Kien Giang (VNA) – As many as 140 hectares of forest will beplanted in U Minh Thuong National Park in the Mekong Delta province of KienGiang in 2018, while various measures will be carried out to preservebiodiversity in the park, said director ofthe park Pham Quoc Dan.
The park has total area of 21,107 hectares, including 8,038 hectares ofcore zone and 13,069 hectares of buffer zone, along with 365 hectares ofpreventive forest, 2,728 hectares of production forest, and 9,976 hectares offarming land, aquaculture area and land for other purposes.
Dan said that in 2018, the park will grow 4,000 local-origin trees, whileapplying advanced technology in scientific research, surveying and monitoringbiodiversity, recovering forest resources, and maintaining biological balance,thus increasing forest coverage and contributing to climate change adaption.
The park will also continue a project to preserve genetic resources,while implementing five other smaller projects to observe hydrographic conditionsof the forest, thus giving early warnings on forest fire and regulating thewater level for forest growth, he said.
Alongside, the park will continue conducting a project to developeco-tourism in the 2017-2020 period with a vision to 2030 by attracting moreinvestment in infrastructure for eco-tourism development, and improving the qualityand diversification of its tourism products.
At the same time, community-based tourism will be further stepped up tocreate jobs and increase incomes for local residents, while raising publicawareness of protecting natural resources and the environment.
Last year, the management board of the U Minh Thuong National Parkplanted and over 10,000 hectares of cajuput and grew 7,500 local trees ondegraded land areas.
Meanwhile, the park received and released to the natural environment 13 individualsof three species of animals, 120 individuals of six species of reptile and 21 individualsof bird, of which 141 individuals were listed as rare wild animals. The parkalso developed four species of wild animals.-VNA