Xuan Thuy National Park (Giao Thuy District, Nam Dinh Province) is recognized as the first Ramsar site in Southeast Asia with a diverse wetland ecosystem with a variety of birds, storks, and wild trees. Standing on the observation tower, looking far away, Xuan Thuy National Park is as beautiful as a watercolor painting.
The first Ramsar Reserve site in Vietnam and Southeast Asia
The Ramsar Convention is a convention on wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971, this is an ian international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). The purpose is to prevent the increasing encroachment on wetlands; recognize ecological and scientific functions, and cultural values.
To date, Vietnam has 9 wetlands recognized as Ramsar sites. In January 1989, the alluvial area in the south of the Red River estuary in Xuan Thuy district, Nam Dinh (Xuan Thuy National Park) was recognized as the 50th Ramsar site in the world and the first Ramsar site in Southeast Asia and Vietnam.
With a total area of up to 15,000 square meters, including a core area of 7,100 hectares, of which 3,100 hectares are forested land at low tide and about 4,000 hectares of flooded land; a buffer zone of 7,233 hectares, including 960 hectares of the remaining area of Ngan islet, the entire inner beach with an area of 1,997 hectares. Xuan Thuy National Park stretches over 5 communes: Giao Thien, Giao An, Giao Lac, Giao Xuan and Giao Hai.
Xuan Thuy National Park is known for its many bird varieties. There are 215 species including 160 types of migrating birds and 50 types of water birds, according to the lasted survey carried out by International Bird Life.
Nine of these species, including the black-faced spoonbill and the northern white egret are listed in the world’s Red Book of rare animals. The black-faced spoonbills found in the reserve account for one fifth of the bird’s world community.
The shrimp, fish, and crabs provide the main food sources for birds. From November to April, Xuan Thuy National Park is also a meeting place for ten thousand birds migrating from the north.
In recent times, Xuan Thuy National Park has introduced new livelihoods such as mushroom growing, beekeeping, clam farming, etc… to create a new income as well as conservation of mangrove ecosystems. With the profession of producing honey from mangrove forests, every year about thousand bee colonies are brought into the mangrove to take care and harvest bee. Therefore, people often call the honey here “honey of the sea”.
A hot destination of Nam Dinh
The atmosphere at Xuan Thuy National Park is always fresh, the scenery is peaceful and poetic. In recently years, Xuan Thuy National Park has attracted of thousands of tourists to visit. Visitors can experience a series of services: renting a canoe/motorboat to sightsee, take pictures; camping overnight in the wild with full protective equipment; experiencing fishing near the shore; observing flocks of birds inhabiting the setting sun or sunrise…
Not only that, Xuan Thuy National Park is also considered a diverse ecosystem of aquatic species such as clams, crabs, shrimp, fish… Every day, local people still go to Xuan Thuy National Park early in the morning to catch these aquatic species; they catch them manually, by hand, only catching the big ones and leaving the small ones. This is a source of fresh seafood, and can be processed into favorite dishes.
Source: collected by An
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