The nine biosphere reserves are recognized by UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program. They are located in plains, mountains, coastal areas and islands.

Among the nine Southeast Asian countries which have biosphere reserves, Vietnam is second to Indonesia in number of biosphere reserves, according to the Directorate General of Environment.

However, there is still no document that regulates the management of biosphere reserves. It is also unclear where the fund for the reserve operations is from.

The core zones, mostly national parks, natural reserves and special-use forests, account for 11 percent of total area of the biosphere reserves, about 450,000 hectares. There is high biodiversity concentration with diverse ecosystem services.

Vietnam has nine biosphere reserves with total area of 4 million hectares, which account for 12.1 percent of the country’s total natural area. These reserves house 1.78 million people.

The Cat Ba archipelago is the smallest biosphere reserve, with an area of 26,241 hectares, while the largest is Western Nghe An with 1.3 million hectares.

There is also no common organizational structure for biosphere reserve management boards. Each locality follows its own way in organizing the boards. Experts point out that the management model is an important condition to unify state management.

The problem is that there is no detailed guideline from central agencies for biosphere reserves on the need to strengthen organizational structure and coordinate their operations.

Some biosphere reserves are put under the administrative management of many districts, towns and provinces with large area and populations, which makes it challenging to manage the reserves.

Dong Nai Biosphere, for example, is located within the administrative boundaries of five provinces and 20 districts, cities and towns.

However, the board of management of the reserve only comprises members representing the state, social organizations and the business community of Dong Nai province. The activities of the biosphere reserve in the other four provinces are weak.

Under current laws, only national parks and national reserves are put under management by the system of agencies from the central to local. It is unclear under which ministries and branches biosphere reserves are placed.

The Directorate General of Environment has urged improvement of management over biosphere reserves by institutionalizing the functions, tasks and organizational structure of the board of management.

It believes that the management of biosphere reserves needs to be added to the amended 2014 Environment Protection Law. In addition, decrees and circulars need to be issued to clarify the functions and tasks of relevant ministries, branches and local authorities.

Le Ha

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