QUẢNG NAM — The Management Boards of the Chàm Island Marine Protected Area (MPA) and the Đồng Nai Biosphere Reserve site have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on co-operation for information exchanges, protection of biodiversity, eco-tourism, management and sustainable development of livelihoods.

Deputy head of the Chàm Islands MPA Trần Thị Hồng Thúy told Việt Nam News that the MoU, which was signed earlier this week, is part of a series of programmes to be carried out in response to the call of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) for the 2015-20 period.

She said the two management boards will boost scientific research between the two world biosphere reserve sites and personnel training on biodiversity protection.

The 33,000ha Chàm Islands-Hội An, a world biosphere reserve recognised by UNESCO in 2009, is a favourite eco-tour site in central Việt Nam.

In 2017, the Chàm Island MPA also agreed to a co-operation deal with the Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet, an NGO, on the protection of flora and fauna and building a detailed database and a map of biodiversity of the forests on Chàm Islands as well as identifying endangered species for strict protection.

The Chàm Islands, 20km off the coast of Hội An City, is home to 1,500ha of tropical forests and 6,700ha of sea 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).

The islands, home to 1.26sq.km of coral reefs, have been the only location in Việt Nam promoting the non-use of plastic bags and the 3-R (reduce, reuse and recycle) programmes since 2011.

The 3,000 inhabitants of the islands, which include eight islets with vast ecological diversity, host around 100,000 tourists annually, of which 10 per cent are foreigners.

The site only offers home-stay services and environmentally friendly energy solutions including wind and solar power.

Turtle release

The management board of the Chàm Islands MPA also said 500 baby turtles have been released to the sea on the Chàm Islands since early 2018.

It said these baby turtles were successfully hatched turtle eggs from the Bãi Bấc beach on the islands.

Experts said they brought turtle eggs from Côn Đảo Island in the southern Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province to develop on the well-protected beach of the Chàm Islands.

The ex-situ conservation practice, which was began as a pilot project to restore the turtle population on the Chàm Island, released 900 baby turtles into the ocean in 2017.

According to expert Lê Xuân Ái, the ex-situ hatching (moving turtle eggs to other place for hatching) had seen success in Việt Nam with 90 per cent of eggs hatching healthy baby turtles. — VNS