vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn  

HAI PHONG — "The mangrove forest will benefit everybody. This project will benefit just a few people, not to mention endangering the dyke." Nguyen Xuan Hao, who heads the Party organisation in Tan Thanh Commune, says he would have expressed these reservations if he was consulted about an aquaculture project that will put paid to years of hard work in replanting mangrove forests.

The commune has been part of a Japanese Red Cross-funded programme to protect sea dykes and prevent storm damage in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

Since the programme began three years ago, Hai Phong has replanted a total of 1,015ha of mangroves.

However, in August this year, residents of Tan Thanh Commune in Kien Thuy District learnt to their dismay that city authorities had allocated the surface water outside the district’s Do Son I sea dyke to the Ha Long Fisheries Company.

Fifty hectares of the commune’s mangroves have already been cleared and replaced with shrimp farms.

The president of Hai Phong Red Cross, Le Phong, has spoken out strongly against the project.

He said the efforts put into the mangrove forests over the past three years will "come to nothing if the mangroves are replaced by shrimp farms.

"The shrimp ponds block the flow of the tides, which means the mangroves will not have enough water to survive. The sea dykes will be threatened and could be breached by a storm registering just nine on the Beaufort scale," Phong said.

Dr. Mai Sy Tuan, from the Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies at Ha Noi National University, says the mangrove-shrimp pond ratio should be at least 70:30 to ensure ecological balance and sustainable development. But the balance is already the other way round, and it is the 30 per cent of mangrove forests that this project threatens, he says.

Commune residents also point out that the project will destroy five to eight year old trees planted as part of the national afforestation programme 327. Replanting mangrove forests is not easy, as many saplings are washed way during high tide, they add .

"We should be consulted first about every project that is carried out in our area," said Do Xuan Luat, Chairman of the commune’s People’s Committee. He also joined others involved in the replanting programme in hoping the project will be cancelled or carried out in some other area.

Viet Nam has lost at least 220,000ha of mangrove forests since 1943. It is now striving to preserve the remaining 175,000ha and replant as much as possible to protect the environment for future generations. — VNS

www.ecologyasia.com

_________________________________________________________________________