05/12/2019
The Vietnam’s Government has issued Decree No. 66/ND-CP on the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. The Decree consists of 5 Chapters, 32 articles, specifying on the statistics, inventory, investigation, evaluation and monitoring of wetlands; establishment and management of wetland conservation areason the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands.
Xuân Thủy National Mangrove Forest (Nam Định Province)
The Decree underlines three principles of preserving and using wetlands: The first principal is ensuring the maintenance of the whole structure, function, ecological characteristics and biodiversity of wetlands; The second is enhancing the role and involvement of the community in preserving submerged areas; The third one is ensuring a fair and reasonable benefit sharing mechanism for the rights and obligations of involved parties in using wetland ecosystem services.
Decree No. 66/ND-CP has clearly defined criteria for determining important wetlands. Under the Decree, the State encourages domestic and foreign organisations, individuals and residents to take part in environmental protection, biodiversity preservation and protection of natural ecosystems and migratory birds.
Added to this are recovering degraded or overexploited wetlands and supervising activities on important submerged areas to detect legal violations in the field as well as implementing a sustainable environmental livelihood and conducting eco-tourism activities according to law. The establishment of wetland preservation areas must accord with the Law on Biodiversity.
The State budget will provide investment in building and upgrading technical infrastructure for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands.
The State will also offer investment incentives for activities to recover habitats of endangered and rare species.
The Decree will come into force on September 15, 2019.
Gia Linh
(Source: Vietnam Environment Administration Magazine, English Edition II - 2019)
