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LAO CAI — Indochina’s highest mountain range, the Hoang Lien Mountains, will get environmental protection assistance from the European Union under a three-year sustainable development project.

The project, worth US$793,000, was initiated by Flora&Fauna International Viet Nam and the Forest Protection Department.

It will adopt a community-based approach, focusing on the development of sustainable livelihoods designed to produce direct and immediate benefits for biodiversity and conservation.

As part of the project, scientists will propagate endangered medicinal and ornamental plants, for re-release into the local biosphere.

It will also include micro-credit schemes and eco-tourism schemes.

The project is designed to maintain both the cultural and biological diversity of the Hoang Lien Mountains within the framework of a collaboratively managed "Man and Biosphere Reserve".

The internationally-recognised reserve will have a core chain of new protected areas, thereby helping to secure the continued existence of key habitats and forested areas within the mountain range.

Preserving the biodiversity of Lao Cai Province’s Hoang Lien Mountains is a top priority for the Government.

This area is the last refuge in Viet Nam for the critically endangered Western Black Crested Gibbon.

It is also a centre of cultural diversity, home to more than 30 different ethnic minorities.

Many of these people maintain distinct traditional livelihoods, often highly dependent upon forest resources.

Thus, the forests of the Hoang Lien Mountains are under continual threat from poor, rural communities unsustainably utilising forest resources for daily subsistence.

Since 1996, the EC has provided a total of $65.8 million in funding for 15 environmental and natural resources protection projects in Viet Nam. It plans to grant $10 million to an urban environment planning programme in the 2003-2007 period.

Viet Nam has received $5.7 million from EU-funded projects to protect the environment and natural resources. — VNS