Hanoi (VNA) – The experts of the World Heritage Centre (WHC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have completed their Reactive Monitoring Mission, assessing the conservation efforts and the promotion of the Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago in the northern province of Quang Ninh and the neighbouring city of Hai Phong.
During their trip, from May 10-16, the delegation made several recommendations for Vietnam’s first inter-provincial World Heritage Site, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
Opportunities to promote global outstanding values
Despite Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Archipelago constituting a single nature complex, an administrative boundary between Quang Ninh and Hai Phong has persisted for years, creating complications for maritime tourism and visitors. To seamlessly connect the two regions to maximise the World Heritage site's value, experts believe the solution lies in unifying management, a shortcoming that has existed within their heritage site for over a decade.
After nearly a week of meetings with various agencies, organisations, and local authorities, Luba Janikova, a representative from the WHC, acknowledged the difficulties and complexities in management coordination. She noted the challenges in ensuring balance and harmony between conservation and development, stating this is a problem not only for Vietnam but also for many others with World Heritage Sites.
Sharing Janikova’s views, Amran Hamzah from the IUCN said that although coordination between localities and competent agencies in preserving and promoting the values of the World Heritage Sites faces numerous obstacles and challenges, it presents an opportunity for Vietnam to demonstrate its international obligations and responsibilities in implementing the World Heritage Convention, including preserving the outstanding universal value (OUV) of this inter-provincial heritage site.
He suggested Vietnam regularly update the WHC and relevant UNESCO agencies on development projects that have been completed, are ongoing, or are planned within the World Heritage areas. He stressed the importance of applying relevant UNESCO regulations and guidelines during project planning and implementation.
The IUCN representative also recommended the localities to pay attention to the application of important tools such as the strategic environmental assessment (SEA), environmental impact assessment (EIA), and heritage impact assessment (HIA) to evaluate the overall impact on heritage sites.
Not sacrificing environment and heritage for economic gains
In response to the experts' opinions, leaders from Quang Ninh and Hai Phong, along with the Department of Cultural Heritage, affirmed their commitment to following the World Heritage Convention guidelines. They pledged to improve Vietnam's legal framework, particularly the newly adopted Law on Cultural Heritage and upcoming subordinate documents.
They confirmed adherence to environmental protection practices, including wastewater collection and treatment. They committed to developing and implementing strategies for sustainable tourism development, and expanding research of the tourist carrying capacity for the entire heritage area. They also vowed to enhance scientific research on the World Heritage site's values and ensure adequate resources for the conservation and promotion work.
The untouched beauty of an island within the archipelago (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong requested the two localities continue close coordination and support the Monitoring Mission in finalising related reports to be submitted to the WHC and the IUCN in the coming time.
The ministry will continue working with and requiring localities to strictly implement the provisions of the World Heritage Convention and the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the convention.
Most importantly, the ministry leader affirmed that while the Vietnamese Government always prioritises socioeconomic development and aims for high growth targets, including double-digit growth in the near future, it will not sacrifice environment and heritage values for economic gains./.
