“We should take action that helps suspend these two hydro projects; otherwise we will commit a big mistake…,” said Dr Nguyen Hoang Tri, general secretary of the National Committee for the Man and Biosphere Program (MAB) in Vietnam, under UNESCO. Tri made the statement in an interview with Tuoi Tre about the Dong Nai 6 and 6 A hydropower plants that are planned to be built in the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve area, which includes the Cat Tien National Park. “Since the plan for building these two plants first appeared in the media, I, as well as many others from local to foreign organizations, have been very concerned about this issue,” Tri said. The reserve was recognized by UNESCO as the world’s 580th biosphere reserve on June 28, 2011 and has been highly valued by local and foreign scientists in terms of biological diversity, historical tradition and cultural space. In its recommendations on the issue of hydropower, UNESCO often mentions the conflict between the needs of development and the needs of conservation. Therefore, if the hydropower projects are carried out, this biosphere reserve will suffer the following impacts: the habitats of species will be divided and isolated, the landscape will be segmented, the ecological connectivity will be broken, and the ecological systems will be upset. Under such conditions many species will face further difficulties in living, seeking food and mating. Many of them, therefore, could face extinction. Moreover, in isolated and divided habitats, inbreeding - mating between biological relatives – will occur and this will result in genetic erosion that weakens the vitality of later generations, Tri. “We need to develop hydropower to have more electricity, but we cannot violate our international commitments in relation to biological diversity and conservation. “A hydropower plant can be relocated to a different location, but the biological diversity cannot,” Tri advised. “We often say ’development for conservation, conservation for development,’ which means economic development must be in harmony with environmental protection. “It is not a sustainable model of development if we insist on choosing concrete a as a replacement for green,” he said. Tri concluded that, ”therefore the building of the hydro plants in the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve will undermine the biological diversity in the reserve and affect the world tile of the reserve.”

As previously reported, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has requested that the project’s investor, Duc Long Gia Lai Group Joint Stock Company, review and perfect their environmental impact assessment report for the 6 and 6A hydropower plants before the ministry can verify and evaluate the report.