Reforesting Vietnam's Coastlands
11/30/99
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Title: Reforesting VIETNAM'S Coastlands
Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 30, 1999
WASHINGTON, DC, November 30, 1999 (ENS) - The World Bank Group has
approved a US$31.8 million loan to re-establish the coastal mangroves
of Vietnam's Mekong Delta and improve the livelihoods of up to
600,000 poor people in the region.
Funded through the group's International Development Association
(IDA), the six-year Coastal Wetlands Protection and Development
Project will be implemented in the southern Mekong Delta provinces of
Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, and Tra Vinh.
"This project supports the Vietnam government's emphasis on the
importance of reforestation, natural resource conservation, and
socio-economic development by targeting a coastal area affected by
extreme poverty and severe loss of mangrove forests and critical
natural habitats," said agricultural ecologist Ronald Zweig, the
project's task team leader.
"The rural poor in the project area have had few income-generating
opportunities other than exploiting coastal forest resources to the
point where the benefits from them have seriously eroded. From
available data, about 60 percent of the mangrove cover were lost
between 1984 and 1994 due to logging and mostly failed shrimp farm
development in the main project areas," Zweig said.
The project will restore coastal mangroves in a full-protection zone
and support diversified and sustainable farming techniques in an
adjacent buffer zone, while limiting economic activities and coastal
developments that are threats to the mangroves.
Application of appropriate management of mangrove forests will also
sustainably provide wood products from thinning activities, as well
as a range of food and household items such as roof thatching
material, medicinal plants, and honey.
"By restoring the mangroves, reducing encroachment, and providing
options for stable income generation in the vicinity, this project
will help preserve a vital natural resource that provides protection
from coastal storms, conserves biodiversity, and revitalizes habitats
for commercially important aquatic species," Zweig said.
The Vietnam government is targeting agricultural productivity and
coastal resource management as part of its rural development
strategy. The US$31.8 million equivalent credit will be on standard
IDA terms for multi-currency loans, with a maturity of 40 years,
including a 10-year grace period.
The International Development Association is the World Bank Group's
concessional lending window. It provides long-term loans at zero
interest to the poorest of the developing countries.