Hanoi (VNA) - Preserving biodiversity in Vietnam was the main topic ofdiscussion at a workshop on May 5 in Hanoi.

NguyenQuoc Dung, from the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute under the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development emphasised the need for a strategicframework and action plan for the Core Environment Programme (CEP)’s phase 3(2018-2022), building a legal framework for biodiversity corridors in Vietnam.

Marineprotected areas and mangroves in Vietnam are smaller than in other nations sobiodiversity corridors will help develop biodiversity.  

“Itis necessary to set up detailed projects for coastal provinces in the contextof Vietnam being affected by climate change,” Dung said.

"Forestshave been planted in the country to cope with climate change, with 42 projectsin coastal provinces. [But]we have no national-scale project for therestoration of coastal forests and biodiversity preservation, although Vietnamhas high biodiversity,” he said.

“Restoringand preserving biodiversity is very difficult and costly here.”  

Problemsand disagreements between agencies on biodiversity preservation hamper thework, harming scientific research and environmental protection projects.

PhamHung Cuong, from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, said developingecosystems in remote areas owned by local people should be based on saving thenative ecosystem.  

“Biodiversityin traditional farming must be associated with natural landscape,” he said.

“Vietnamshould learn from developed countries like Japan to maintain and restore thetraditional ecosystem.”  

Anexpert from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said a shortageof financial resources for environmental protection, limited staff capacity,ineffective international co-operation and poor State management were issuesthey face when building legal documents on biodiversity corridors.

SumitPokhrel, deputy chairman of the Bangkok-based Environment Operation Centre, theunit responsible for coordinating the CEP in the region, detailed three maintargets of CEP Strategic Framework and Action Plan: green growth and reducingcarbon emissions, climate change adaptation and disaster risk management andbiodiversity landscape and natural resources.

Atthe workshop, Pokhrel said a great challenge was building biodiversity in allsix CEP nations.

CEP’sphase 3 will have four main tasks: facilitating regional collaboration and themanagement of natural resources; providing policy advice and technical supportfor member nations, supporting information management, and supplying financingand investment services.    

Prof.Nguyen The Chinh, director of the Institute of Strategy and Policy on NaturalResources and Environment said the Vietnamese Party and Government affirmedtheir commitment to addressing challenges of natural resources, the environmentand climate change through promulgating many policies to ensure sustainabledevelopment. 

TheCEP, funded mainly by Asian Development Bank, has been implemented in the sixnations of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (The GMS countries are Cambodia,China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), for ten years.-VNA