Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [373]
Environmental issues |
Postwar deforestation
It’s estimated that more than two million hectares of Vietnam’s forest reserves were destroyed during the American War as a result of defoliation, napalm fires and bombing. Since 1975, however, at least three million hectares has been lost to commercial logging, agricultural clearance, forest fires, firewood collection – and population pressure. Originally, perhaps 75 percent of Vietnam’s land area would have been covered by forest. By 1945 it had dwindled to 43 percent and was down to just 24 percent (roughly eight million hectares) in 1980. It’s now edging back up to 36 percent, thanks to one of the world’s most ambitious reforestation programmes, launched in 1998, to replant five million hectares. Although an impressive 130,000 hectares are planted each year, this only just exceeds the area being lost to clearance, and the new growth is largely acacia and eucalyptus rather than native species. The area under “high-quality” native forest continues to shrink.
The worst-affected areas are Vietnam’s northern mountains, the central province of Nghe An and around Plei Ku in the central highlands. In these areas soil erosion is a major problem, and countrywide floods are getting worse as a result of deforestation along the watersheds. Many rare hardwoods are fast disappearing and the fragile ecosystems are no longer able to support a wildlife population forced into ever-smaller pockets of undisturbed jungle. Much of the blame for this rapid reduction in the forest cover is often laid on the ethnic minorities who traditionally clear land for farming and rely on the forests for building timber and firewood. However, lowland Vietnamese settling in the mountains have also put pressure on scant resources.
Both lowland Vietnamese and minority people have cleared huge swathes of the central highlands for coffee plantations, while the carefully replanted coastal mangrove forest is threatened by uncontrolled development of intensive prawn farming. Another significant threat to the forests is the highly lucrative timber trade, both legal and illegal. By replanting, it’s hoped to create sustainable forests for commercial logging and to protect the remaining areas of primary forests, but enforcement is hampered by lack of resources. The authorities have devolved the management and protection of the forest reserves to local communities, with some success. Meanwhile, the government is gradually establishing more protection areas, also providing for productive forest, and aims to restore forest reserves over 44 percent of Vietnam’s land area by the year 2010.
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Environmental issues | Postwar deforestation |
Conservation and the national parks
Vietnam recognized the need for conservation relatively early, establishing its first national park (Cuc Phuong) in 1962 and adopting a National Conservation Strategy in 1985. The more accessible or interesting of Vietnam’s 28 national parks are listed below, but unless you’re prepared to spend a lot of time there, it’s unlikely that you’ll see many animals. Birds, insects and butterflies, however, are more readily visible and often the dense tropical vegetation or mountain scenery are in themselves worth the journey. To learn more about Vietnam’s protected areas, and how to access them, get hold of Fauna and Flora International’s excellent Ecotourism Map of Vietnam, available in local bookshops and through select tour operators; all proceeds go to support Vietnamese primate conservation. For further information about biodiversity in Vietnam, search the World Conservation Monitoring