National park in Kien Giang builds digital map for fighting forest fires
The U Minh Thuong National Park in the Mekong Delta’s Kien Giang province has built a digital map on areas at high risk of forest fires in an attempt to prevent and tackle such disasters during the 2020-2021 dry season, Deputy Director of the park Tran Van Thang has said.
A corner of the U Minh Thuong National Park (Photo: VNA)
Kien Giang (VNA) - The U Minh Thuong National Park in theMekong Delta’s Kien Giang province has built a digital map on areas at high riskof forest fires in an attempt to prevent and tackle such disasters during the2020-2021 dry season, Deputy Director of the park Tran Van Thang has said.
The park has also devised measures to fight forest fires and deploypersonnel along with vehicles in wildfire suppression efforts, so as tominimise losses as concerns rise about widespread and prolonged heat anddrought.
It has taken the initiative in water storage for firefighting and the developmentof cajuput forests, as well as strengthened six sluices and built two dykes.Seven reservoirs have been dredged and consolidated.
Four teams with up to 10 members each have been assigned to keep watch aroundthe clock in areas spanning 1,115 ha at high risk of forest fires, while communicationson forest protection and forest fire prevention have been bolstered.
Straddling Kien Giang’s An Minh Bac and Minh Thuan districts, the UMinh Thuong National Park covers a natural area of more than 8,537 ha,including 8,038 ha set for special-use forests.
As of the end of 2020, its forest area neared 6,485 ha./.
The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang will spend about 80.3 trillion VND (3.45 billion USD) on promoting safe, sustainable and effective agricultural production in the 2021-2025 period, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Vietnam has nine biosphere reserves with a total area of 4 million hectares, accounting for 12.1 percent of the country’s total natural land area. These reserves are home to 1.78 million people.
The U Minh Thuong National Park is the fifth biosphere reserve in Vietnam recognised by UNESCO and the eighth ramsar site in the country. It is a tourist site that should not be missed when visiting the Mekong delta province of Kien Giang.
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According to Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment Le Huu Toan, a fire prevention and control plan has been in place since the dry season began, including round-the-clock patrols and rapid-response teams to snuff out fires before they could spread.
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Its Forest Protection Sub-department has applied various specialised software and information technologies in forest management and protection and fire prevention.
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A corner of the U Minh Thuong National Park (Photo: VNA) 
