Completing Environmental Monitoring Network

​Long Thanh Protective Forest – proposed area for biodiversity monitoring network establishment.

In 2020, the Dong Nai PPC approved the project on Master Plan for the biodiversity network in the period of 2021-2030. The implementation of this project still faces many difficulties, but this is the province’s effort in building and completing the environmental monitoring network; is the basis for functional sector to develop plans for management, protection and sustainable development of biodiversity.

Early ‘Warning system’

Deputy Director of Sub-Department of Environmental Protection (DENR) Dang Thi Thuy Duong said that the master plan of biodiversity has been established but the implementation and installation of biodiversity monitoring remains many difficult.

First, the annual budget spent on environmental protection must give priority to more urgent projects such as installation of environmental monitoring of wastewater in IPs, rivers and lakes; air environment monitoring installation in the industrial production, mineral exploitation area, where traffic is high; investment in water drainage systems to combat floods and urban wastewater treatment; Collection and treatment of various types of wastes and classification of domestic solid waste at source. Second, the Law on Biodiversity stipulates that localities must develop biodiversity conservation plans and regularly investigate, evaluate, and update the current status of biodiversity. However, up to now, the functional branches have not had instructions on technical regulations and monitoring technology to be installed. Third, the investment cost of the monitoring point is expensive.

“The biodiversity monitoring system both complements the investigation and supervision while being able to make predictions and warnings about hazards to the environment.” – said Ms. Duong.

Along with other observation methods, automatic continuous or cyclical monitoring points will help record sounds, images, number of species and its growth development better. This is the basis for making early warnings about ecosystem degradation; building conservation measures, thereby managing and efficiently using natural resources.

Ecosystem Conservation and Development

Long Thanh Protective Forest – proposed area for biodiversity monitoring network

According to DONRE, although the ecosystem conservation and development now increasingly concerned, understanding the characteristics of each species, studying the presence of some particular species is time consuming and costly, thus it is necessary to establish biodiversity monitoring networks in areas with diverse ecosystems, and regularly update natural resource data. In the period of 2021-2028, DONRE will carry out an inventory and update of biodiversity resources in the province as planned. This inventory is done through actual observations and biodiversity monitoring points which includes list of current status, distribution and evolution of ecosystems and each species of flora and fauna; assessment of human impacts, land management on biodiversity.

Director of Long Thanh Protection Forest Management Board Le Thuan Thanh said that every year, the green area of the mangrove forest area increases with the emergence of many new species of flora and fauna. If there is an automatic biodiversity monitoring system with database of species and growth characteristics, this board will not spend much time testing aquatic cultivars, making it easy to choose to develop some the animal species is suitable for natural environment, biodiversity development and ecotourism.

Guarding for our Future

Cat Tien National Park, Dong Nai Nature & Cultural Reserve, Long Thanh Protection Forest, Dong Nai River, Tri An Lake, etc., are areas with highest biodiversity in Dong Nai, including the both terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna. Many studies and assessments also show that with early forest protection policies, the fauna and flora system of Dong Nai is among the leading group in the country in terms of both abundance, diversity and rarity. Therefore, the preservation and development of the biodiversity that nature offers is one of Dong Nai's responsibilities. That responsibility is not only present at present - when many biodiversity areas of the country are being "threatened" which gradually disappearing for many reasons - but also a responsibility for the future.

However, in fact, the statistics - observing - preserving - conserving - developing the Dong Nai biodiversity in particular and the whole country in general are facing great challenges. The challenge of lack of resources, for example. Conservation and development of flora and fauna (terrestrial and underwater) requires a lot of resources in terms of both finance and technology, expertise, human resources, etc; meanwhile, the resources for statistics and conservation are in short supply. For example, Dong Nai Nature & Cultural Reserve manages an area of over 100 thousand hectares but only has 8 staff working in statistics and research.

Currently, all biodiversity areas are operating under general national mechanism for natural resource conservation.  Management units of the biodiversity area have to maintain activities of surveying, making statistics on species' data and managing and protecting them. However, due to lack of resources, most biodiversity monitoring and monitoring activities are mainly carried out through small programs and projects, or coordinate with other functional agencies to implement, manual monitoring methods lead to inconsistent or incomplete data.

Just considering in monitoring and statistics, the biodiversity conservation has many challenges that need to be solved. It is a necessary first step towards more difficult things like conservation and development. Therefore, the DONRE and PPC approved the establishment of biodiversity monitoring network in Dong Nai in 2020-2030. This is the province's effort in building and completing environmental monitoring network because it has a water monitoring network (surface water, groundwater), soil, and air. This network cannot be completed without biodiversity monitoring. Only when a basic monitoring network is completed will there be enough data and information base to proceed to the next steps.

Preserving the biodiversity in the overall big task is preserving the living environment which has been given a great deal of attention. Environmental protection needs a total solution from limiting harmful industries, limiting mineral exploitation, protecting flora and fauna to "nurturing" projects such as: planting trees, protecting rare animals, etc. Only when implementing that overall solution steadily step by step, will a healthy, pollution-free living environment be preserved for future generations.

The project 'Biodiversity Monitoring Network in period 2021-2030' identifies 17 priority areas that need to be installed as Cat Tien National Park, Dong Nai Natural & Cultural Reserve, protective forests households and ecotourism zones in artificial ecosystems; aquatic ecosystems. Depending on the area and each species, it will be determined the time of monitoring, the frequency and location of monitoring installation. This is the basis for an overall assessment of the province's biodiversity; identification of species, priority conservation areas; monitoring changes of species, genetic resources as well as the impact of land management and climate change on biodiversity.

Ban Mai