The Plain of Reeds Wetland Restoration Project

The Plain of Reeds Wetland Restoration Project (POR) is demonstrating an adaptive, science-based approach to the management of protected wetland areas in Vietnam.  This is a step in the right direction as the same management approaches have historically been applied to all Vietnamese national parks, sometimes with dire consequences for protected areas.  

Tram Chim National Park (TCNP) – one of the last natural wetlands of the once vast Plain of Reeds – is a case in point. Management approaches and policies designed for upland forests were applied to a lowland floodplain, which led to detrimental consequences for the ecosystem and the people that depend upon it for their livelihoods.  Water was permanently stocked (i.e. areas were flooded) in an effort to suppress fire, which rendered conditions in the wetland eutrophic. As a result, habitats dwindled and species disappeared.  

Threats to conservation at TCNP include habitat degradation, declining resources, conflict with local populations, poor capacity of managers and government to manage wetlands and restrictive national protected area policies.  The approach that the POR project developed in response to these issues has yielded positive results:

• A hydrology management regime, based on 20 years of cumulated scientific evidence, is being implemented.  The regime mimics the historic flood pulse of the Mekong, allowing a real dry and wet season in the Tram Chim wetlands.  Grassland habitats have responded well to the change, almost tripling in area since its introduction;
• Flows within the wetland have been partially reestablished by removing sections of dykes originally built to retain and stock water.  This demonstration of the benefits of improved flows is now being used as an advocacy tool to rehabilitate flows elsewhere;
• Declining resources and conflict with locals have been addressed by organizing community members into natural resource user groups, effectively establishing co-management of the fishery and other wetland resources with local communities;
• The management capacity of the park has been improved via targeted training and the introduction of a conservation science advisory board;
• Policy has been adapted through the ratification of a management statute, providing guidelines for management approaches at TCNP, by the provincial government.  The statute will be periodically reviewed, adapted and renewed.  A Wetland Advisory Body was formed to provide wetland policy advice to the provincial government and to support implementation of the statute.

The POR wetland restoration project has made strong advances to solving the conservation issues facing TCNP, and it is hoped that some of the lessons learned in addressing conservation and sustainability issues can be modified and applied to some of the Mekong Delta's other precious habitats.