With the technical support of Department of Systems Ecology – Stockholm University, Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) in collaboration with local partners: Institute of Marine Evironment and Resources (IMER), Hai Phong Centre for Environmental and Natural resources (HACEM), Management Board of Cat Ba National Park conduct the pilot case study: Ecological risk assessment (in Phu Long commune, Cat Hai district, Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve from March 2012 to September 2013),with the goal to conserve mangrove ecosystem and manage sustainable aquaculure.

The research has 3 main purposes: Evaluate the level of risk posed by anthropogenic wastes affecting Cat Ba mangrove forests natural environment and shrimp aquaculture environment as an evidence-based study serving for management intervention; recommend lesson learnt for policy advocacy in order to help local managers to improve resources management in the area; through implementing a case-study using ERA method in a specific project site, MCD staff and local partners will be given an opportunity to enhance capacity and knowledge.

After carefully considering the elements of nature, society, economy and management demanding in Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve, the experts decided to apply TRIAD method as ERA tool and adapted to the specific conditions of local area. The pilot research assesses the ecological risk level base on 3 lines of evidence: socio-economic, ecology and physio-chemistry and was conducted by TRIAD method, included these following steps: (1) Collect data and measure parameters from 3 lines of evidence at research sites; (2) Scale the measurement results from 0-1; (3) Calculating the risks in the study sites for the policy recommendations. Assessment framework inclues 4 steps: (1) Identify issues; (2) Assess impact and exposure level; (3) Analyze risks; (4) Provide recommendation on management.

Ecoligical risk assessment (ERA)is a tool to help the managers predict or assess the risks from human factors (i.e aquaculture, urban construction, tourism) as well as natural factors (i.e climate change, sea level rise). ERA helps managers to determine the main point of problems for making approriate plans with local conditions of the given options. The case study is conducted within the framework of the project “Enhancing resilience of coastal and marine biosphere reserves in Vietnam through strengthening natural resources management and sustaining community livelihoods”, with the support of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)