Nature faces many challenges ahead of the wave of tourism development in the reserve

Attending the seminar were: Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Tri - General Secretary of the National Committee for Human and Biosphere Vietnam; Dr. Le Hoang Lan - Vietnam Association for Nature and Environment Protection;Dr. Nguyen Quoc Dung - Forest Inventory and Planning Institute; Dr. Pham Hong Long - Travel Specialist, Vietnam National University Hanoi (VNU) ... and other news agencies.The seminar was co-organized by the Center for People and Nature in collaboration with the Journal of Forest and Environmental Protection

Recently, a series of tourism infrastructure development projects have been implemented and operated in many nature reserves and special use forests such as Phu Quoc, Hoang Lien, Ba Na…This has raised public concern about the tradeoff between nature conservation and economic development

In the context of the Law on Forest Protection and Development, the revised Fisheries Law and forthcoming, the Law on Biodiversity, the exchange and revision of some issues such as:In the context of the current blooming tourism development, whether protected areas ensure their original objectives? Does Existing laws and policies have loopholes and limitations?Where is the solution to harmonious development and conservation of natural and sustainable? ... is extremely necessary

According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Tri - Secretary General of Vietnam National Commission for Man and Biosphere, we need to define exactly what is ecotourism.It is tourism that is responsible for conservation, tourism development needs to be associated with conservation because tourism is the most economically based economy.

Speaking at the seminar, Dr Pham Hong Long, a specialist in tourism, VNU, said that besides the potential for ecotourism development, some challenges remain in the development of ecotourism at Vietnam's nature reserves such as:Ecotourism is inadequate with potentiality, mainly in some national parks and nature reserves. The ecotourism development principle is not strictly adhered to, but it has not attracted the participation of the community. Revenues from ecotourism development can not offset the cost and return investment…

Dr. Pham Hong Long also pointed out the causes and shortcomings of ecotourism development in nature reserves: low awareness of ecological value;Infrastructure, material and technical service of tourism is limited and not synchronous; lack of management, management and professional staff trained on tourism and ecotourism; Marketing, trade promotion, ecotourism promotion has not been properly acknowledged at all levels, sectors and economic sectors…

At the seminar, delegates also commented that there should be a responsible link between the state, enterprises and local communities in order to ensure both economic and tourism development and nature conservation.In addition, the Government should review to assess the current status of tourism development in the nature reserve with the participation of experts and scientists in order to have specific solutions to ensure that tourism development must be accompanied by conservation.