Alongside tapping Ba Be National Park potential to better people's life and push up local economic development it is imperative to preserve the ecosystem and tame pollution.
A workgroup under the Vietnam Environment Administration and Bac Kan Province People's Committee convened a sitting to seek remedies right after returning home from a field survey at Ba Be National Park.
Established in 1992, Ba Be National Park is situated in the northern province of Bac Kan; its heart is Ba Be Lake covering 500ha and surrounded by an original primeval forest system on a limestone mountain that is the habitat of 417 flora species and 299 vertebrates. There are 49 fresh fish species in Ba Be Lake. In 1995, Ba Be National Park was recognized as one of 20 special fresh-water lakes that should to be protected in the World Freshwater Lake Conference in the US. In late 2004, the lake was recognized as an ASEAN heritage park and it is being recommended to the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for world cultural heritage site recognition. However, apart from preserving the ecosystem, it is important to make the most of the site economic potential to better local people's life. In the above-said meeting of the Vietnam Environment Administration and Bac Kan People's Committee the province's deputy chairman, Hoang Ngoc Duong, said he wanted the Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) to suggest the province's management ways to effectively tap Ba Be National Park ecological tourism while doing no harm to the ecological environment.
In the meeting, the head of VEA's Agency for Environmental Impact Evaluation, Mai Thanh Dung, set lights on the progress of environmental impact evaluation and assessment activities at Ba Be National Park's eco tourism projects.
Acting head of VEA's Agency for Biodiversity Preservation, Le Thanh Binh, said when promoting eco tours VEA must take due heed to preserving the whole park ecological system, avoiding casting adverse impacts on the environment.
Due to the lack of well-conceived investment plans tourism related activities at Ba Be National Park can bring around VND1 billion merely in total proceeds. Tourist facilities are obsolete and little investment is injected into diversifying tourist offerings and bettering accommodations. Besides, it takes up to six hours to travel 260km long road from Hanoi to Bac Kan's Ba Be National Park center due to poor transport conditions.
In the meeting representatives from Bac Kan People's Committee and relevant departments commented on the park's ecotourism projects. They said investors would face a lot of difficulties due to unfavorable terrains. Thereby, the management wanted to attract investors to spur up economic development and create more jobs, however, they also asserted that investors must obey legal procedures, present feasible projects and maintain the ecosystem balance.
The park's director, Nguyen The Dien said the feasibility of ecotourism projects was important and asked VEA to support in professional aspect and finance to carry out its biodiversity assessment from 2011-2015.
For his part, VEA's head, Bui Cach Tuyen, said in countries around the world national parks were used to promote ecotourism to help create extra income sources to better the life of local communities and reinvest in preservation and development, and create more jobs. However, when taping ecotourism potential two following factors must be taken into account: controlling pollution in the process of socioeconomic development and preserving the environment, particularly biodiversity. In his words, an investment project must be considered in diverse aspects: economic efficiency, technical feasibility, social acceptance and eco-friendliness. Ecotourism investment projects at Ba Be National Park were not an exception.
He also revealed that after the meeting VEA would forward the meeting reports to Bac Kan People's Committee and invite specialists to consult with the province's management about ways to develop Ba Be National Park ecotourism in a sustainable manner.
