By using people to protect forests, the Tam Dao National Park and Buffer Zone Management Project (TDMP) has provided a lot of useful lessons, said an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The Director of the MARD’s Forest Protection Department Ha Cong Tuan highlighted the significance of the project, saying that the 5 million EUR project sponsored by the German Government through the German Technical Cooperation Programme (GTZ) in the northern mountain provinces of Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen and Tuyen Quang has been very successful.

The six-year project, starting 2003, aims to improve Tam Dao National Park ’s capacity in forest management, protect the forest resources and biodiversity and improve the livelihoods of people living in the buffer zone.

The project has provided training to forest rangers in patrolling, monitoring biodiversity and conservation and conducting surveys which are day to day practices in the park.

The TDMP has also helped more than 12,000 households to improve their livelihoods by instructing people how to grow grass fields for animals to graze, plant trees for firewood and cultivate medicinal plants.

As part of the project, a micro-credit financing run by local women’s clubs has helped more than 2,300 poor ethnic women to access loans for economic development.

The parks Director Do Dinh Tien has confirmed that the project has been of great benefit to local people and has helped to prevent illegal hunting and reduce the number of forest fires.

For his part, the Director of GTZ in Vietnam Guenter Riethmacher said that forest protection and the economic benefits from forests are always a big challenge, especially in Tam Dao. The project has submitted a number of education programmes on forest protection to be taught in primary schools in a bid to raise young and local people’s awareness about forest protection, he noted.

Meanwhile, the Counsellor for Development Cooperation at the German Embassy Birgit Wendling said that the experiences learnt during the project will benefit other projects in the future. She used the occasion to confirm that her Government will continue to assist Vietnam , particularly in biodiversity and forestry projects.

Located 70km north of Hanoi , Tam Dao National Park covers almost 35,000 ha and is home to more than 2,000 species of flora and fauna./.