Mission
Viet Nature’s mission is to strive to halt the loss of biodiversity in Vietnam, conserve the integrity and diversity of nature, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources, enhancing Vietnamese people’s quality of life and contributing to the country’s sustainable development.
History
Viet Nature is a Vietnamese non-governmental organisation (NGO), which evolved from the BirdLife Vietnam Programme, inheriting a prestigious 20-year portfolio and conservation track record.
Viet Nature continues to lead in the field of conservation in Vietnam. Viet Nature’s works focus on conservation actions on the ground, biodiversity monitoring, linking biodiversity to human well-being and in the context of climate change, conservation science capacity building, and environmental awareness and education.
Partnership with WLT
Mutual contacts at BirdLife International brought about initial introduction between Viet Nature and World Land Trust (WLT) in 2012. The relationship was reinforced by Viet Nature’s participation at the WLT and IUCN NL partners symposium (Singapore, September 2012) and IUCN NL’s REDD+ learning programme (Philippines, November 2012).
Since 2013, the partnership has been working to protect the Dong Chau – Khe Nuoc Trong Watershed Protection Forest lying in the Annamite Mountain Range of north central Vietnam, catalysing its gazettement as a nature reserve with a total area of over 22,000 ha in 2020. The Carbon Balanced programme is central to this and WLT also funds reserve rangers through the Keepers of the Wild appeal.
Alongside with the Khe Nuoc Trong project, from 2019, the partnership engaged in a project to restore forest ecosystem in war devastated land at two protected areas and a watershed protection forest in central Vietnam. So far, over 140,000 native trees have been planted to restore about 127 ha of forest inside or in the buffer zone of these high conservation value forests (HCVF), expanding habitats for wildlife, benefiting communities as well as climate.
Other Activities
Viet Nature’s geographical foci in Vietnam are: the Annamese Lowlands Endemic Bird Area (in Central Vietnam), the Central Highlands, the coastal wetland sites in the Red River Delta in the North of Vietnam and the Mekong River Delta in the South. These priorities are based on BirdLife Vietnam Programme’s extensive knowledge of biodiversity inventory, monitoring and conservation planning.
Key project activities include:
- Species and habitats conservation and ecosystem restoration
- Community-based conservation and sustainable natural resource management
- Climate change mitigation and adaptation for biodiversity and human well-being
- Biodiversity monitoring and scientific research
- Environmental awareness raising and education
- Policy advocacy for biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resource management