Grey Heron can be found year-round in Tram Chim National Park. (Photo: VNA)
Dong Thap (VNS/VNA) –
Located in the wetlands of the Plain of Reeds in the Mekong Delta province of
Dong Thap, Tram Chim National Park is known for its spectacular diversity of
bird species, attracting bird-watchers year-round.
Local farmers named the park Tram Chim due to the great number of
cajeput (tram) trees and birds (chim).
The 7,300ha park, flooded for half a year and dry for the other
half, is home to more than 100 vertebrate species, 40 species of fish, and 213
species of water birds, including 16 rare birds like the Sarus crane, the
greater adjutant, black-headed ibis, darter, and little egret.
Nguyen The Hanh, vice director of the national park, said that
thousands of Asian openbill storks, which were given priority for preservation,
have flocked to the park.
The park has a good environment for birds, containing a level of
water conducive to the development of flora and aquatic creatures.
Thanks to its diversity of bird species, the park holds
bird-watching tours, attracting a great number of visitors.
The number of visitors exceeded 60,000 in 2014, a five-fold
increase compared to 2012, when it was recognised as Vietnam’s fourth site
under the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands of International Importance.
In the first half of the year, the park welcomed more than 75,000
guests, an increase of 26 percent year-on-year. Tourism revenue in that period
exceeded 3.8 billion VND (167,000 USD), up 81.5 percent from the same period
last year.
The World Wild Fund for Nature Vietnam recently provided 2.6
billion VND (114,500 USD) for a project to encourage eco-tourism and
sustainable use of natural resources in the park.
Pham Tan Xieu, head of the Dong Thap province People’s Committee
Office, said the project would preserve the biodiversity of the wetlands and
improve livelihoods for local people through community-based tourism.
In the late 1980s, under a Government programme to turn Dong Thap province
into one of the country’s largest rice granaries, many canals, embankments and
irrigation works were built, which led to degradation of the wetlands
ecosystem.
The grass fields, which were food sources for the Sarus crane and
other bird species, narrowed significantly, causing the birds to seek new
shelter sites.
In an effort to retain the precious birds, the Government and
conservation organisations have worked in the past decade to promote the
migration of birds and cranes with million-dollar projects.
One of them was a project supporting habitat restoration and
protecting the wetlands ecosystem in Tram Chim funded by the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) and Coca Cola, which operated from 2007-2014 in two phases.
The project helped increase by threefold the area of Eleocharis
grasslands, a favourite food of the Sarus crane, drawing 125 cranes back to the
park.
However, Hoang Viet, a programme coordinator of WWF Vietnam’s
Freshwater and Climate Change, said that efforts to rehabilitate the wetlands
habitat could be in vain if actions are not taken to restrict negative
influences on the natural reserve.
The overuse of pesticides in agricultural production, for example,
harms cranes, he said.
Despite many efforts to protect the bird population, a wild bird
market in Long An province’s Thanh Hoa district, the biggest in the south, has
been seen selling several species of rare birds, including darters and Asian openbills.
Though the province’s authorities have urged people to stop
trading wild birds, the market remains busy.
Le Huu Loi, vice chief ranger of Long An province, said that
authorities had imposed fines on eight people who sold endangered birds this
year.
He said that many species of wild birds sold at the market were
not on the list of endangered species banned from trade and hunting, and thus
rangers could not punish traders.-VNA