Back to Chapter 7: Science Outreach

Glen Canyon benefits from local science education program
by Joele B. Doty

Students help meet the research needs of the present and future
by Paul E. Super

Bear-proofing garbage cans near Great Smoky Mountains National Park
by Kim Delozier

Parallels in ecological preservation challenges in U.S. and Canadian national parks
by John G. Dennis

Program to preserve Neotropical migrants takes flight
by Scott Hall and Gary Johnston

Award-Winner Profile--Karen Wade

Home

by Mike Soukup

Both the beauty and squalor of Ha Long Bay proclaim that much is at stake presently in the environmental history of Vietnam. But can the U.S. National Park Service make a difference? At the invitation of The World Bank, special assistant to the director Brooke Shearer and the author attended a conference in Ha Long Bay in April 1999. The Bank believes that the National Park Service's long experience in protecting, managing, and regulating U.S. natural resources makes it well suited to help developing nations like Vietnam get control of their own resources before they are lost.

The Park Service invited Costa Rican economist and former environment minister Rene Castro Salazar to be a member of the team. His assignment: to speak to the Vietnamese as one small, developing country to another. Under his leadership, Costa Rica's economy had prospered from investing in green infrastructure—biodiversity protection and research, park development, and ecotourism.

Ha Long Bay became a world heritage site in 1994. However, with no special staff for site management and little control of visitors or activities along its borders, the spectacular limestone island caves and quaint coastal villages are fast deteriorating, becoming crowded, tacky, and polluted. Additionally, from an environmental point of view, Ha Long Bay has always been a high-impact area. The most serious problem has been coal mining and the storage and transport of coal in coastal waters.

As part of the conference, the team toured Ha Long Bay and witnessed untreated sewage from the town being released directly through a large pipe onto the shore. (The team was told later that over 90% of domestic waste in Vietnam is untreated.) Also, mangroves, a key feature of the bay's special character and habitat, had apparently been sacrificed to build the hotel and sandy beach. The need for environmental standards was obvious. So too was the need to demonstrate that tourism does not have to lead to haphazard development—a lesson that already has been learned in many other places.

Now enter the Japanese. Since the early 1990s, they have become major donors to Vietnam. At Ha Long Bay they are financing a big port and bridge-building project, located at the edge of the world heritage site. Once the new port project is complete, one large ship will go through the area every 15–20 minutes, according to economic forecasters. Indeed, The World Bank planned its Ha Long Bay conference to take advantage of the economic slowdown in Japan and the region, hoping the crisis might encourage Vietnam to reexamine its long-term interests.

As part of the visit, the team also drove north of Hanoi to see Cuc Phong, one of Vietnam's oldest national parks. The park staff is as dedicated as any, but poachers are capturing the resident primate fauna for export. Conservation groups from abroad, such as the Primate Rescue Center, are rescuing animals at the border, and there are small captive breeding programs under way. But visitor education and interpretation at the park are inadequate; the park's roadway promises future harm to the forest wildlife; and little attention has been devoted to involving nearby villages in park protection and programs.

American Ambassador Pete Peterson, himself a Vietnam War veteran, has appealed to the National Park Service to partner with parks in Vietnam. The Department of State also strongly encourages the Park Service to pursue cooperation with Vietnam—before it is too late. The team's participation in the conference marks a beginning in this process.

/YearInReview/yir/yir99/pages/07outreach/05soukup_vietnam.htm
Last Updated: 09/26/00
Webmaster: jeff_selleck@nps.gov