Cat Ba is nominated and championed for World Heritage Sites by Hai Phong

Haiphong city leaders held a meeting with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on September 28 to consider Haiphong’s dossier seeking a UNESCO title for its Cat Ba islands.

The meeting was an essential requirement in the approval process of the nomination for Cat Ba to become a World Natural Heritage site.

IUCN expert Peter Hitchcock introduced steps to review nominations and the Haiphong working session is the third step in the process of evaluation.

IUCNs experts will visit the site and send an evaluation report to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to consider the next step.

Chairman of the Haiphong municipal People’s Committee Duong Anh Dien confirmed that the government of Vietnam and local administration pay due attention to conserving biological diversity on Cat Ba islands. 

He assured his guests that Haiphong will do as much as it can to win UNESCO recognition. 

At the meeting, representatives of the Institute of Marine Environment and Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, and the management board of Cat Ba archipelago presented the outstanding features of the heritage.

After the event, IUCN experts will make a fact-finding tour around Cat Ba archipelago until October 3. 

Cat Ba archipelago was recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve in 2005. 

Located some 45 kilometers east of Haiphong and 150 kilometers southeast of Hanoi, Cat Ba covers more than 17,000 hectares of land and 9,200 hectares of sea. 

It boasts a typical ecological system in Vietnam, including tropical rain forests on limestone islands, mangrove forests, coral reefs, sea grass, sand beaches and mysterious caves. 

Cat Ba is home to some 2,320 different types of fauna and flora, including 740 land animals, 280 forest species, 540 seabed creatures, 200 fish species, 180 coral reef organisms, 80 sea grass species and 20 different wetland plants.