The year 2009 recorded a remarkable event of Con Dao National Park as the Government issued the Decision No.120 ratifying a project on Con Dao National Park development to 2020. The World Bank (WB) included Con Dao in the list of ‘Areas of Highest Regional Priority’ among other marine protected areas worldwide.
Con Dao National Park is located in the southeastern coast of Vietnam, about 180 kilometres from Vung Tau city. Being part of the Con Dao island district in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, the park has a total area of 20,000 hectares, of which 14,000 hectares are marine ecosystems and 6,000 hectares are forest land on 14 islands. The national park also has a marine buffer zone of 20,500 hectares.
According to Manager of Con Dao National Park Le Xuan Ai, the park is a bridge linking the scatter of marine creatures from India - West Pacific coast to Vietnam coast. Especially, the combination of coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangroves makes a favourable condition for reproduction and protection of marine creatures. The surrounding water is also a habitat for many rare and valuable creatures such as: turtles, dolphins and dugongs. It is very essential to preserve the marine bio-diversity at Con Dao National Park, especially 44 rare species of creatures listed in the World Red Book.
Established in 1984, Con Dao National Park gave top priority to natural resources and environment protection. Thus, the management board of the park in co-ordination with local border guards, armed and police forces has undertaken strict protection on the park. There occurred no forest fire during the implementation of the four-year project on coastal and marine bio-diversity conservation and sustainable use at Con Dao from 2006-2009. A noteworthy event in 2009 was that 40 hectares of coral reefs were restored, of which 80% are still alive. Moreover, hundred thousands of turtles were released to the sea in 2009, recording the highest numbers of turtles born and released.
However, tourism development and natural resources exploitation at the park are yet to be sustainable. Additionally, the increasing number of the population also causes bad impacts on marine bio-diversity of such a potential archipelago. Facing this fact, authorities of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province and Con Dao reckon that the socio-economic development orientation should be associated with measures to reduce bad affects on the environment and bio-diversity of the park and mobilise the community to join hands for the environmental protection.