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Location: The ecological forest of Can Gio
is situated 50km away from downtown Ho Chi Minh City.
Characteristic: With an area of over 70,000 ha, of which 35,000 ha is
salt-watered forest, Can Gio has been recognized as a biosphere reserve of the
world by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
Can Gio has been recognized as a biosphere reserve after evaluation of various
aspects, including the people, ecology, environment and biosphere
sustainability. Those who visited this place decade ago can hardly recognize it
today, due to the countless towering trees and plants that stretch out of sight,
and the harmonious biosphere of the coastal mangrove forest. So far nearly
40,000 ha of forest and land have been restored. According to the Can Gio Forest
Managing Board, at present more than 600 households with 1,500 people reside in
this area. They live on reforestation, forest protection and aquatic production.
In the early 1970's, the concept of "Biosphere reserve" was announced with the
aim of protecting the species in danger of extinction. The biosphere reserves
must preserve the samples of the ecological systems in the world, and work as a
laboratory where research and observation of these ecological systems are
undertaken. The reserve seeks measures to help the local people benefit from
nature. Before the construction of a 20 km-long road linking Binh Khanh wharf to
Can Thanh, which runs along Can Gio to beach April 30, Can Gio was a remote area
whose residents lived on catching crabs and mussels. Now it is an interesting
eco-tourist site attracting many people from Ho Chi Minh City and other places.
The Saigon Tourism Company and Phu Tho Tourism Company have established
eco-tours to this area. Visiting Can Gio, you will see crocodiles lying in the
swamp and hundreds of monkeys that come from mangrove clumps to the walk-ways of
Lam Vien ecological site, to welcome the visitors. They catch sugarcane the
visitors give them, and eat them with delight. On holidays, there were averages
of 2,000 visitors a day to Can Gio. At peak times there were over 6,000 visitors
a day. Visitors could stay at the residential quarter April 30, adjacent to the
beach or at Atman quarter in the 2,100ha Lam Vien area with countless mangrove
trees. Quite a few people like to hire hammocks and umbrellas to rest under the
canopy of the trees. In the near future the war zone in the shrub forest, which
was home to 800 commando soldiers in wartime, would be restored. It will become
a 3,000m² preservation sites with 14 houses-on-stilts, roofed with date palm
trunks and water-coconut leaves. When this project is completed, Can Gio will
have another traditional tourist site, attracting not only young people, but
also those who want to know more about the struggle of the fighters in the shrub
forest in the past. Taking a boat ride on the big Dong Nai and Long Tau Rivers
or on the smaller Vam Sac, Dong Thanh and Soai Rap Rivers, which run through Can
Gio, visitors will not think that they are visiting a district on the outskirts
of Ho Chi Minh City. They seem to be in the watery areas of Ca Mau and Kien
Giang, the southernmost area in Vietnam with vast mangrove and cajuput forests.
The roots of the mangrove trees on the sides of the river twist with one another
then spread out and root deep into the earth. It is these roots that make Can
Gio a protective forest safeguarding millions of city dwellers, and an ideal
ecological tourist site as well.
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