Within the framework of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee taking place in New Delhi, India from July 21 - July 31, 2024, the working delegation of Quang Ninh province led by Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh - Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Committee Quang Ninh - as the leader of the delegation, asked for advice from experts and UNESCO consulting agencies in building a dossier to expand criteria 10 on biodiversity of Ha Long Bay to propose to UNESCO for recognition.
According to UNESCO's regulations in the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, to become a world cultural and natural heritage, each heritage needs to achieve one of 10 criteria. Among them, criterion 10 is to contain the most important and meaningful natural habitats for the in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including places containing valuable threatened species. globally outstanding from a scientific or conservation perspective.
According to the Research Department - Ha Long Bay Management Board, the biological world in Ha Long Bay is very diverse and rich, containing a full range of species on land, in water, at lower and higher levels, and inhabits 10 different marine and forest ecosystems. To date, nearly 3,000 species of plants and animals living in the area have been counted, including 507 species of terrestrial plants, 278 species of phytoplankton, 141 species of zooplankton, 110 species of coral, 156 species of fish. sea, 71 species of birds, 53 species of mammals... The diversity of species on land and underwater has shown the biodiversity picture of Ha Long Bay, making Ha Long Bay an area with a large number of species. most known in Vietnam.
In addition, Ha Long Bay is also diverse in genetic resources. Many species living in Ha Long Bay have endemic, rare, medicinal genetic resources or have high economic value. Currently, scientists have identified 102 species that are threatened at different levels (64 animal species and 38 plant species).
Some groups of organisms are small in number but most of them carry genetic resources endemic to Ha Long Bay, typical of which are: Ha Long cave fish, Ha Long cave crab, Alpheoid shrimp, long-legged centipede... and 17 endemic plant species have been announced.
In addition, some other genetic sources are natural medicinal herbs, with preliminary estimates of about 357 species of plants and nearly 100 animals that can be used to make medicine. Some genetic resources have high economic value and are specialties for food and fine arts for export such as: abalone, snails, snails, snails, mussels, geoduck, prawns, crabs, sea cucumbers, pearl oysters, grouper fish...
If recognized, Ha Long Bay will have its third prestigious UNESCO title.
Ha Long Bay alone was recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage twice. The first time was on December 17, 1994, at the 18th Session in Phuket, Thailand, the World Heritage Committee recognized Ha Long Bay on the list of World Natural Heritage with exceptional global value in terms of aesthetic according to criterion 7 of the International Convention for the Protection of the World's Natural and Cultural Heritage.
The second time was on December 2, 2000, at the 24th General Meeting in Cairns city, Queensland, Australia, the World Heritage Committee recognized Ha Long Bay as a World Natural Heritage for the second time under the Criterion 8 on geological and geomorphological value.
By September 16, 2023, at the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba archipelago, Hai Phong was recognized by UNESCO as a Heritage Site. World Nature, becoming the first inter-province and city World Heritage Site in Vietnam.
