RISK ASSESSMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE ECOTOURISM

DEVELOPMENT IN THE MANGROVE BIOSPHERE RESERVE OF

CAN GIO, HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
Ngo Thanh Loan

University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City
Email: loanngothanh@hcmussh.edu.vn

ABSTRACT
The ecosystem of mangrove forest plays not only an important role to regulate and to protect the natural
environment but it is also to offer a special natural resource for ecotourism activities. In the other hand, eecotourism
activities bring economic benefits and contribute positively to the conservation of the mangrove forest areas as
well as to enhancing the awareness of visitors about the environment. However, the fact has shown that the way
of organizing the tourist activities by itself can create some risks to the sustainability of ecotourism. This article
evaluates the risks to the ecotourism in Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve which might arise from the tourists
and the way of organizing the tourist activities in there. The identification of risks is a practical and useful move,
from which recommendations for a more effective and sustainable exploitation of ecotourism in Can Gio
Mangrove Forest Reserve are made.
Keywords: ecotourism, risk assessment, risks to ecotourism, Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve.

INTRODUCTION
The Mangrove Biosphere Reserve of Can Gio is the first World Biosphere Reserve in
Vietnam recognized by UNESCO on January 21, 2000. The Reserve has been established in
downstream of Dong Nai river system, in the south-eastern gateway of Ho Chi Minh City, on
a total area of 75,740 hectares, with a unique system of flora and fauna which is typical to a
mangrove area (Can Gio Protected Forest Management Board). Besides its essential role of
conservation of biodiversity, the Mangrove Biosphere Reserve of Can Gio has been planned to
be one of important ecotourism sites in Southern Vietnam.
However, the fact has shown that there have been risk factors affecting the sustainable
development of ecotourism activities in Can Gio. From these observations, the author and her
research collaborators have conducted a study in order to assess the risks to the ecotourism in
the Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve. Through it, a number of risk factors from the nature,
economic activities of inhabitants and from the tourism itself have been taken into account.
Based on the identified and assessed risk factors, the study has proposed a number of solutions
to limit short term and long term risks, to manage the risks more effectively and to ensure the
principles of developing ecotourism.
OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY
Ecotourism is defined in the Vietnam Law on Tourism (2017) as a form of nature-based
tourism, linked to the culture of the localities and organized with the participation of the
community for sustainable development.
According to the Handbook for Ecotourism Development of the Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism, the ecotourism should meet at least 2 of the following 4 principles:
1. It operates in natural areas which are protected or less disturbed, have its unique
ecosystem, high biodiversity with at least one rare and endangered living creature listed
in Vietnam Red Book or World Red Book.

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 2. It is associated with the purposes of conservation, and so ecotourism is usually
organized for small group of visitors; it uses small-scale and environmental friendly
technical infrastructure, means and facilities; it does not alter the integrity and natural
process of the ecosystem or decrease the biodiversity; it encourages the mechanism of
generating the revenues from ecotourism which are used to invest in the conservation
of natural resources and the environment.
3. It is highly educational, not only to tourists but also to the tourist sector and the local
community.
4. It contributes to the economic development of the locality, attracts the active
participation of the community and maximizes the benefits to the community in the
localities where the activities of ecotourism take place (Pham Phuong, 2013).
This article focuses on the survey outcomes related to the principles 2 and 3, and at the
same time is limited within the analysis of risks arising from the current situation of tourist
exploitation. The objectives are (1) to identify the risk factors which tend to negatively affect
the ecotourism at tourist sites within the Mangrove Biosphere Reserve of Can Gio; (2) to assess
the risk level of these factors, and thereby (3) to recommend solutions for a better management
of tourism activities in order to ensure a sustainable ecotourism for this area.
The main methods used for the study are analysing the secondary data, surveying by
questionnaires in combination with in-depth interviews.
While the secondary data is collected from research reports, statistics and legal
documents of Can Gio district and Ho Chi Minh municipality, the primary one is gathered from
multi sources, such as:
- Expert consulting (researchers and managers) in form of a round table discussion and
personal interviews.
- In depth interview with 6 staffs of tourist sites and 15 families working as contracting
rangers
- Questionnaires administered with 110 tourists in Vam Sat and Lam Vien tourist sites.
Tools for data analyzing include risk assessment matrix, GIS and SPSS. We have tried
to combine qualitative with quantitative approaches to assemble the evaluation outcomes and
to propose the necessary solutions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Risks in tourism are defined as potential risks which can lead to the instability or even
failure of tourist operations. Through surveys and records from many field visits, some risks to
the ecotourism in Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve have been identified and assessed as
the followings:
1. Risks from the way of organizing the ecotourism activities
The ecotourism is now mainly operating in the area of Lam Vien Can Gio, Vam Sat
Ecotourism Area, Dan Xay Ecotourism Area. Risks generated from the tourism will mainly
affect the forest at locations with tourist activities. Although those are only local impacts within
limited boundaries, it is still possible that other sub-areas of the mangrove forest will also be

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affected by the rapid development of the tourist industry. Through our surveys, the following
sources of risk can be indentified:
a) Establishment of infrastructural facilities and services.
To serve the tourists, a system of infrastructural facilities and services have been built
inside the forest. These include the expansion of Rung Sac road, the construction of many
service facilities inside the forest (Lam Vien, Vam Sat) ... The permanent tourist activities have
caused many changes to the ecological conditions and characteristics of these areas. As a result,
the natural landscape of the forest - which attracts the tourists – may also be degraded and
gradually lose its great value. In addition, the impacts on the growth of the forest have also been
noted "along the Rung Sac road, abnormal death of many mangrove typical trees have been
recorded". (Trung Thanh, 2011).
Equipments serving the tourist activities at the touristic sites have negative impacts on
the natural growth cycles of the forest and wild life. To be specific, those are the night lighting
system of service facilities, noise of machineries and noise from transportation means such as
speed boats, motorised vessels, cars and tourist buses...
Tourists have quite good comments and assessment regarding the equipment at the
tourist sites for serving the sanitation and protection of the environment. All the three tourist
sites are equipped with enough waste bins (76.4% of the answers), toilets (76.4%) and drainage
system (64.4%). However, when asked about the use of these facilities, most of tourists are not
satisfied as the garbage bins and toilets are still unclean. However, the answers to our interviews
reflected that such situations are due to the visitors’ negligence while using these facilities.
b) Organization of entertainment activities and conservation tasks:
In the opinion of visitors, the organization of some entertainment activities in the tourist
sites (circus of animals, crocodile fishing, sales of food for animal feeding...) has most disputable
effects on the environment. Moreover, in our opinion these activities are not appropriate with
the principles of conserving the nature and promoting the love of nature.
The care and conservation of wild life still have many shortcomings. “The landscape is
beautiful but the care of wild life is still problematic. Although animals are not locked in cages,
the way of feeding them makes the visitors feel the atmosphere of a zoo and not in the middle
of nature” (Ms. Huong, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City). The most obvious consequences of
selling food for monkeys to tourists are the monkeys become aggressive, the environment is
polluted by solid waste (from food packaging, empty water bottle,…) and the natural landscape
in some places has also changed.
Agreeing with the opinions on not giving any feed to the monkeys, Mr. Nguyen Pham
Thuan (Dan Xay Tourist Site) said: “According to scientists, the way of looking after the
monkeys in Can Gio is currently improper. Giving cooked food to the monkeys will make
changes to their digestive system. As monkeys are carnivores, constinuously feeding them like
that will make it difficult for them to return back to the wild life as they lose their ability of self-
surviving in natural environment. Moreover, feeding them one time is not a big deal, but being
fed continously they will get a habit of waiting for feed, and gradually their next generations
will lose the ability of hunting. Once being returned to the forest, they will lose their ability of

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self-surviving or in other words it will be difficult for them to survive for having lost their
natural behaviors and their ability of resistance becomes weak”
c) Environmental education
This is an indispensable activity in ecotourism which makes it different to other tourism
forms. When asked through which channel of information they expect to obtain more
knowledge about the mangrove forest ecosystem, most tourists prefer to get it from a tourist
guide (72/94 answers, accounting for 76.6%). Next answer is through the items displayed in
showrooms (25/94 - 26.6%) and leaflets (19/94 - 20.2%). In particular, 3 tourists want to hear the
introduction of the area from the locals themselves, as after them, they can learn more about
how local people live in this particular ecological environment. This is the main objective of
the ecotourism. However, except for Dan Xay Ecotourism Site, in other sites the enhancement
of awareness and education about the environmental protection are not organized good enough.
In Lam Vien Can Gio area, there is a small museum introducing the history of Can Gio
area and displaying the specimens of faune and flora in the mangrove forest. But, according to
visitors, the museum is not attractive as it has a small size, dirty and ruined by the monkeys.
We randomly asked 20 different visitors and most of them had not entered the museum because
they didn't care or didn't find it as attractive or “the tourists already came in the museum but
they came out quickly as they could not find any tourit guide”
Leaflets and guide manuals are not much and only promote the tourist site and services
instead of providing the information about the mangrove forest.
d) Staffs at the eco-touristic sites:
According to Mr. Thuan (Dan Xay Ecotourism Site), "the staffs (of the site) are mainly
people coming from other localities, but they have settled definitely in Can Gio and most of
them have seniority in their profession…Most of the employees work in contrary with their
qualifications; they graduated from forestry and environmental studies ... but they got trained
to become tourist guide".
By interviewing 6 tourist guides at Vam Sat and Lam Vien ecotourism sites, we realized
that they all knew that "they are working in ecotourism". However, “their knowledge have been
gained mainly from practical observation and experiences collected during their working time
in this forest” (Mr. Minh, security guard and tourist guide in Lam Vien site).
In addition, the number of people who truly understand the principles of ecotourism
and, more importantly, who practice correctly these principles is very little. In fact, the
interviews showed that most of the staffs have basic knowledge about the mangrove forest for
introducing to the visitors, but when asked “What should be done to develop more the
ecotourism?” one person answered that he doesn’t know, all other answers are not appropriate
to the principles of ecotourism, such as “there should be a big boats to serve large groups of
visitors”, “should invest in more infrastructural facilities”, “to expand more promenades, more
services”...
In summary, according to our initial assessment, the biggest risk of developing the
ecotourism in there is the lack of human resources with ecotourism qualifications and skills.
The organization of sightseeing activities associated with environmental education is more or

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less focussed by the tourist sites. However, except for Dan Xay Ecotourism Site, which operates
quite professionally, in other tourist sites the objective of orienting the tourists’ awareness about
conserving the nature is not effective enough. Although there are activities to enable visitors
get closer to the nature, the organization of activities in the ecotourism site has not yet fully
met the principles of minimizing negative the impacts on the natural environment.
If no solution is implemented to minimize and manage these risks, the danger of losing
the meaning of ecotourism and causing damages to the mangrove forest, in particular, and the
natural ecosystem, in general, is very high.
2. Risks from visitors
a) Number of visitors
According to the Office of Economy of Can Gio District, the number of visitors during
public holidays is increasing more and more. The number of visitors coming to Can Gio in
recent years is as follows:

Year Number of visitors

2015 655,300
2016 1.006,500
2017 1,552,000
First six months of 2018 975,000
It is forecasted that the number of tourists will continue to increase in the future because
of the increasing demand for travelling, to the upgrade of Rung Sac road (main connection
between city center and the mangrove forest) and to better promotion for Can Gio tourism by
city authorities.
Based on calculations by Le Duc Tuan (2006), the maximum welcoming capacity of
Can Gio tourist destinations is 25,350 visitors / day. And after the Ho Chi minh City Department
of Tourism, Lam Vien Can Gio can welcome in maximum 7,337 visitors/day ( Ho Chi minh
City Department of Tourism, 2003). The capacity of Vam Sat Tourist Site and its nearby
sightseeing points may be lower. It is observed that the number of visitors registered above can
lead to the overcapacity of the tourism sites.
However, visitors mainly come on weekends and public holidays. “At weekend a lot of
visitors come and we have shortage of space” (Mr. Thuan, Dan Xay Ecotourism Site), that makes
a pressure on ecosystem. During week days, very few visitors come to Can Gio touristic sites
and thus a waste of labor force and infrastructural facilities.
b) Behavior of tourists
In terms of age, most of visitors to Can Gio are young people, under 40 years old (91.8%
of the surveyed visitors). People of this age grasp quickly the positive trends in the development
and protection of the environment, biodiversity and benefits of the community...), they often

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likes to learn and is able to capture information quickly. Therefore, this can be considered as
an advantage for developing the ecotourism.
In terms of profession, nearly half of the surveyed visitors are students (only high school
students and above were interviewed). The percentage of intellectual employees, office staffs
also accounts for 39.1%. These are tourists who have certain knowledge about the nature and
society. Therefore, they can easily absorb new information, and are appropriate targets for
spreading out the awareness of natural conservation.
Most of visitors come for only one day and in groups with the main purpose of
relaxation, outdoors activity, “... visitors coming to Can Gio not completely for the purpose of
ecotourism, some of them just came on tour organized by their agencies and without any
specific purpose. ” (Mr. Thuan, Dan Xay Ecotourism Site).
Most of interviewed visitors (91.3%) replied that they would like to learn more about
mangrove ecosystem. This is an advantage for the activities of awareness building, education
on the environment, reforestation... as well as providing them with tourist activities with real
ecological significance.
However, when answering to some additional questions outside the questionnaire, some
people are still confused that the ecotourism is merely a tour in a natural location or they expect
to enjoy some more amusement activities in the tourist sites. For example, in Lam Vien Can
Gio, when asked about the monkeys in there, a tourist said: “... despite they make some chaos,
steal the visitors’ belongings and sometimes they may cause some dangers to tourists, but
visitors come to this tourist site to see "funny" monkeys, otherwise this place is not amusing at
all and is no longer interesting to visit “ (a male tourist).
When asked to comment on the tourists’ awareness of environmental protection, most
people think that the awareness of tourists is not high enough. This is obviously shown by the
tourists’ behaviors, mostly through the acts of littering (74.2% of the answers), breaking tree
branches and teasing the animals (7.2% of comments).
In general, the way to organize sightseeings as well as some unconscious acts of
visitors, such as breaking branches and trees, teasing the animals, negatively affect the life of
living creatures. One typical example of such negative impacts is the fact that the bats have left
Dam Doi (Sanctuary of bats) site mainly due to the negative effects from too much visitors
coming to this site and too much noise from motorized boats cruising the river.
The demand for specialties of mangrove forest and fishing activities for entertainment
are the causes of the loss or decrease in the number of mangrove species, decreasing
biodiversity of the mangrove forest such as mudskippers, peanut worms (Sipunculus nudus)...
The above analysis shows that the current visitors of ecotourism sites in Can Gio are
quite diverse, including a large proportion of "non-eco" tourists. Most of them came in large
groups and their activities of environmental protection, if any, just stop at listening to the
introduction of ecological protection from the guides and participating in the afforestation,
sometime just for symbolic purpose only. In addition to being less interested in the conservation
of the nature, the visitors like to enjoy the entertainment and sightseeing services.

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 The number of visitors, who understand the characteristics and principles of ecotourism
and have real demand for ecotourism, is not high. This is a great risk for the sustainability of
ecotourism activities in the Mangrove Biosphere Reserve. Moreover, the increasing number of
tourists and the low awareness about the environmental conservation of most visitors have
caused stress on the ecosystem of the mangrove forest. Thus, risks to the forestry resources
caused by the negative impacts of tourism are increasing day by day.
LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The risks, to be paid with much attention, come from the lack of strict regulations,
inconsistent organization, short understanding about ecotourism of tourist workers and tourists,
or due to some conflicts of interest (between entertainment needs, conservation of nature and
economic purpose of tourism business)... Due to the above factors, the organization of tourist
activities loses the specific characteristics of ecotourism.
Preliminary results show that the lack of human resources for ecotourism and the
recreational activities in tourist sites are high risks to be considered when elaborating the
strategies for developing the tourism in the locality.
The shortage of conscious eco-tourists and behaviors of mass tourists have lead
themselves and their needs to become highly risky to the conservation of the ecosystem,
protection of the environment and development of the tourism.
From the above assessments, we would like to propose some basic actions to cope with
the risks to the current situation of ecotourism in Can Gio. The immediate solutions are to
minimize or tackle the risks, in particular the group of high-level risks.
1. Development of human resources for ecotourism
This is one of the basic requirements to properly build up the ecotourism in its right
sense. Meanwhile, the surveying results show that this is a weak point, one of the high-level
risk factors for ecotourism in the Biosphere Reserve.
Experiences of Dan Xay Ecotourism Site, which was built on the basis of the Center
for Environmental Education and Ecotourism, show that the development of ecotourism in
combination with the propaganda and education on conservation of nature is a right direction.
The advantage of this tourist site is that it has a well-qualified staffs with good communication
skills, because its initial function is the propaganda on the conservation of nature. The necessary
part to be supplemented is the knowledge and profession on ecotourism, as well as the
communication in foreign language to serve international visitors.
For the remained tourist sites, it is necessary to plan and dispatch staffs to training
courses in order to enhance their expertise in ecotourism. In addition to improving the
professional level and presentation skills, the enhancement of knowledge and awareness on
ecotourism will create a solid basis for the operation of stafffs, as well as create a sense of
natural conservation to visitors and guide them to act according to the orientations of the
ecotourism.
2. Reorganization of operations in tourist sites to ensure the principles of ecotourism
Although tourism generates a source of income for supporting the conservation of the
Mangrove Biosphere Reserve, its development cannot be done at any cost for the sake of its

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growth (including the ecotourism). Sightseeing and recreational activities, if not properly
planned and controlled, tend to destroy the ecological resources.
The survey results show that some amusement activities in tourist sites become a source
of risk to the ecotourism. The management of tourist sites needs to consult with experts in order
to categorize these activities in groups.
- Limit the areas to focus the activities suitable for many people (mass tourism), which
can make noise and generate a lot of waste such as camping, circus of animals, fishing, feeding
the animals ...
- Create a separate zone for activities of real ecotourism, restrict the construction of
infrastructure and invest in software instead (for providing information and skills to visitors
before entering the zone, select the forms and locations of sightseeing, combine the activities
with community tourism ...)
- Restrict the use of motorized transport means, replace the motorboats with rowing
boats or bicycles and walkways.
- In parallel with the study to redefine the areas suitable for organizing the ecotourism
activities, the calculation of load capacity for each sightseeing location and each tourist site
must be carried out consistently. Some studies about the load capacity have been conducted for
this area. It is necessary to summarize the experiences and proposed methods of calculation,
and at the same time, there must be a focal-point agency responsible for a consistent way of
working, providing common data which are convenient for organizers and managers of tourism.
From there, the number of visitors welcomed by each tourist site will be defined for each
location within a tourist site where ecotourism activities are organized.
3. Supervision of organized activities in ecotourism
In Can Gio, according to the survey, every week the staff of Protected Forest
Management Board has field visit for checking the forest’s status. However, so far no periodical
supervision of ecotourism activities has been carried out to ensure that they are carried out in
the right direction. Local authorities almost do not directly monitor the activities in tourist sites.
Municipal agencies also do not have any unit assigned for regular supervision. Therefore, it is
proposed to stipulate that the periodic evaluations of ecotourism activities will be carried out
by independent external experts. Any tourist site failing to comply with the ecological
principles needs to remove this word (ecotourism) out of its name. For mass tourism, whether
the word "ecotourism" is available or not, it is not the first preference of tourists; but it will be
more transparent to ecotourists who can avoid getting a feeling of being deceived. “Before
coming here, I had a lot of imagination but after being here I feel a little bit different from my
imagination (laughing). But in general, I find this place as normal and I can say quite boring
(laughing). (Ms. Thuy, a tourist from Ca Mau province)
4. Measures to adjust the behaviors of tourists
To better manage the sightseeing of wild life, in particular the monkeys in Lam Vien
Tourist site, we suggest that feeding the animals would be prohibited. Besides regularly remind
the visitors not to tease or not to feed the animals, another technical measure is to move some

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monkeys to other areas in order to make the tourist site becoming really natural and ensure the
safety for the visitors.
Convenient, hygienic and safe locations for dropping the wastes (free from vandalism
of monkeys) should be taken into account. Campaigns should be organized to encourage the
visitors use minimal plastic bags, take the waste out of the area through notice boards or by
direct reminders.
Strict regulations is necessary to minimize the impacts caused by the visitors. However,
this measure reveals many disadvantages for requiring additional staffs necessary to control,
prevent and handle the violations of visitors. Therefore, apart from this measure, it is necessary
to consider improving the behavior of visitors by impeding the acts of visitors (Lindberg et al.,
1998), such as increasing the entrance fee to limit the number of visitors for some areas or
organizing some sites accessible only by walking and applying some measures to restrict the
motorized vehicles (see Figures 1 and 2), etc...

Figure 1: Concrete walkway accross the Figure 2: Pathway accross the forest in Vam
forest in Dan Xay Tourist Site (motorcycles Sat bird sanctuary (only for pedestrians)
acceptable) (Source: The author)

Moreover, minimizing the promotion of specialty dishes can help to prevent the rapid
decline in quantity of mangrove species. Development of farming can provide ingredients such
as seafood and vegetables as a substitution for species exploited directly from the nature. On
the other hand, sensitization programs should be held to raise awareness of consumer about the
protection of biodiversity for the mangrove.
CONCLUSION
Above are some assessments about the risks to tourist activities. This is only one part of
the risks harmful to the sustainable development of ecotourism in the Can Gio Mangrove
Biosphere Reserve.

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 Moreover, there are other natural risks, such as climate change, contamination of water
resources caused by waterway transport means and shrimp farming, waste water flowing
downstream from Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City, illegal deforestration... Thus, the
monitoring, identification and assessment of risk need to be carried out regularly to have timely
and appropriate measures for ensuring the sustainable development of ecotourism for the
Mangrove Biosphere Reserve.
REFERENCES
Can Gio Protected Forest Management Board. (year?). Introduction to Can Gio mangrove forest.
Information leaflet.
Department of Tourism, Ho Chi Minh City. (2003). Planning of Can Gio ecotourism
development up to the year 2010.
Le Duc Tuan. (2006). Study of ecology and human culture of Can Gio Mangrove Forest
Biosphere Reserve, Ho Chi Minh City. PhD Thesis in Environment. University of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City.
Lindberg, K., Epler, M., Wood M., Engeldrum, D. (1998). Ecotourism: A Guide for Planners
and Managers. Ecotourism Society.
National Assembly of The Republic Socialist of Vietnam. (2017). Law on Tourism. Date of
issue: 19 June, 2017.
Ngo Thanh Loan (project manager) (2015). Đánh giá rủi ro cho du lịch sinh thái tại Khu dự trữ
sinh quyển rừng ngặp mặn Cần Giờ. (Assessment of risks to the ecotourism in Can Gio
Mangrove World Biosphere Reserve, Ho Chi Minh City). Research’s report. University of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City.
Pham Phuong. (2013). Sổ tay hướng dẫn phát triển du lịch sinh thái tại Việt Nam (Handbook
for Ecotourism Development in Vietnam). http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/index.php/items/11334.
Updated on 08 March 2013.
Trung Thanh.( 2011). Rừng ngập mặn Cần Giờ có dấu hiệu chết khô (Can Gio Mangrove
Forest shows signs of drying death), http://www.vietnamnet.vn/vn/khoa-hoc/20149/rung-ngap-
man-can-gio-co-dau-hieu-chet-kho.html. Updated on 10 May 2011.
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. Statistical data. http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/

Acknowledgment

The article has been realized thanks to the support of the Southern Institute of Ecology,
through the research project ĐTĐL.CN.27/17

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