Building peace in the minds of men and women

Kien Giang

The Biosphere Reserve has a maritime equatorial and monsoon climate. The dry season lasts from December through April; the rainy season from May to November. Humidity is 80-83% and temperatures vary from 25.3 to 27.10C. Annual rainfall is relatively high (1,600-2,100 mm over land, and 2,400-2,900 mm has been measured for Phu Quoc Island).

The biosphere reserve has 3 core zones overlapping with 3 National Parks and one nature reserve.

There are various tropical forest ecosystems including primary and secondary forest ecosystems with dominant Dipterocarpaceae family; Limestone and Karst forests with dominant species of Trestonia mergvensis and Dacrydium pierrei; Seasonally flooded forest (Melaleuca cajuputi); Mangrove ecosystems (Rhizophora, Aegiceras, Bruguiera, Avicennia genuses, especially Lumnitzera rosea; coastal mudflats and lakes; coral reef and seagrass ecosystems.

There are 89 hard coral species, 19 soft corals, 125 coral reef fishes, 132 molluscs, 32 echinoderms and 62 species of seaweed.

The seagrass beds are important for foraging marine turtles and a population of the globally threatened dugong Dugong dugon and the scaly clam, Tridacna squamosa and Trochus Shell, Trochus nilotichu, the globally critically endangered hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata. Read more about this reserve on the UNESCO Biosphere Reserves website.