The Dong Nai People's Committee has rejected the construction of a road through the province's Cat Tien National Park, saying it poses a threat to the surrounding environment.
Though the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development initially approved the project on October 29, according to Tuoi Tre, Dong Nai authorities are now blocking the effort. If approved, the six-meter-wide road would run 18 kilometers along the Dong Nai River and take until 2017 to complete.
Dong Nai People's Committee Deputy Chairman Vo Van Chanh opposed the road, telling Tuoi Tre it would pass through a strictly protected area in which roads wider than 1.5 meters were not permitted. Furthermore, Chanh added, the project would separate the forest from the river, alter natural habitats and cost the national park 11 hectares of forest.
Given Vietnam's track record with environmentalism, this is a rare stance on the protection of natural resources. That said, Chanh's rejection of the plan may have something to do with Cat Tien's current bid for UNESCO status, which officials hope will turn the park into an internationally recognized natural heritage garden. Vietnam already petitioned once for Cat Tien's UNESCO status in 2013, according to Thanh Nien, however the application was rejected due to failures in environmental protection, including the death of the world's last Javan rhino in 2010 and the killing of an endangered gaur two years later.
While the People's Committee does not believe the road aligns with its 10-year sustainable development plan, forest rangers at Cat Tien argue otherwise. According to Nguyen Van Dien, director of the national park, the project would improve conservation in Cat Tien by allowing rangers to more effectively patrol the forest.
“The road will not affect the forest because it runs through only grass plots, secondary forest and poor forest,” Dien told Tuoi Tre. “The road will facilitate rangers in quickly moving to protect the forest. Now we have to patrol it by boat, and it is dangerous in raining and flood season.”
[Photo via Flickr user Han Minh Chu]
