Map of Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve

- Analyze the capacity of community-based organizations to implement a particular project and find options to make projects more effective.

- Evaluation of a specific organization, activity or project area involves using the following methods:

- Assess an organization's ability to perform activities.

- Assess potential project areas for activities.

- Evaluate specific programs related to community needs

Chapter 3

NATURAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

3.1. Natural conditions

3.1.1. Geographical location

Van Long National Park has geographical coordinates: From 20 0 20'55" to 20 0 25'45" north latitude; From 105 0 48'00" to 105 0 54'30" east longitude.

- Boundary: Located in 07 communes including Gia Hung, Lien Son, Gia Hoa, Gia Van, Gia Lap, Gia Tan and Gia Thanh communes, Gia Vien district, Ninh Binh province[1, 13].

- The Management Board's office is located in Tap Ninh village, Gia Van commune, Gia Vien district, Ninh Binh province (as shown in Figure 3.1).

Figure 3.1: Map of Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve

3.1.2. Terrain

Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve has a low-lying terrain between rivers and is one of the largest low-lying areas of Ninh Binh province located in the Southeast of the Northern Delta. The massive limestone mountains occupy nearly ¾ of the area of the nature reserve, running in the Northwest - Southeast direction.

The highest peak on this mountain range is 428m. The surface is strongly dissected, with typical terrain being steep, overlapping slopes, jagged peaks with sharp, pointed cat-ear rocks. Large Karst valleys and fields are rarely seen, but small basins under 10ha such as Tranh valley are often seen... At the foot of the limestone mountains, there are often many frog jaws and flooded caves. The boundary between the foot of the limestone mountain ranges and the flooded lowlands is also interspersed with some low slate hills scattered in the area with a height not exceeding 50m.

3.1.3. Climate - hydrology

Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve has an average annual temperature ranging from 23.3 0 C - 23.4 0 C. The cold season starts from the end of November and ends in early March, mainly influenced by the Northeast monsoon. The hottest temperature in July is on average >29 0 C, the lowest temperature is 5 0 C and the highest is 39 0 C. Rainfall is average, ranging from 1800mm - 1900mm, unevenly distributed between seasons. The rainy season lasts from the end of April to the end of October, accounting for 88-90% of the total annual rainfall. The heaviest rain is in August and September, with some days having rainfall up to 451mm[1].

Hydrological system: in the area there are 3 large river systems that affect the hydrological regime in the nature reserve, namely Day River, Boi River and Hoang Long River with many small branches and streams such as Lang River, Canh River. In addition, in the nature reserve there are also some small streams flowing into Van Long lagoon such as Tep stream and some caves in limestone mountains that supply water to Cut lagoon and Van Long lagoon. The characteristics of the large rivers are small slopes, winding

The area is winding and has many small rivers connecting large rivers, creating a fairly dense network.

3.1.4. Land structure

According to the statistics of Gia Vien district[22], by the end of 2019, the total agricultural land area of 7 communes in the conservation area was 6,559.1 hectares, accounting for 75.17% of the total natural area of 7 communes (as shown in Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2: Land structure of communes in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve

It can be seen that currently, agricultural land area accounts for the largest proportion with 6,559.1 hectares. Of which, Gia Hung commune has an agricultural land area of 1,373.34 hectares, accounting for 85.24% of the natural area and the commune with the lowest agricultural land area is Gia Tan commune with 443.26 hectares, accounting for 55.83% of the natural area. In general, the communes in the KBT all have an agricultural land area accounting for more than 55% of the total natural land area.

3.2. Socio-economic characteristics

3.2.1. Population and labor:

Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve is planned on the area of 7 communes: Gia Hung, Lien Son, Gia Hoa, Gia Van, Gia Lap, Gia Tan and Gia Thanh. Gia Hoa commune alone has 3 villages: Vuon Thi, Gong Vo and Doi Ngo; Gia Hung commune has 2 villages: Hoa Tien and Cot which are also located in the core area of the nature reserve with 438 households and 2,573 people. The remaining villages of the 7 communes above are the buffer zone of the nature reserve[1].

Data on area, population, labor and poor households living in the buffer zone and core zone of Van Long NKNN are shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1: Summary of data on area, population, labor force and poor households living in the core and buffer zones of Van Long wetland nature reserve

Commune	Natural area (ha)	Population		Density Ng/ km 2	Labor		Poor household
Commune	Natural area (ha)	Total households	Total population	Density Ng/ km 2	Number	Proportion (%)	Number of households	Proportion (%)
I	Core and buffer zones	8,727	14,876	54,425	624	25,450	46.76	1,235	8.30
1	Gia Hung	1.611	1,926	7,679	477	3,876	50.48	210	10.90
2	Lien Son	671	1,725	6,599	984	3.425	51.90	146	8.50
3	Gia Hoa	2,783	2,364	9,245	333	4,354	47.10	95	4.02
4	Gia Van	1,087	1.825	6,582	606	3,215	48.85	181	10.02
5	Gia Lap	898	2,356	8,314	926	3,570	43.04	177	7.51
6	Gia Tan	794	2,562	9,220	1162	4,089	44.34	280	10.93
7	Gia Thanh	883	2.118	6,786	769	2,921	43.04	146	6.89
II	GV District	17,846	39,485	129,868	728	78,860	60.72	3,789	9.60

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(Source: Gia Vien District Statistics Office 2019)

According to 2019 statistics, the population of 7 communes has 14,876 households with

54,425 people. The least populated commune is Gia Van commune with 6,582 people and the most populated commune is Gia Hoa commune with 9,245 people. The average density is 624 people/km 2 . The average population growth rate is 1.8%. Table 3.2 also shows that the areas of communes with main tourist routes are quite large, namely Gia Hung commune, Gia Hoa commune and Gia Van commune. The relatively high number of people in working age creates favorable conditions for tourism development in the area.

3.2.2. Characteristics of development of health, culture and education

- Health: Village health facilities have not been built yet, and have not met the initial medical examination and treatment needs of the people. In the 5 core villages of the protected area, 4 villages have village nurses (except Cot village), but their professional qualifications are not high, and equipment and medicines have not been invested in. Commune health stations have not fully met the medical examination and treatment needs of the people in the area.

- Education: 100% of school-age children go to school. All communes in the area have primary and secondary schools. The school facilities of 7 communes have been newly built, more spacious and larger in scale, meeting the learning needs of local children.

3.2.3. Infrastructure characteristics

- Irrigation: Dam Cut flood prevention project is the largest irrigation project in the region. In some projects, 03 pumping stations have been built. These projects help local people prevent floods, increase agricultural production and provide domestic water for a part of the population.

- Rural traffic: There are 20km of concrete roads on the Cut lagoon dike and 15km of concrete roads surrounding the Conservation Area. Most of the inter-village and inter-commune roads also have concrete roads.

- The infrastructure at the administrative service area of the KBT is in the process of completion and putting into use items such as: Specimen display house, expert area, community education house, botanical garden, which are good conditions for management and tourism business exploitation. In addition, the KBT Management Board has called for investment in 08 Forest Protection Stations at locations

key points of the KBT. Gia Hung, Gia Hoa and Gia Van communes have built 3 boat docks to serve tourism exploitation activities.

3.2.3.1. Economic development situation in the region

Currently, this area is mainly agricultural production, the tourism economy has initially developed since 2010, but unevenly and only concentrated in Tap Ninh village, Gia Van commune. Small-scale handicrafts and other industries are slow to develop, the average income per capita is low at 1,200,000 VND/month [22], the life of people in the area near the nature reserve is still difficult.

- Agricultural production:

+ Cultivation: The main products are rice, cassava and short-term agricultural crops such as peanuts and sugarcane, which account for very little. In general, the products per capita are not high, leading to food shortages. Therefore, this is also the cause and pressure on the conservation area.

+ Livestock: People in the KBT mainly focus on raising Buffalo, Cow, Pig, Chicken, and Goat. However, the quantity is small, fragmented and not through the selection process, so the productivity is not high. In particular, the livestock grazing here is not planned and has no development strategy, so it also has a significant impact on the conservation of natural resources.

- Industry and construction: There is an industrial park in Gia Tan commune and a number of factories and enterprises located in the remaining communes, which have partly created jobs for a part of the local population, reducing pressure on natural resources.

- Trade - services: Business and service activities in the area are not really vibrant. Organizations and businesses are in the investment stage and initially exploiting the potential of tourism activities. Thus, it can be seen that the economic development situation in the area is still low, tourism is just starting to develop. Only concentrated in some places, not widely developed. Trading services have not been invested heavily.

Chapter 4

RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Current status of ecotourism development in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve.

4.1.1. Tourism business results over the years according to industry targets

4.1.1.1. Tourists

Tourists to Van Long are mainly international tourists (France, Korea, Japan), tourists with high spending ability. Through tourism activities, it has partly contributed to improving people's lives, shifting the economic structure from agriculture to tourism services in accordance with the orientation of the Party and the State.

Statistics on the number of tourists to Van Long from 2017 to 2019 are shown in Table 4.1

Table 4.1: Number of tourists to Van Long Nature Reserve (2017 - 2019)

Unit: Number of visitors

Tourist	2017	2018	2019
1	Visitors to Van Long Nature Reserve	42,608	56,200	61,355
1.1	International guests	36,120	48,860	51,675
1.2	Domestic guests	6,488	7,340	9,680

(Source: Gia Van Commune People's Committee Statistics Office 2020)

Through the table above, it can be seen that the number of tourists coming to Van Long in 2019 increased by 18,747 people compared to 2017 thanks to better and better tourism promotion to tourists.

4.1.1.2. Tourism facilities

In recent years, the reception center in Gia Van commune has called for and attracted 5 investment projects in tourism business facilities with

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