Tam Dao forest to become entertainment site

14:50' 19/06/2007 (GMT+7)

A road is building in Tam Dao (photo: KH&DS) VietNamNet Bridge – Some 200ha of land in the core of Tam Dao National Park may become a complex of high-class inns, villas, a golf course, and casino under a plan of the People’s Committee of Vinh Phuc Province. “This place will become a paradise and a unique tourist site for high-class visitors,” said Vinh Phuc’s Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Phi. Two foreign investors are willing to spend nearly US$300 million to turn this site into a paradise. According to the plan designed by consultants for the US’ Belt Collin Hawaii Ltd and Vietnam’s Patrers LLC, the Tam Dao 2 region will become a complex of three building and one entertainment zones in the centre. This entertainment centre will comprise high-class inns, conference centres, casinos totalling 200-400 rooms, a 19-hole golf course, and a 2,000sq.m villa area. Two other plans also include similar works but their positions are changed. Most local officials affirmed that it was necessary to build the above ecological tourism site because there was nothing in Tam Dao 2 region to preserve. According to Nguyen Dam, Deputy Director of the Vinh Phuc Department of Construction, who has surveyed this area two times, the Tam Dao 2 region is a flat area which doesn’t have old trees, just gnarled trees. Scientists suggest Vinh Phuc consider carefully Professor Bui Cong Hien, Director of the Entomology Application Centre under the University of Natural Sciences, said that just several days of surveying couldn’t reveal what remained for preservation. Dr. Tran Hong Ha, Head of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, said that some countries also developed ecological tourism at national parks but they clearly defined which were the sites for absolute protection, the buffer and development. He said that the project in Vinh Phuc needed the State’s consideration and must be submitted for public opinion and comments from related associations and scientists. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sinh, Chairman of the Nature and Environmental Protection Association, proposed an immediate halt to the project, saying that the exploitation of part of Tam Dao National Park would surely adversely impact the remaining area, from ecological systems, genetic sources to the only mountainous wetland ecological system in Vietnam. Dr. Sinh also said that the construction of entertainment works, including casinos in a holy land like Tam Dao, would cause social-spiritual issues. Professor Nguyen Van Truong, Director of the Ecological Economic Institute, said that projects to develop the Tam Dao ecological tourism site catered more to business than environmental protection. The area devoted to the golf course, hotels and roads is too large. “A tree in Tam Dao has different value than trees in other areas. Everything left in Tam Dao 2 is all natural so we have to maintain it,” he said. Tam Dao National Park, located about 70km north of Hanoi, was recognised in March 1996. With a total area of about 36,900ha it is one of the largest national parks in Vietnam and one of the last natural areas close to urban Hanoi which has not been transformed into agricultural land. Situated on the northern fringe of the Red River delta, the Tam Dao mountain range forms a unique ecological island of about 80km in length, containing dense tropical rainforests with species from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, the temperate forests of southern China and the alpine forests of the eastern Himalayas. Rising steeply from densely populated lowlands to a peak of 1529m above sea‑level, the forests support a large variety of ecosystems and micro‑habitats of high biodiversity, varying with altitude, aspect and the degree of human disturbance. In its original state, Tam Dao had one of the highest levels of species richness of any tropical forest with about 1,300 plant and 1,200 animal species, many of which are rare and/or endemic to Tam Dao or northern Vietnam. (Source: GTZ Vietnam) (Source: Viet Nam Net)