Quang Ninh province expects UNESCO to consider recognizing cultural criteria and biodiversity criteria according to the 1972 Convention for Ha Long Bay.
If successful, this will be the third time Ha Long Bay has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Currently, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province is making a report to ask for opinions from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) on this issue.
Along with that, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province is also reporting to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and submitting to the Government a plan to preserve, restore and promote the heritage value of Ha Long Bay in the new period.
The focus is on continuing to research and supplement scientific data on the two values previously recognized by UNESCO; researching, identifying and clarifying the cultural, historical and biodiversity values of Ha Long Bay...
Ha Long Bay has been recognized twice by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage, the first time in 1994, with the title of Natural Heritage for the criterion of outstanding global landscape value and the second time for the criterion of geology and geomorphology in 2000.
In addition to its outstanding global value in terms of natural landscape, geology and geomorphology recognized by UNESCO, Ha Long Bay also contains many other scientific values, especially cultural and historical values, creating a special attraction, which was proposed by experts from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to study and prepare a dossier to propose UNESCO to consider and list it as a world heritage site.
According to research documents, the Ha Long Bay area is identified as one of the cradles of ancient Vietnamese settlement. The earliest traces of human presence in the Ha Long Bay area belong to the owner of the Soi Nhu culture (dating from 18,000 - 7,000 years ago), followed by the owner of the Cai Beo culture (dating from 7,000 - 5,000 years ago) and finally the Ha Long culture (dating from 5,000 - 3,500 years ago).
Ha Long Bay and its surrounding areas have also recorded many famous cultural and historical events of the nation from the feudal period to the modern period. With its important strategic location, as early as the 12th century (1149) under the reign of King Ly Anh Tong, Van Don trading port was established in the Ha Long Bay area. In the history of building and defending the country, Ha Long Bay is also the place that marks the heroic feats of the Vietnamese people.
Ha Long Bay also contains unique intangible cultural values of the fishing community that once lived on the bay, with unique cultural features of the fishing village community.
Meanwhile, in terms of biodiversity value, Ha Long Bay is considered an area of high biodiversity value, with over 3,000 species of flora and fauna living in many diverse ecosystems typical of limestone sea areas, such as: pine ecosystem, cave ecosystem, coral reef ecosystem, mangrove ecosystem, evergreen forest ecosystem on limestone mountains...
Among them are 17 endemic plant species of Ha Long Bay; many rare and precious animal and plant species are threatened at different levels as recorded in the Vietnam Red Book and the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
