28/10/2021
UNESCO has designated the Núi Chúa National Park in Ninh Thuận Province and Kon Hà Nừung Plateau in Gia Lai as global biosphere reserves.
The two were among 20 new sites approved at the ongoing session of the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in Nigeria.
New biosphere reserves are designated each year to promote sustainable development, protect terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems and encourage conservation. The two new sites take the number of global biosphere reserves in Việt Nam to 11, one of the highest in the world. In Southeast Asia, it is second only to Indonesia (19).
Núi Chúa world biosphere reserve in Ninh Thuận Province overlooks Vĩnh Hy Bay
Other sites approved this year are in Canada, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
Situated at a height of 1,000 meters above sea level, Núi ChúaNational Park is seen as a green lung of the central Ninh Thuận Province. It has over nearly 20,000 hectares of primeval forests and is home to 300 animal species and 600 plant species.
Kon Hà Nừng Plateau, around 400 km to Ninh Thuận's North, includes the two core zones of Kon Ka Kinh National Park and Kon Chư Răng Nature Reserve that cover 65,000 hectares. It has hundreds of animal and plant species, including rare ones like the gray-shanked douc langur.
There are now 727 UNESCO biosphere reserves in 131 countries and territories.
Giáng Hương
(Source: Vietnam Environment Administration Magazine, English Edition III - 2021)
