Vietnam's Jungles in an Ecological Race Against Time
10/26/96
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Vietnam jungles are in ecological race against time
October 26, 1996
Web posted at: 4:20 p.m. EDT
From Correspondent Bruce Kennedy
Copyright 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
VU QUANG, Vietnam (CNN) -- Vietnam's remote mountain jungles provide a
safe haven for dozens of rare plant and animal life, but they are in
an "ecological race against time," according to a leading
international conservationist.
Elizabeth Kemf of the World Wide Fund for Nature, an international
conservation agency, recently toured two of Vietnam's recently
established nature preserves, Vu Quang and Bach Ma.
What she found was a splendid region of inexplicable beauty. But so
too she discovered a people "receptive to developing new means of
income."
"We saw untold beauty in the forests -- forests that contained species
of trees, species of animals, plants and birds that I had never seen
before," she said.
The reserves are located in central Vietnam. Just decades ago, the
area was at the heart of the Vietnam War. Like other forested areas in
the region, the jungles of Vu Quang were sprayed with herbicides,
which destroyed an estimated five million acres (two million hectares)
of forest and farmland.
The region has gradually recovered.
On the edge of the reserves near the Laos border live thousands of
people, and many still depend on the forests for their livelihood.
According to Kemf, the sale of animal skins from tigers, leopards,
bears and others has increased in recent years, despite new government
protection plans on various species.
"But one should not point the finger at the very poor and impoverished
people," Kemf explained. "One needs to help those communities develop
means of income."
She emphasized that the government needs to enforce its policies
better if Vietnam is to maintain the country's natural heritage.
But the rush to modernize is putting new pressures on Vietnam's
environment.