The Chàm Islands are one of the most favourite eco-tour destinations in central Việt Nam. The Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) management board has called tourists and fishermen to take rubbish to the mainland for treatment. VNS Photo Công Thành

CHÀM ISLANDS — The management of the Chàm Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) has called on local fishermen and tourists to take their rubbish back to the mainland for treatment rather than dumping it at landfill on the islands.

The MPA said the islands, 20km off the coast of Hội An ancient town, are being overloaded, struggling to cope with up to five tonnes of daily waste with only half of that amount being burnt, with the remainder going to the Eo Gio landfill.

Huỳnh Thị Thuỳ Hương, a member of the Chàm Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) managing board, said the plan has been included in the Hội An City’s action plan in 2025.

It means that tourists should be aware of keeping the eco-tourism islands ‘clean’, and only environment-friendly manners will be encouraged.

A warning notice on the ending of the use of single use plastic bags seen on a speed boat at the Chàm Islands' port. VNS Photo Công Thành

It said the ‘waste clear’ programme is one of many activities in the ‘zerowaste and non-plastic use’ action plan across one o of the most popular visitor destinations in central Việt Nam, aiming to make the islands ‘green’ and ‘clean’.

The MPA and local community has been building a series of programmes including ‘non-plastic bag’ use, saying No to single use plastics and aiming to recycle and re-use environment-friendly packages as much as possible.

Two Material Recovery Facility (MRF) stations were built to collect and recycle daily waste, aiming to cut in half the amount of waste sent to landfill.

In a three-day waste survey last year, MPA reported that 80 per cent of waste collected at beaches was plastic including bottle, foam and ‘ghost’ fishing net (drift net), while 76 per cent was left-over food, cans, bottles and packages dump at sea by fishermen.

Dustbins are not not available on many fishing boats and only 16 per cent fishermen voluntarily collected waste at sea.

The islands, which include eight islets with 2,400 inhabitants, are the first and the only location in Việt Nam promoting successfully the non-use of plastic bags and the ‘3Rs’ (reduce, reuse and recycle) since it was recognised as the world biosphere reserve site by UNESCO in 2009.

Visitors join a waste cleaning tour in water off Chàm Islands. Many waste cleaning and recycling solutions have been promoting on the Islands in efforts of builiding it a 'zerowaste and 'zero plastic waste' destination. Photo courtesy of Chàm Islands MPA

The islands community and the MPA management board, in co-operation with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), WWF-Viet Nam, IUCN and the UNESCO, have been boosting the marine environment protection by promoting a ban on single-use plastic.

Non-use plastic bag notices can be seen at the Cửa Đại port – the major launch point for all boat trips from the mainland to the Islands – warning visitors to remove any plastic bags from their luggage.

The islands set a limit on overall numbers of visitors at 2,500 visitors per day back in 2015.

The islanders themselves earned US$3.6 million last year, 65 per cent of which is from tourism and associated services, and more than 80 per cent of the population have switched from fishing to the eco-tourism sector.

The Islands is home to 1,500ha of tropical forests and 6,700ha of marine space, featuring a wide range of marine fauna and flora, including many endangered species such as salangane (swallows), the long-tailed monkey and the crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis).