A wetlands area in southern coastal Kien Giang Province that is a feeding ground for red-headed cranes is again in danger of being damaged, following years of efforts to protect the area by international and local organisations.
Six local households have been digging canals and building embankments, invading the proposed nature reserve, to make way for shrimp breeding ponds.
Although the local commune’s People’s Committee has successfully stopped the invasive actions of residents, the late handling of the current affair has caused serious damage to the site, according to Tran Triet, director of the International Crane Foundation’s Southeast Asia Programme.
The wetlands, which contains the co bang grass (Lepironia articulata), is located in Phu My Commune in Kien Giang Province, which borders Cambodia.
The grass grows in an area that acts as a shelter and feeding habitat for rare red-headed cranes.
A project to protect the area has won an environmental protection award from UN-HABITAT in 2006, as well as a finalist for the 2007 Equator Prize sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Triet, who is also a biology professor at HCM City University, said it had taken many years to call on foreign sponsors and persuade the province to supply land to carry out the project.
"Thousands of dollars were invested to preserve the wetlands and protect the feeding habitats for the cranes, and if not, it would have all been lost," he added. Triet said canals would be filled in so that cranes could migrate to find food in the dry season at the wetlands.
Ha Tri Cao, a project co-ordinator, said canals had been built by residents for shrimp breeding two years ago when the preservation project began. Provincial authorities approved IUCN’s proposal to stop canal construction at that time.
Recently, six families have built embankments of 5,200 metres in length and dozens of small criss-crossing canals.
Lam Tien Dung, deputy chairman of Kien Luong District’s People’s Committee, said the committee had asked authorities of the commune to suspend the construction.
They were also asked to work with the IUCN project’s managing board to recover the status of the wetlands before filling in holes that had been dug.
Local residents have been informed and asked not to destroy the wetlands, he said.
Representatives of IUCN in Viet Nam on Monday investigated the site and committed to sponsor the project until 2012, providing that the project’s managing board and local authorities help control the construction.
If the wetlands were destroyed, international organisations would cease helping the project, said Triet.
The project aims to preserve 2,000ha of wetlands. It has trained the community’s Khmer ethnic minority to make high-quality handicraft products such as handbags, hats, and storage bins from grass.