Speaking at a ceremony in Hanoi on October 5 to release a new policy brief on natural protected areas in Vietnam, Mr O'Callaghan said Vietnam has reserved more than 10 percent of its natural land for natural protected areas – a rather high rate compared to other countries in the world.

He praised Vietnam for having drawn up a national strategy to build marine protected areas from 2006-2015, which he said affirmed the country’s strong commitment and contributions to the protection of sea creatures.

He said Vietnam boasts of a rich biodiversity resource and is one of the 10 leading countries in the world having the highest density of coral reefs.  

However, he said Vietnam is facing challenges, including environmental pollution due to rapid urbanisation and the establishment of natural protected areas is one of the practical solutions.

The policy brief was jointly carried out by the Forest Protection Department and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) under the framework of the “Creating Protected Areas for Resource Conservation” (PARC) project co-financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The project aims to improve the operation capacity to effectively and sustainably manage Ba Be, Na Hang and York Don protected areas and to reduce external threats to biodiversity, through integrating conservation and development objectives and activities at the local level.

Currently, Vietnam currently has over 128 protected forests, 68 wetlands of national importance and 15 marine protected areas.