Growing populations in the Lower Mekong region of Vietnam could undermine sustainable conservation efforts unless measures are taken to ensure development activities do not overrun local capacity.
As the number of people living in protected areas increases, so too does agricultural intensification, infrastructure expansion, hunting and logging, along with associated threats, such as forest fires.
“An expansion of the local population will put some pressure on the national parks, but what’s more important are the changes in lifestyle to more unsustainable practices,” said Luke Preece, PhD student at Charles Darwin University and co-author of Evidence-based Conservation: Lessons from the Lower Mekong launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress yesterday.
Protected areas are the first, and often only, line of defence in efforts to protect biodiversity. Their potential to benefit or harm local communities depends on how they alter both economic opportunities and access to natural resources. As such, protected areas may attract or repel human settlement. Disproportionate spikes in population growth near protected area boundaries may also threaten their ability to conserve biodiversity.
Vietnam is one of the most densely populated agricultural states on the planet, according to World Development Indictors. Just less than three-quarters of its 88 million people live in rural areas, of which nearly a fifth live in poverty. A disproportionate number of these rural poor are ethnic minorities, who tend to live in protected areas.
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