This is part of a five-year ADB-funded project, starting from 2009, to boost socio-economic development with focus on poverty reduction, infrastructure, heritage preservation in five provinces of Vietnam.

Of the funding, over USD2.1 million will be provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the remaining, about 400,000 USD will be reciprocal capital.

The project will concentrate on the preservation of the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, which is home to two villages living in the core zone and six others in buffer zones, the project’s director, Le The Luc, said, adding that their livelihoods mainly depend on forestry that leads to the degradation of the whole park.

The investment will be spent to upgrade Phong Nha and Tien Son caves, use environmentally friendly materials like composite for making boats to reduce pollution while developing some services serving ecological tourism in other tourist sites.

Apart from setting up a database on local geography, ethnic minority groups and their traditional culture, the project will develop pastoral and community-based tourism to help improve earnings of people in buffer zones. Thus, more than 56,500 people are expected to directly or indirectly benefit from the project.