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Invasive species not welcome in Vietnam fields

HCM CITY— Vietnamese environmentalists admit they lack the technical methods and funding to prevent three highly invasive alien species from taking over the country’s national parks and paddy fields.

Tran Lien Phong, head of the Natural Conservation Division of the National Environment Agency (NEA), told Viet Nam News that yellow snails, pirana fish and the mimosa pigra plant are the fastest-growing and most invasive alien species in Viet Nam.

"These species could bring about the extinction of native species and inflict permanent damage on our ecosystem by reducing the diversity of the genepool," Phong said.

To bring the threat under control the Government has already banned the import of pirana ornamental fish but yellow snails and mimosa pigra are still flourishing in both the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta and national parks across the south of the country.

For example, park managers at the Tram Chim National Park in Tam Nong District in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, have voiced their concern at the rapid growth of the Central American mimosa pigra plant which has already taken over one seventh of the 7,600ha park.

The 2m high plants, known for with sharp thorns and legume fruits, contain seeds which germinate easily and spread without the need of water currents or wind.

Deputy director of the Dong Thap Province’s Department of Science, Technology and Environment, Le Trong Khanh, said the mimosa pigra was first spotted in the park during 1985.

"At this rate of growth we’re very worried that our national park will end up a mimosa park in a few year’s time," Khanh said.

To counter the spread Australian environmentalists have recommended the spray of herbicide, but park authorities have thus far refused owing to fears relating to environmental pollution.

The NEA said the mimosa pigra spreads rapidly across the tropical and subtropical forest of the south. Apart from Tram Chim National Park, the plant has also been spotted in U Minh Thuong Nature Reserve as well as other areas.

The World Conservation Union last week released a list of the world’s 100 most threatening invasive alien species. Strangely, the list excluded all three invasive species causing problems in Viet Nam. — VNS

www.ecologyasia.com

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