Kien Giang (VNA) - The Mekong Deltaprovince of Kien Giang has recovered its protective forests along coastal areasby enlisting the help of local residents to plant and protect mangrove trees.

The province, which has one of largest forestareas in the Mekong Delta, asked residents in the coastal districts of AnBien and An Minh several years ago to take care part of about 4,000ha ofmangrove forests along a coastal line of 60km.  

Tran Phi Hai, Director of the An Bien-An MinhForest Management Board, said the mangrove forests included the main and buffermangrove forest areas.

As many as 867 local households andorganisations take care of 2,985ha buffer mangrove forest area, mostlyspotted mangrove, he said.

The 1,012ha main mangrove forest area, mostlygrey mangrove, includes 754ha of natural forest and 257.8ha of planted forest. Themanagement board is responsible for the main mangrove forest area.

The buffer mangrove forests have favourableconditions for breeding aquatic species like shrimp, fish, mud clams, bloodcockles, eels and crabs.

The management board in cooperation with thelocal households and organisations that protect mangrove forest bufferzones has protected the forests well.

Local authorities have helped thehouseholds to breed aquatic species, including instructing them in techniquesand providing financial support for breeding new aquatic specieslike ba khia (Sesarma mederi), a mangrove crab species.

In An Bien district’s Nam Thai commune, manyforest-protection households have bred the mangrove crab since 2017 andearned high profits.

However, many areas in buffer mangroveforests have eroded because of climate change, according to the managementboard.

To protect mangrove forests, the managementboard has implemented three mangrove recovery projects along coastal areassince 2016.

One project creates alluvial groundsfor growing mangrove forests, which protects a sea dyke in An Bien’s Nam Thai commune.Around 35ha of grey mangrove have been planted.

Another project has recoveredmangroves along coastal areas, starting from 2016 and endingin 2020. The project has planted new 170ha of grey mangrove in alluvialgrounds and 88ha of spotted mangrove in buffer forest areas.

The management board hashelped forest-protecting households and organisations replace dead mangrove trees.

Under current regulations, households andorganisations have to ensure that 70 percent of the allocated forestry land isused to grow forests and that 30 percent of the allocatedforestry land can be used to breed aquatic species.

The projects have helped recover mangroveforests and curb erosion, according to the management board.

However, the process of growing new mangroveforests has also faced problems such as strong waves and currents anderosion.

Strong waves, for example, caused erosion toalluvial grounds and damage to mangrove trees.

The illegal exploitation of aquatic species innewly planted mangrove forests has also caused the death of newlyplanted mangrove trees. 

The provincial People’s Committee last yeardeveloped a project to protect and develop protective forestsalong coastal areas in Hon Dat and Kien Luong districts and Ha Tien town in2016-20.

The project aims to protect 3,330ha of naturaland planted mangrove forests and grow 203ha of new mangrove forests in alluvialgrounds.

In Hon Dat, protective forests in many areaslike Tho Son commune’s Hon Queo hamlet, Binh Son commune’s Vam Ray hamlet and BinhGiang commune’s Giong Ke hamlet have eroded because of climate change in recentyears.

The province has 71,000ha of forests, including26,000ha of protective forests.

Most of the protective forests are plantednear the province's 200km coast line and on its islands.-VNA