Ecosystem assessment of Cuu Long river Delta wetland, Vietnam

Abstract

The Cuu Long river Delta, covering majority of the downstream portion of the Mekong Delta, has four diverse wetland ecosystems in Dong Thap Muoi: coastal, inland, coastal estuarine and special wetland ecosystems. In the past decades, these ecosystems and their services (especially provisioning ecosystem) have been strongly exploited that resulted to its declining ability to meet increasing human demand for natural resources. Based on analysis of trends of change in ecosystems and their services, drivers of change in ecosystems and their services in the Cuu Long River Delta are rapid population growth, economic development pressure and management. Recommendation on management responses at macro-level for the whole region and at micro-level for provinces and environment and natural resource sectors were formulated based on the condition and trend assessment and driver analysis.