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Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago is recoginzed as the World Natural Heritage at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on September 16, 2023. |
Thus, the Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago was recoginzed as the World Natural Heritage at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at 5:40 p.m. on September 16 (local time).
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Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba archipelago is considered a geological museum which contains heritages with outstanding global value. |
Ha Long Bay was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site twice in 1994 and in 2000 under criteria of natural phenomena (vii) and geological processes (viii). By 2013, the nomination dossier of Cat Ba Archipelago was submitted under the ecological and biodiversity criteria (ix) and (x) to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
During the working session at the 45th meeting of the World Heritage Committee, the delegation of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism together with the Ambassador and Vietnam's permanent representative to UNESCO in France and the two localities of Quang Ninh Province and Hai Phong City had worked with specialized agencies of UNESCO to provide information, explanation, clarification, opinions and guarantee of Vietnam on the management, protection and promotion of world heritage values after being nominated on the World Heritage List.
Thereby, experts, international scientists and member countries of the World Heritage Committee highly appreciated the heritage values to support Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago to become a world natural heritage and desired to visit the heritage sites in the upcoming time.
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Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago consists of sea island ecosystems, tropical and contiguous subtropical ecosystems. |
UNESCO recognized Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago as the World Heritage thanks to the natural beauty comprising limestone islands covered with vegetation and sharp limestone peaks above the sea surface.
Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago consists of sea island ecosystems, tropical, and contiguous subtropical ecosystems including primeval tropical rainforest ecosystem, cave ecosystem, mangrove ecosystem, intertidal ecosystem, coral reef ecosystem, soft-bottom ecosystem, saltwater ecosystem.
Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago is also a living environment of various rare species of animals and plants. Possessing the largest forest at sea in Vietnam with an area of more than 17,000 hectares together with diverse ecosystems, it is home to 4,910 species of plants and animals on land and under the sea, including 198 species on the red list and 51 endemic species. The primeval forest of around 1,045 hectares in the Cat Ba Archipelago was among the key factors in promoting primeval values and bio-diversity of the heritage.
