Tourism destroying Vietnam's Ha Long Bay World Heritage site
HA LONG BAY - Professor Luc Hens is a senior human ecologist at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, who visits Vietnam several times every year for environmental studies. He recently visited Ha Long Bay (A Vietnamese World Heritage site) and is aghast at some of the things he saw.
Ha Long Bay is seriously degraded, mostly due to unwise interventions by tourism developers and managers. The most obvious is by pollution due to coal mining wastes, which have blackened the watershed in this area; coal residues cover a large part of the hillsides. Ha Long Bay is dying from these hazardous wastes.
Living coral is marketed to foreign tourists. This reflects terrible management of the marine resources by local authorities. Coral reefs are an exceptionally important element of the marine ecosystem, acting as a niche for other aquatic species and a kind of pollutant-eater purifying the sea.
The natural environment here is being gradually replaced with artificial landscapes. The tourism developers have destroyed the mangroves which are very rich in biodiversity and typical of this unique place, replacing them with exotic species. Desilting lake bottoms has destroyed the benthic communities while connecting the islands with the mainland through a series of dams for canoes and other sports has damaged the water bodies. All these modifications are stressors impairing the natural ecosystems of this area.
The heavy influence of Disneyland initiatives can also be seen here on tourism development concepts. The catch here is that a Disney-like entertainment area should never be developed in a natural heritage site. Although performances by dolphins and other sea mammals here attract a lot of visitors, surely they do not include foreign visitors.
An "American" style is another ironical development concept here. Invaluable porcelain objects and extraordinary archaeological remains are exhibited in a building looking exactly like the US presidential residence, the White House, in Washington D.C.! A sophisticated traditional wooden house would be a much better place to exhibit them. And, the most spectacular karst caves have been lit up with colored lights, making them look like a highway and not the dark, damp, fascinating mystery they really are.
Vietnam is a wonderful developing country in terms of quality of life. Though the economy has progressed rapidly, the rich-poor gap is not as wide as in many other countries at the same level. However, there is a trend of commercialization and economic-driven development which looms as a major threat to its authenticity. People should be aware that environmental resources and cultural heritage and traditions that are the main tourism draw cards for a country these days. The identity of a country is reflected through these values.
Thus, as Hens tells the Vietnamese people: "Respect your environment! Respect your culture and traditions! That makes you unique."
The Jakarta Post - September 04, 2005.
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