U Minh Thuong National Park becomes an ASEAN Heritage Garden

On August 12, in Rach Gia City, the Management Board of U Minh Thuong National Park, Kien Giang Province was honored to receive the Certificate of ASEAN Heritage Garden recognition.

U Minh Thuong National Park was established under Decision No. 11 / QD-TTg dated January 14, 2002 of the Prime Minister. U Minh Thuong National Park is surrounded by a closed dyke system with a length of 60km.

In the alum-water forest ecosystem of the Mekong Delta, only the forest flora of the core zone of U Minh Thuong National Park has the characteristics of the primeval peak forest. These are the advantages of mixed Melaleuca forest and Melaleuca forest on peat land, with an area of ​​nearly 3,000 ha. This is also the base of revolution in the resistance period.

A corner of U Minh Melaleuca forest.(Photo: Le Huy Hai / VNA)

With this characteristic, U Minh Thuong National Park is not only an area with typical ecosystems of peat land but also considered as a historic area of ​​Kien Giang province.

Although facing many difficulties in agricultural land demand, Kien Giang province still tries its best to conserve and restore natural resources on peat land.

These efforts have been recognized by ASEAN as the Southeast Asia Heritage Garden for U Minh Thuong National Park.

The initial success in the preservation and promotion of the 'green' values ​​with 5 of the 9 criteria of the Ramsar Convention provided the basis for authorities to document U Minh National Park registration. Upper is recognized as Ramsar.

Currently, the country has 5 Ramsar sites, Son Thuy and Bau Sau of Cat Tien National Park; Ba Be National Park; Tram Chim National Park and Ca Mau Cape National Park.

At the ceremony, leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also asked the Kien Giang Provincial People's Committee to soon build a nomination file for Ramsar Park for U Minh Thuong National Park, opening up opportunities for Kien Giang to invest in the declaration. to exploit the potentials and strengths of submerged areas in service of ecotourism development and at the same time preserve many rare and precious animal and plant species.