ĐÀ NẴNG — In a ceremony yesterday, the central city of Đà Nẵng debuted the first Nature Education and Experience Centre on Sơn Trà peninsula to provide a space for school students to explore the biodiversity of Sơn Trà Nature Reserve.

The centre, which was built by the Đà Nẵng–based Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet, with total fund of VNĐ1.2 billion (US$53,000), will offer free education and nature experiences to more than 3,000 school and university students in the city. They will be able to study the fauna and flora of the reserve and learn about endangered species. The centre will help raise awareness of environmental and wildlife protection.

The centre, 6km from the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve, will also host field trips into the jungle for students and nature lovers. Activities will include wildlife study, painting contests, cleaning the environment and planting trees on the peninsula.

Last year, in co-operation with the city’s education and training department, GreenViet launched a field education programme for 300 teachers of junior secondary schools on nature and wildlife protection in the nature reserve. More than 25,000 school students and 3,000 local residents joined nature awareness education activities in the reserve between 2012 and 2017.

The reserve, which covers 4,400ha, is home to more than 1,300 red-shanked douc langurs – an endangered primate species – and more than 1,000 plant and 370 animal species.

A group of 15 students in the city also joined a ‘green guard’ team to protect the forest and build a safe habitat for the endangered langurs in the reserve.

Re-use Everything Institute Inc of Finland provided $25,000 for biodiversity research in the reserve to help protect the primates in 2017. — VNS