Building Stakeholder Awareness and Engagement Strategy to Enhance Biosphere Reserve Performance and Sustainability: The Case of Kien Giang, Vietnam.

Local application of the biosphere reserve concept in Kien Giang, Vietnam was examined to see how it compared with other biosphere reserves both in Vietnam and internationally and from that to assess the level of adoption and what could be limiting processes. This was undertaken mainly through qualitative document analysis, field surveys, and extensive interviews of stakeholders. While the designation the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve and establishment of the management regulation conformed with the conceptual model and criteria outlined by UNESCO, the practical implementation has been inadequate to achieve the desired outcomes of the biosphere reserve concept. There was limited public awareness and understanding of the biosphere reserve approach because of poorly developed communication channels. Top-down, state-control based on a strong sectoral approach to biosphere reserve planning and management hindered stakeholder and community participation. Weak engagement from the Province as the designated lead agency in biosphere reserve governance limited cross-sectoral collaboration in the delivery of the biosphere reserve mandated functions. External projects were perceived by community stakeholders to have only a temporary impact on biosphere reserve operation because of their small, short-term scale with the project maintaining control over funding and design of individual activities. Without proper investment in public awareness and improvement of Biosphere Reserve governance leadership, the desire for development of strategic public-private partnerships to support implementation remains unfulfilled and the Biosphere Reserve model will, as a consequence, contribute little to the long-term biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development in the region.

Biosphere reserves: Attributes for success.

Biosphere reserves established under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program aim to harmonise biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Concerns over the extent to which the reserve network was living up to this ideal led to the development of a new strategy in 1995 (the Seville Strategy) to enhance the operation of the network of reserves. An evaluation of effectiveness of management of the biosphere reserve network was called for as part of this strategy. Expert opinion was assembled through a Delphi Process to identify successful and less successful reserves and investigate common factors influencing success or failure. Ninety biosphere reserves including sixty successful and thirty less successful reserves in 42 countries across all five Man and the Biosphere Program regions were identified. Most successful sites are the post-Seville generation while the majority of unsuccessful sites are pre-Seville that are managed as national parks and have not been amended to conform to the characteristics that are meant to define a biosphere reserve. Stakeholder participation and collaboration, governance, finance and resources, management, and awareness and communication are the most influential factors in the success or failure of the biosphere reserves. For success, the biosphere reserve concept needs to be clearly understood and applied through landscape zoning. Designated reserves then need a management system with inclusive good governance, strong participation and collaboration, adequate finance and human resource allocation and stable and responsible management and implementation. All rather obvious but it is difficult to achieve without commitment to the biosphere reserve concept by the governance authorities.