BaRia - Vung Tau (VNA) - The southern province of Ba Ria - Vung Tauhas planned to establish 17 eco-tourism areas undꦡer a tourismdevelopment project at it👍s Con Dao National Park until 2030.

The project includes ecological, leisure and entertainment areasat the national park. The authority of Con Dao island will promote eco-tourismand raise public awareness about the locality’s natural,cultural, historical and humanitarian values through tourism activities. Park Director Nguyen Khac Pho said the park ispioneering eco-tourism in combination with nature education. Itwill work with local authorities and agencies to enhance forest andmaritime resource preservation, and build a database on forest resources,along with a map of natural resources. The province expects the new activitieswill attract more investment in tourism in Con Dao. The 16-island archipelago of Con Dao is located at 180kmfrom Vung Tau city, and about 230km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Ithas a land area of nearly 6,000ha and water surface of 14,000ha.  It is well known for its beaches with white sand, deep bluewater and colorful coral reefs. French colonialists and the Americans turnedthe island into a prison to jail Vietnamese revolutionary soldiers in wartime.The former prison facility has attracted many local and foreign visitorsin recent years. The national park is home to 1,077 species of vascularplants and 155 species of fauna. Many bird species in Con Dao cannot be foundanywhere else in Vietnam, such as the red-billed tropicbird, masked booby, andpied imperial pigeon. Surveys conducted by the Nha Trang Institute of Oceanographyfound more than 1,300 maritime fauna and flora species, including 44 inVietnam’s Red Data Book, in the park. Con Dao is home to a small population ofdugongs that are vulnerable to extinction worldwide. Con Dao National Park is also an important nesting place forolive ridley sea turtles and hawksbill sea turtles, two species threatened withextinction globally. The national park, a Ramsar site of wetlands of internationalimportance, has more than 340 species of corals and is one of the richest andmost diverse coral reefs in the country. However, many of its reefs suffered from bleaching and died on alarge scale because of rising sea temperatures in 1998, 2010 and 2016 andbecause of low salinity in 2005. Many of the affected reefs could not recover naturally./.