VietNamNet Bridge - Scientists have called for urgent measures to protect the mudflat at the Ca Mau Cape, an area with great potential in ecotourism. The southernmost point in the country is being devastated day by day.

 

The mudflat of the Ca Mau province is about 34 kilometers in length, covering an area of 10,000 hectares. The area was formed by two different tidal regimes of the East and West Sea and the currents of the two big rivers Bay Hap and Cua Lon. When the tide receded, it left alluvium, helping extend the mudflat towards the sea by four kilometers.

The mangrove ecosystem in the mudflats plays a very important role in ecological balance. It is the habitat for aquatic creatures and a coastal protective forest that helps ease damage caused by natural calamities.

As the mudflat is the aquatic creatures’ spawning area, it is a place for thousands of households from many regional provinces to earn their living. However, the unreasonable exploitation of aquatic resources has seriously caused damage to the mudflat ecosystem.

Three years ago, local newspapers reported that 2,000-3,000 people from southern provinces flocked to the mudflat to exploit clams, which caused serious security problems and devastated the local natural ecosystem.

Despite the warnings, the clam exploitation continues. More and more people flock to the area to seek opportunities, using both manual and mechanical instruments, to look for clams. 

People not only gather there for four months when clam breeders appear, but all year round, exploiting other aquatic species.

Because of the attractive aquatic resources, many households still live in the coastal protective forest area, which they have been asked to leave.

According to Ngo Minh Toai, chair of Dat Mui Commune People’s Committee, about 300 households are subject to evacuation, but they still live in the area. The conditions in the resettlement areas are not good for living.

Not only the mudflat, but the coastal protective forests have also suffered from the locals’ overexploitation. 

Tran Ngoc Thao, director of Ngoc Hien Forestry Company, said many locals had secretly entered the forests to fell trees and carry away wood.

The local authorities have organized production models in an effort to help locals earn a living and restrict damages. The Dat Mui Clam Cooperative has been set up to help farmers exploit the mudflat potential in the most effective and sustainable way.

However, poor farmers in the mudflat area do not benefit much from the local authorities’ policy. 

Meanwhile, Toai, when asked about the plan to evacuate 300 households from the protective forest area, would only say that it was an important task.

Thien Nhien