SUSTAINABLE HUMAN SETTLEMENTS IN CAN GIO MANGROVE FOREST - A UNESCO WORLD BIOSPHERE RESERVE OF VIETNAM

Abstract

Along with the title given by UNESCO to be the first World Biosphere Reserve of Vietnam in the year 2000, Cần Giờ, a district south of Hồ Chí Minh City (same size as Singapore and with a huge mangrove forest of 40,000 hectares) has reasons be optimistic about its future. Currently considered the poorest rural district directly belonging to Hồ Chí Minh City with most of its inhabitants earning less than 2USD/day, Cần Giờ is facing a difficult puzzle of preserving its precious 30years old -replanted mangrove forest ecosystem and providing the local inhabitants with a decent living environment and livelihoods.Biosphere Reserves as defined by UNESCO are protected areas that are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between Man and Nature (e.g. sustainable development). So the challenge for design here is to study and design the best possibly sustainable human settlements in this mangrove forest. The end-users of these communities might not only comprise about 5000 families still currently living here and there (on a subsistence level) in the forest, but also those urban people who have been fed up with the increasingly polluted and over-materialized life of Hồ Chí Minh City (or elsewhere) who consciously choose to settle here in the future, for a new life. The design approach therefore is from a low-tech, self-sufficient perspective utilizing all the resources available onsite, to support the communities’ inhabitants economically, socially and environmentally. It is less of a philosophical question but rather a practical, realistic approach is intended for this design with this real situation. If successfully done even at a theoretical level, this flagship settlement-model in the mangrove forest could be the model for Vietnam (or other countries) to use and adapt to other regions with the same ecological background, which hopefully can help answering the great puzzle of the relationship between Man and Nature that UNESCO has long pondering upon.