Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s ecosystems are in a strong decline andare threatened with losing their basic functions, experts said at a two-dayconference that ended on Hanoi on November 7.

The 'Tentative agenda for national dialogue and consultation workshop on draftnational ecosystem assessment report' event was held by the Institute ofStrategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE) under theMinistry of Natural Resources and Environment and its partners.

The report is a part of the 'Support to developing capacities to addressscience-policy-practice interface project' which has been conducted in eightcountries including Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Cameroon,Colombia, Ethiopia, Grenada and Vietnam with financial support from theInternational Climate Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for theEnvironment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

The project runs from April 2017 to December next year.

The report aims to supply a database for policymakers by connectingscience-policy-reality. It urges inserting biological diversity into policycompiling.

At the conference, nearly 100 experts exchanged data, information andapproaches to complete the report.

Associate professor Nguyen The Chinh, director of the ISPONRE, said researchingthe ecosystem was important work.

It helped supervise impacts on the environment during the process ofagricultural, industrial, tourism and services development, he said.

Vietnam has joined many international commitments about biological diversity.

The country wants to learn from other nations about setting policies related tobiological diversity maintenance, so it needs more research and to use newapproaches to reach targets in the national strategy on biological diversity in2011-20, according to Chinh.

“Biological diversity and ecosystem services should be inserted into nationalplans and strategies,” said Chinh.

Huynh Thi Mai, national ecosystem assessment project co-ordinator, said one ofthe main discoveries of the project’s researchers was that national forest areadecreased from 12 million hectares in 1945 to 2.8 million hectares in 2017.

The amount of coral also gradually decreased, with more than 63 per cent in badcondition.

This was caused by uncontrollable fishing, with illegal fishing harming thecoral system.

Coral exploitation for tourism also threatens the system.

Experts at the conference said it was necessary to have a management system onbiological diversity with detailed duties for each organisations at each level./.