was not a walk in the park for the volunteers that’s for sure.”

Youth Union volunteer Pham Phuc Tugen says he was not bothered by the mud. “It was hard work but fun,” he says. “We only planted a few hectares of mangrove, but the message goes far beyond that. We will also tell people about its environment, social and economical benefits.”

Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, another Youth Union volunteer, says that prior to the workshop, she did not think much about mangroves and its relationship to a healthy environment. “I didn’t know much mangrove forests in our coastal ecosystem, so I didn’t care, neither did many others,” she says. “Now that I know, I must do something to protect the forest and share with others my experience so that more and more people will be aware of these values and contribute to protecting our environment”.

That attitude and willingness to share newly learned skills are the outcomes Huy and the rest of the project team had hoped for. This enthusiasm has led to additional activities such as the clean-up of two local beaches by the volunteers and the distribution of related brochures to the public.

Hoang Ba Nam, a Provincial Youth Union official, says these activities have provided the Youth Union’s volunteers with the skills, exposure in the community and subsequent local support to continue preservation and public education activities long after the project is completed. “When the necessary skills have been acquired, we will be able to implement our own projects in collaboration with new partner organizations that possess relevant experience and other resources,” he says.

Ensuring the longevity of the Youth Union’s activities is also of equal importance to the project team. Huy says through workshops on project proposal writing, the Youth Union’s volunteers now have the skills to seek funding for additional projects. “We’re taking initiatives to train Youth Union’s members so that after the project life they will be able to run their own projects,” he says.

With two mangrove planting exercises completed, the Youth Union has its ambitions set high. The group wants to repeat the activity in 2005, but this time on a much larger scale. Eventually, they want to have planted and adopted responsibility for an entire mangrove forest.