National Parks under the provinces are also considered a public service unit . The National Park Management Board is a public service unit under the Provincial People's Committee, assisting the Provincial People's Committee in performing the functions of managing, conserving and restoring natural resources of forests and seas, developing and protecting ecosystems, natural landscapes, scientific research, environmental education combined with ecotourism services according to Government regulations within the boundaries of the National Park.
The main tasks of the National Parks under specific provinces are:
- Organizing the management and protection of natural resources of the National Park, including: Implementing measures to sustainably develop biological resources, land resources, water resources and other natural resources; implementing measures to prevent and fight forest fires, prevent and control forest pests and diseases, promptly prevent acts of encroachment and destruction of forests, seas and the environment that cause damage to the National Park.
- Restore and preserve intact forest and marine ecosystems; preserve the biodiversity of the National Park; preserve and promote the value of natural landscapes and historical and cultural relics in the area.
- Coordinate with local authorities and functional agencies in: State management of forest resources; Establish investment projects to develop production and rural infrastructure in the buffer zone to stabilize the lives of the community, and at the same time establish regulations on the responsibilities of the community and each household in protecting and conserving the National Park; Organize the community in the buffer zone to participate in activities to protect, conserve, and rationally use forest products and natural resources, and ecotourism services, contributing to increasing income, linking people's livelihoods with the activities of the National Park.
- Organize scientific research on forest flora, marine flora, forest fauna, marine fauna (especially rare species of animals and plants) to preserve and develop the animals and plants of the National Park in accordance with regulations on scientific research in special-use forests.
- Select domestic and foreign organizations and individuals to cooperate, sponsor, invest in construction and scientific research at the National Park in accordance with the provisions of law and instructions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant ministries.
- Coordinate with relevant sectors: Develop ecotourism development projects in the National Park and submit them to competent authorities for approval; organize project implementation on the principle of not adversely affecting the ecosystem and forest and marine resources; not changing the natural landscape and environment of the National Park; creating revenue to invest in forest and marine management and protection and development of the National Park.
- Regularly organize propaganda and education to raise awareness of laws on protecting forests, seas, environment, and natural landscapes for communities living in the National Park and buffer zone.
- Organize the implementation of the goals and tasks of the national park construction investment project.
- Manage the organization, staff, officials, civil servants, finance, and assigned assets according to the provisions of law and decentralization of the Provincial People's Committee.
With the management model of national parks under the provinces, it shows that the core task of national parks is to protect forest resources and biodiversity, ecotourism activities have also been mentioned. However, due to the characteristics of special-use forests, especially national parks that are often located far from the center, in remote mountainous areas, investment in ecotourism exploitation is very expensive and the provincial budget is often not prioritized for this field.
3.1.2.2. Organizing ecotourism exploitation in national parks
* About organizational structure
In addition to the function of protecting forests and conserving biodiversity, national parks also have the function of environmental education and ecotourism business.
The current management model at national parks includes the Park Board of Directors, the Biodiversity Conservation Department, the Ecotourism and Environmental Education Department. Besides the fact that biodiversity conservation is considered quite successful, the exploitation of tourism potential at national parks has not been given due importance.
National parks under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have established centers for ecotourism services and environmental education, which are the departments for exploiting and trading ecotourism. National parks under provinces may or may not establish a tourism board depending on the location and potential of the national parks.
Board of Directors
Organization Department
administrative
Financial Planning Department
Department of Science & International Cooperation
Center for Tourism and Environmental Education
Forest Ranger Department
Diagram 3.3: Management diagram of national parks under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Board of Directors
Organization Department
administrative
Financial Planning Department
Department of Science & International Cooperation
Department of Science and Technology (DLST group)
Forest Ranger Department
Diagram 3.4: Organizational chart of provincial national parks
Ecotourism and environmental education centers in national parks are revenue-generating public service units under the national parks, with the function of assisting the Director of the national parks in managing, organizing and developing ecotourism and environmental education activities in the national parks. The tasks of these centers are:
- Organize, manage and develop ecotourism activities
+ Organize propaganda and promotion activities to attract tourists to visit the National Park.
+ Organize tourism types suitable to the planning and tourism development of the province and the National Park.
+ Manage and develop resources and facilities serving ecotourism activities of the National Park.
- Implement ecotourism services
+ Organize reception of visitors; provide food, accommodation, entertainment, and conference and seminar services.
+ Introduce and sell tourism products, souvenirs, and traditional local products.
- Carry out environmental education activities
+ Education and propaganda about the environment and sustainable forestry development, legal documents on nature conservation, knowledge about forest flora and fauna for tourists and local communities.
+ Carry out environmental sanitation work in the management area.
- Support the community in the National Park to participate in ecotourism activities, create jobs and increase income.
- Perform other duties
With the current organizational structure of the ecotourism exploitation department in national parks, the ecotourism business department is simply serving on-site guests. National parks do not have specialized departments in charge of researching the tourist market, promoting and attracting guests. Funding for this activity has not been invested in, thus reducing the effectiveness of exploiting this great potential source in national parks.
* About business results
In recent years, ecotourism has been strongly developed in national parks and nature reserves. However, the number of visitors here is still low, tourist areas have not met the needs of tourists, and the benefits from ecotourism areas are still modest. Among the 6 national parks under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, only a few units have revenue from ecotourism reaching 1 billion VND/year or more, namely Cat Tien, Cuc Phuong and Ba Vi national parks.
Table 3.2: Structure of revenue sources from tourists in 2009
Unit: VND
TT
Target | Chrysanthemum | Ba Vi | Cat Tien | Yok Don | White horse | |
1 | Admission tickets | 1,300,688,571 | 838,724,750 | 319,652,500 | 159,000,000 | |
Proportion (%) | 47.8 | 74.2 | 13.3 | 34.2 | ||
2 | H. reference eat and drink | 281,450,000 | 160,000,000 | 143,670,000 | 232,000 | |
Proportion (%) | 10.4 | 14.2 | 6.0 | 0.0 | ||
3 | Guest house | 1,078,649,881 | 0 | 1,003,183,500 | 227,806,950 | |
Proportion (%) | 39.7 | 0 | 41.7 | 49.0 | ||
4 | Transport guest | 0 | 0 | 900,508,000 | 50,000,000 | |
Proportion (%) | 0 | 0 | 37.4 | 10.8 | ||
5 | Parking | 0 | 131,535,500 | 0 | 18,025,000 | |
Proportion (%) | 0 | 11.6 | 0 | 3.9 | ||
6 | Eat and drink | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Proportion (%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
7 | Other income | 58,121,274 | 0 | 40,520,750 | 246,635,879 | 10,000,000 |
Proportion (%) | 2.1 | 0 | 1.7 | 100 | 2.2 | |
Total | 2,718,909,726 | 1,130,260,250 | 2,407,534,750 | 246,635,879 | 465,063,950 | |
Proportion (%) | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
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Source: Author's synthesis
Tourism activities in national parks have not been invested in, current tourism revenue is still mainly from entrance tickets (Ba Vi National Park accounts for 74.2%) and revenue from tour guides is very limited (Cuc Phuong National Park has 10.4%; Cat Tien National Park has 6.0%). Other types of services have almost no revenue in the structure of tourism revenue in national parks.
Although some parks have revenue from tourists of over 1 billion VND/year, these revenues are allocated to the National Park under 10% according to the fee and charge ordinance and the proportion of these revenues in the total regular budget of the park.
National Parks are still too low. On average, in the period 2006 - 2009 for National Parks under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the budget from collecting fees and charges left for the new parks only accounted for .6% of the regular budget; the state budget is still the main source, accounting for 92.% of the total regular budget of the parks.
The current status of exploiting the potential of ecotourism in national parks shows that the national parks have not exploited their potential advantages, the contribution of this rich resource to the development of the park is not significant, so there needs to be an appropriate mechanism to maximize the exploitation of this source of ecotourism in national parks, create sources of revenue for national parks, and limit dependence on the State budget.
Table 3.3: Structure of regular funding sources in the period 2006 - 2009 of national parks under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Unit: %)
Regular expenses
TT | National Parks | Budget grant | Fees be left | Production and business service | Total |
1 | Cuc Phuong | 80.4 | 16 | 3.6 | 100 |
2 | Ba Vi | 84.1 | 13.1 | 2.8 | 100 |
3 | Tam Dao | 98.1 | 0 | 1.9 | 100 |
4 | Cat Tien | 95.1 | 1.4 | 3.5 | 100 |
5 | Yok Don | 99.3 | 0 | 0.7 | 100 |
6 | White | 96.7 | 3 | 0.3 | 100 |
Medium | 92.3 | 5.6 | 2.1 | 100 |
Source: Author's synthesis
3.1.3. General comments on management and exploitation of ecotourism in Vietnam's national parks
Currently, Vietnam has established a system of special-use forests for the whole country, built criteria to form special-use forests (national parks, conservation areas, etc.), and special-use forests have been established across the entire territory of Vietnam.
In the South, most important natural ecosystems with endemic, endangered and rare species have been preserved and located in special-use forests.
The management system of these special-use forests depends on each type of special-use forest, such as at the central level managing 06 national parks, the rest are under the province, the construction and management are based on the Law on Forest Protection and Development 2004; Decision No. 62/200/QD-BNN, dated October 12, 2005 on promulgating criteria for classifying special-use forests; Decision No. 16/QD-TTg, dated August 14, 2006 on forest management regulations; Decree No.
2/2006/ND-CP, dated March 30, 2006 on the management of endangered, precious and rare forest plants and animals and Decree No. 117/2010/ND-CP, dated December 24, 2010 on the organization and management of the special-use forest system, this is the most complete decree ever, demonstrating the consistency in forest organization and management.
The system of organization and management of special-use forests has partly aimed at the goal of sustainable development in all three criteria: Economy - Society - Environment: Creating additional revenue for national parks, contributing to supplementing and supporting the state budget in conservation; Contributing to promoting local communities to participate in resource protection and ecotourism activities, contributing to creating more jobs, improving people's lives and promoting and promoting the national cultural identity in the locality; Through the connection between the authorities assigned to manage and protect forests and local people, forest resources have been increasingly protected, protected, developed, and the forest ecosystem has been increasingly preserved and developed.
The system of special-use forests has become places for scientific research, internships, sightseeing, relaxation, water resource protection, preservation of indigenous cultures and knowledge, biodiversity conservation, etc. However, the system of organization and management of special-use forests after a period of implementation still has some of the following shortcomings:
Regarding the management of national parks: The management system of special-use forests does not have a clear mechanism and the management is not unified. The whole country has 30 national parks, only 06 of which are under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the rest are under the Provincial People's Committee and the Department.
Agriculture and Rural Development of the provinces. This inconsistency has led to ineffective management and conservation of these national parks, with each place having its own way of doing things, disrupting the overall forest structure of the country, affecting forest quality and biodiversity.
Regarding planning and management organization: According to Decree No. 117/2010/ND-CP, dated December 24, 2010 of the Government on the organization and management of special-use forests, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development organizes the planning of special-use forests in the province and the Provincial People's Committee approves the planning of those special-use forests or has the right to adjust and change the purpose of use of those special-use forests. From the perspective of conservation and development: The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will make plans for special-use forests in the province, which is very difficult, because planning for special-use forests requires in-depth knowledge of conservation, which is different from land use planning. The approval, adjustment and change of purpose of use of special-use forests in the province by the Provincial People's Committee has a significant impact on the planning of special-use forests in the whole country because the conservation perspective has not been focused on in the local economic development strategy. It does not create a biodiversity corridor for border areas. Currently, the buffer zone of the special-use forest is under the management of local authorities, the special-use forest management boards only have the right to manage within the forest area under their management, while the establishment of the special-use forest buffer zone is to support the conservation, management and protection of the special-use forest, thus leading to a lack of unity in management and development planning for the area. In the planning of forest conservation and development, the locality has paid little attention and included it in the local general development plan and resolution. When developing the special-use forest, the development of the core zone and the buffer zone has not been linked, and there has not been harmonious development between the two zones.
Regarding finance: The budget for special-use forests is very low, the budget can be directly poured from the Central or the province, but this budget is only enough for the operating costs of the management board or if there is investment, it is mainly for basic construction, while the budget for conservation is very small and has not received much attention. Most of these budget sources are allocated according to the annual plan and based on the balance between the Central and provincial budgets, so this financial source is unstable, greatly affecting the work.