Coral reefs monitoring to propose coral reefs effective management and conservation measures in Cat Ba National Park

Objectives

To conduct survey, monitor coral reefs at 3 sites in strictly protected zones in Cat Ba National Park to serve the scientific basis for coral reef management, protection and conservation.

Background

Cat Ba National Park has a total area of 17,362.96 hectares (of which the islands area is 10,912.51 hectares, the sea area is 6,450.45 hectares) being located within the boundaries of Hai Phong and Quang Ninh province. The park is isolated from the mainland, which minimizes the immigration of animals, especially mammals from other regions.

Therefore, the park’s biodiversity resources are not diverse in species composition but significant in terms of conservation with typical features of island ecosystems, which are endemic and rare values. Some basic research projects in the 1980s found that Cat Ba has about 196 sea fish species belonging to 66 families; 177 coral species belonging to 15 families; 658 benthic species belonging to 146 families; 102 seaweed species belonging to 35 families; 131 zooplankton species belonging to 46 families; 400 phytoplankton species; etc.

Although the coral reef ecosystem has great importance in coastal and offshore islands in terms of land conservation and human existence, for the last 10 years, coastal research programs in the Cat Ba Archipelago have shown sharp decline of coral reefs over time in which some coral reefs were completely destroyed. The latest research by Do Van Khuong in 2011 noted a decrease by 50% coral coverage compared to 2008. The current status of coral reefs is poorly developed, Cat Ba was warned as one of the four coral reefs areas being seriously deteriorated among 19 researched coastal coral reef areas in Viet Nam.

Based on these important values of  the coral reef ecosystem and given the serious degradation of coral reefs in Cat Ba, Cat Ba National Park has proposed to develop and implement the program “Coral reef monitoring to propose coral reef effective management and conservation measures in Cat Ba National Park”.

Location

The survey will be conducted in Gio Cung, Van Ta and Ba Dinh – strictly protected zones – Cat Ba National Park, Hai Phong city, Viet Nam.

Monitoring indicators

• Coral coverage
• Coral species composition in the monitoring plots

Outputs

• The data set of coral reefs survey and monitoring in 03 locations.
• Photos of surveying and sampling activities..
• Report on the survey and monitoring results with recommendations on coral reefs management and conservation measures in Cat ba National Park.

Donor

TH Food Chain JSC

Partners

• Cat Ba National Park, Hai Phong
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
• Institute of Marine Resources and Environment (IMER), Hai Phong

Contact Information

Ms. Nguyen Bich Hien at [email protected]

Or [email protected]