Nature conservation: People are the “key” to all solutions

Don’t isolate people from conservation

The 2011 – 2020 Decade of Biodiversity launched by the United Nations has ended. The message of the Secretary General at that time, Mr. Ban Ki-moon was: “humanity should live in more harmony with nature, maintain and manage the diversity of nature for the development of humanity” was not received. fully implemented. The degradation of biodiversity continues. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic lasting from the beginning of 2020 until now is a wake-up call for awareness and promotes human action for nature.

Still concerned about the biodiversity crisis the world is facing, Professor. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh – ASEAN Biodiversity Hero cited evidence: According to United Nations predictions, in the near future, about 1 million species will be lost if we do not have a solution. That is a huge disadvantage for economic development and the environment.

For Vietnam – one of the 16 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world, biodiversity is also under increasing pressure due to human activities and climate change. To preserve biodiversity, Vietnam has built a fairly complete legal system, such as the Law on Environmental Protection, the Law on Biodiversity, guiding documents on the Law, and National Strategies on Diversity. biology… However, in addition to legal regulations, it is necessary to focus on practical solutions that directly impact people’s behavior and lives, and are suitable for the local community so that people can participate in conservation work.

Specifically, according to GS. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh, currently, Vietnam has 176 special-use forests, with about 24 – 25 million people living near places with high biodiversity. To attract millions of people to protect forests and conserve biodiversity, they must improve their livelihoods. If people can live from the forest, get rich from the forest and have the right to enjoy the benefits of biodiversity for their families, they will be willing to stand up and protect it.

“The most important thing is that in nature reserves, we should collect and invite local officials and ethnic people there to protect them, do not separate them from the reserve, that is, the people and the conservation are equal. One, if not for conservation, isolating people will never be able to preserve. Up to now, some National Parks have learned the lesson of attracting some deforestation people to return to protect the forest. They protect the forest better than others because they know the way around, they are local people there. Therefore, we need to respect them and try to attract them back” – Professor. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh emphasized.

Must listen and respect people’s knowledge

Recognizing the particularly important role of people in biodiversity conservation, Professor. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh highly values ​​the value of indigenous knowledge existing in residential communities. Currently, although information from the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is very important, please do not forget that people’s knowledge accumulated over many generations is also extremely valuable.

According to Professor. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh, “Although farmers are not scientists or intellectuals, they are clearly people with a lot of knowledge. They come from rice fields, from muddy feet, and have great knowledge. They have initiatives to plant this tree and raise that child. That is something precious. To promote that, the policy mechanism is not strong enough. Therefore, in conservation work, we must pay attention to policy mechanisms, respect people, and listen to people’s opinions.”

To encourage people to be more active in biodiversity conservation, Professor. Huynh proposed that a mechanism is needed to help people convert crops and livestock, and boldly allocate land and forests. Land and forest allocation needs a longer period of time so that people’s rights are guaranteed.

Clearly point out the issue of agricultural and forestry extension regimes, although they exist, they are not specific, sometimes they do not reach close to the people, and do not go close to each land area; Because the ecosystem of each land and water area is completely different, plants and animals must be suitable; Professor Dang Huy Huynh offered a solution: “So we must listen to people’s opinions, from planning to supervision. That helps them see that protecting this resource, protecting this tree, this land, is protecting their family, their children, and they will participate themselves. This is both beneficial for the economy and beneficial for protecting our environment now and in the future.”